Houston We Have A Problem

I have had a revelation. Coffee does not grow in Canada. Coffee does not even grow in the United States. I work at Starbucks. I am a coffee addict...did I mention I work at Starbucks? I can't even have tea at work because it doesn't come from anywhere near 100 miles. This 5 am thing is about to get a lot harder. Warning:Stay away as I cannot be blamed for my actions!

The other issue that I have stumbled upon in the last few days is the fact that I will need to have tofu and beans. Eating within a 100 mile radius is all well and good but when the authors Alisa Smith and J.B MacKinnon started this movement they ate meat. Organic, free-range Ontario meat is readily available to me, only I do not want to eat it. I am going to need to get my iron from some where. I know Yang Yang Tofu at the St. Lawrence Market makes their own tofu so perhaps I will check them out. Only I do not know where their soy beans are from. This is going to get really hard!!!!!

Lastly I live in the beaches, a lovely community, don't get me wrong but the only grocery stores here are the FoodLand and the Wholesome Food Market. Both are ridiculously overpriced and the latter is more of a dispensary than a food store. I have also noticed that it is very hard to buy local and organic at the grocery stores. It is either one or the other and rarely both. So I am debating whether I attempt to purchase more organic produce for a year or do I stick to local? The other night I attempted to only by local produce from FoodLand and our dinner went something like this:

4 Ontario Gold Potatoes, Thinly Sliced

1 Onion, sliced

1/8 of a Ontario Pumpkin, Cubed

2 Cups of Ontario Kale, chopped

1 Cup Organic Milk (the higher in milk fat the better)

1/2 Cup of Water

1 tsp organic butter

1/2 tsp each of rosemary, thyme, basil

1/2 Cup of breadcrumbs (I used day old ACE bakery bread that I smashed to oblivion in a ziploc bag)

Saute onion in butter until golden. In a casserole dish layer sliced potatoes, onions, pumpkin, and kale. Mix milk and water together, add rosemary, thyme, and basil. Pour milk mixture over the potatoes. Top with bread crumbs. Bake in the oven for 1 hour.

The result was good. Not fantastic but certainly not terrible. I chopped up pancetta for J.S and topped his with it. He liked it. If I had to compare it to something I would say scallop potatoes. 

On Saturday I am venturing to Brickworks Farmer's Market. I am very excited about this. I can go to St. Lawrence basically anytime I am downtown and I find it has becoming pretty commercialized. I am dragging J.S on Saturday and he will enjoy it...even if it means feeding him homemade cinnamon buns that the sell there. Hopefully I will find a larger assortment of vegetables there.