Feel Good Food | Foodie Finds in Toronto

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Foodie Finds in Toronto

By Emily ⋅ February 25, 2009 ⋅

Filed Under apple butter, directory, Eating Locally, filsingers, grocery stores, honey, karma coop, local peanuts, market, shopping, sidedish, store, suppliers, Toronto/Ontario, where to find

I’m always on the hunt for local sustainable food available in my city. And when it comes to food, I no good at keeping secrets. The list below is a work in progress of what I’ve found out and about in Toronto so far. If you’ve got some foodie finds of your own, fill me in! I’d love to add them.

Apple/Pear butter

Filsinger’s Organic Foods sells local apple and pear butter in jars.

Find it at…Lots of health food stores around here.

Honey

I should really do a post about honey, as I have a lot to say about the health and safety of imported brands. If you do consume honey, make sure it’s local! Or at least guaranteed to be 100% domestic. In short, many countries, including the U.S. and Canada prohibit the import of honey from China where the animal antibiotic, chloramphenicol, is used, which is a drug banned by the FDA. I’ve also read that Argentina has been accused of honey laundering(!) for China. So that means most mainstream brands, including Billy Bee, are out. Local honey can also help reduce pollen allergy symptoms

Find local honey at many health food/bulk stores. Essence of Life (Kensington) and Karma Co-op (Annex) both definitely have it in bulk.

Maple Syrup

It’s pretty easy to find locally produced maple syrup around here. Organic is a bit more rare (and definitely more expensive)…although the trees aren’t sprayed, I’ve heard something about bleach being used to clean the lines. I’ll get back to you on this one.

Find it at…Karma & Essence of Life (in bulk)

Oats

Local, organic – available at Karma Co-op for sure so far. I’ll list other places as I discover them. Oak Manor produces organic oats, grown in ONT. It’s a pretty common brand in health food stores.

Peanuts & Peanut Butter

Believe it or not, peanuts are grown in Ontario! (Apparently they’re a good alternative to tobacco farming that used to dominate Southern Ontario.) The company I’ve seen local peanuts under is “Kernal.” They claim to be “natural” whatever that means.

Find it at…Karma Co-op. I haven’t seen it elsewhere yet but I haven’t looked too hard either.