Last weekend I had a girls night with some of my best gals culminating in one of the most delicious meals I’ve had out in ages.
We were at Canyon Creek Chophouse in downtown Toronto, and were thrilled to be presented with their local harvest menu, touted as being “87km from pasture to plate”.
My girlfriends were also excited about the local menu, and we quickly divied up the selections so that we could all try as many different things as possible. A gastrointestinal delight, our meal included:
Tomato and Grilled Cheese Salad – lightly grilled cheese on heirloom tomatoes with a side of arugula and apple cider dressing
Honey Garlic Angus Beef Short Ribs – with Yukon Gold mash and buttered heirloom carrots
Purdy’s Lake Huron Pickerel – walnut crusted with spaghetti squash and sweet pea cream
Wellington County Dry Aged Striploin – 10oz New York steak served with a fully loaded baked potato
Harvest Pumpkin Cheesecake – topped with cranberry compote, candied walnuts, finished with kiln dried cranberries – and three forks!
The meal was quite simply outstanding.
87km meant that some of the farms were from our local Greenbelt. Returning to the office this week I did some digging on our fresh food finder, Greenbeltfresh.ca and confirmed that Carron Farms from the Holland Marsh and Henry of Pelham in the Niagara Peninsula (which offered the recommended wines) were part of the Greenbelt.
We know the Greenbelt has some of the best agricultural land in Canada. Local means our food not only tastes better, but it doesn’t need to travel as far to get to us, and it gives us a chance to support our own economy. That’s a good thing for our environment, and for our farmers.
-- Allison Decker, Communications Manager