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Toronto Life - The Dish

The latest restaurant buzz, including what’s opening, what’s closing, and where to eat, drink and be seen

Locavoracious

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January 25, 2012 | 10:20 am

Toronto’s backyard chickens come home to roost (at city hall, right now)

The promised land: Columbus, Ohio (Image: Rachel Tayse)

Right now, in city hall’s Committee Room No. 1, the municipal Licensing and Standards Committee is meeting to determine the fate of the chickens that populate the backyards of Toronto (or, rather, the backyards of certain rebels in Toronto). They’ll be voting on a motion raised by Councillor Joe Mihevc that would allow a limited number of hens in city yards “for the purposes of producing eggs for personal consumption.” Should the motion pass, Toronto would join the ranks of such hen-happy cities as Vancouver, New York, Cleveland and Los Angeles. Things aren’t looking good, however: in an interview with the Toronto Star, committee chair Cesar Palacio argued that fears of mega-coops and feral birds will probably scuttle the motion. “I don’t think there is any appetite for backyard chickens,” he said. We’d love to see him tell that to the members of the chicken underground.

UPDATE: Following a spirited debate, with references to everything from Animal House to Animal Farm, the committee voted unanimously to defer the motion indefinitely, without a staff report—city hall–speak for killing it off for good.

Locavoracious

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December 12, 2011 | 2:04 pm

Nine members of Toronto’s backyard-chicken underground on the special bond between man and bird

By Signe Langford | Photographs by Kevin Hewitt

On November 30, councillors Joe Mihevc and Mary-Margaret McMahon took on the considerable challenge of trying to overturn nearly three decades of city hall opposition to backyard hens. They didn’t quite succeed. (Their motion to study the issue was referred to the municipal licensing and standards committee for consideration in February.) With his trademark zeal for kindergarten humour, Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti opined, “Now we’re going to have thousands of chickens crossing the road and we’re going to have neighbours fighting against neighbours because they don’t want to hit the chickens.” But what Mammoliti and his ilk don’t understand is that urban hen keeping didn’t really go away when it was outlawed in 1983. It just went underground—into garages, sheds and secluded corners of backyards. The hopes of these renegade urban hen keepers are now running high, riding Toronto’s ever-growing wave of locavorism. Here, nine of those rebels, who break the law every day, talk about that other love that dare not speak its name: that between man and hen.

First up, Jill and Sunshine »

Locavoracious

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October 13, 2011 | 4:36 pm

In a bid to stop the “mega-quarry,” Michael Stadtländer rallies (nearly) every chef we’ve ever heard of for Foodstock


Michael Stadtländer has rallied 100 of the best chefs from across Canada to participate in Foodstock, an epic, pay-what-you-can public food event on October 16 to raise money to fight the construction of a huge limestone quarry in the town of Honeywood, Ontario. The Highland Companies’ plan aims to span 2,316 acres of land and run 189 feet deep (deeper than Niagara Falls), and will have to pump 600 million litres of groundwater out of the pit each day (about the same amount used by 2.7 million Ontarians), all to extract crushed stone known as amabel dolostone.

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Locavoracious

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August 18, 2011 | 1:14 pm

Farmers’ markets brace for a potential fee hike that could put them out of business

(Image: Suzanne Long)

Fears are spreading throughout the Toronto Farmers’ Market Network that participants at city markets might soon be on the receiving end of a large user fee increase from the city. Anne Freeman of the Dufferin Grove market and Carolyn Wong of Trinity Bellwoods are just two of the market organizers who have been circulating a petition in an attempt to head off the hike. “You don’t attack your food source,” a frustrated Wong told The Dish.

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Locavoracious

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January 3, 2011 | 3:54 pm

Invasivores rejoice: Five edible species from our own backyard

Vegans, freegans, locavores: eco-conscious dining takes many forms. The New Year could herald an addition to that list with the emergence of “invasivores.” According to the New York Times, the inklings of a new “green” culinary movement are underway, wherein participants seek out, kill and dine on destructive and invasive species, like the venomous lionfish that’s been wreaking havoc on marine systems in Florida and elsewhere. For Torontonians looking to join the party, there are a number of out-of-control, detrimental and perfectly edible alien species to choose from. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a way to include bed bugs or giant hogweed onto the list, but below, five invasive species worthy of the table.

Locavoracious

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November 25, 2010 | 10:40 am

Cowbell is the first restaurant in Toronto to get LEAF certification for its green ways

Ring my bell: Cutrara and company get a green thumbs-up (Image: Google)

When it comes to providing environmentally sustainable cuisine, locavore haven Cowbell walks the walk, according to Leaders in Environmentally Accountable Foodservice (LEAF). The new Alberta-based organization, which aims to help diners recognize green restaurants, spent hours extensively examining Cowbell’s energy and water use, its menu and the way it deals with waste and recycling, among other criteria, before giving Cowbell the distinction of being the first LEAF-certified restaurant in Toronto.

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Locavoracious

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April 29, 2010 | 12:54 pm

Ignatieff supports local food, talks like Sarah Palin

Down home boy? You betcha (Image: Kyle McMartin)

Michael Ignatieff has announced that a Liberal government would implement a policy to provide support for farmers and to help Canadians eat Canadian food. Poutine jokes aside, the plan would lay out millions of dollars to promote farmers’ markets and home-grown foods, to ensure imported items meet local standards and to help children from low-income families access healthy food. The policy would also look into ways to make farms more environmentally sustainable. “You bet farming matters, you bet rural Canada matters,” he said to media.

We “bet” that Ignatieff “bets” that this is how rural folk speak (has he been studying Sarah Palin?). What, no Tolstoy references?

• Michael Ignatieff pushes Eat Canadian plan [Toronto Star]

Locavoracious

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April 13, 2010 | 2:09 pm

Meat isn’t as bad for the environment as previously thought: study

(Image: SpecialKRB)

Slate.com’s Green Lantern column is reporting that farm animals might not be “the global warming bogeymen…previously imagined.” Back in 2006, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) published a paper that accused livestock of producing 18 per cent of the world’s anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions—more than the entire transportation sector. Frank Mitloehner, a researcher from the University of California-Davis, claims that while the figure may be accurate, it doesn’t apply to the United States (where transport accounts for 26 per cent and livestock 2.8). The question is, Does this mean that people should be cutting back on meat consumption?

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Locavoracious

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March 13, 2010 | 3:36 pm

Three things we learned about locavore road trips from the Globe

Highway hell for locavores (Image: Grant Hutchins)

Canada’s highways can be hell for road-tripping locavores—all those thousands of kilometres of pavement, with nary a locally grown, non-processed food in sight. Luckily, the Globe has served up a few solutions. Three useful tips, after the jump.

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