We’re suddenly a city of back-to-the-landers. Where once Torontonians were suspicious of produce that didn’t come cello-sealed on a Styrofoam tray, we’ve begun mobbing farmers’ markets—there are now 24 of them, and counting—for heirloom vegetables, pesticide-free herbs and sun-ripened fruit. At dinner parties, we’re as likely to debate organic versus LFP-certified (answer: they’re both good choices) as Gehry versus Libeskind (Alsop, actually, by a mile). Where strawberries hauled in from California used to be a year-round city staple, we’re now insisting on local, only in season, thank you, and preferably direct from a farmer who’ll look us square in the eye.

Pretentious? A little bit, maybe. But the crystal decanter crowd wasn’t the first to discover local eating—for that we can thank the whole grain and hemp underwear set (and, of course, our great-great-grandparents before them). No matter who started it, the result of all this is that we’re relearning, after 60-odd years of industrialized eating, what food is supposed to taste like. It’s hard to imagine ever going back to Mexican tomatoes.

This is our guide to the region’s bounty, from the ripest, slurpiest yellow plums to exquisite cheese and meat, from impeccable Ontario fish to a source for more than 80 different types of organic tomatoes that arrive at market still warm from the sun.

We’ve even found a local farmer who grows heirloom wheat and processes it on a granite-wheeled mill in his barn. It makes some of the best bread you’ll ever have, and it’s whole grain, too. You may just catch us in hemp underwear yet.

The People

The Wheat Farmer: Peter Leahy
The Egg Farmers: Norine and Harlan Clark
The Veggie Farmers: Mark Trealout and Laura Boyd
The Cheesemaker: Ruth Klahsen

The Goods

So Good It Must Be Local: The 2008 guide to farmers’ markets
Crop Circle: Six exotic and oh-so-briefly-available flavours that are worth the wait
Meat Heads: Hard-core carnivores trade tips on the best sources for grass-fed heritage breeds. Now they’ve upped the ante, going straight to the farm for prime cuts
Tipple Hits: With the debut of 100 per cent Ontario-made brews, meads and ciders, it's now possible to have a truly local drink
Fishy Business: Eelpout, smelt and whitefish have tipped the scales among piscivores
Join the Cult: Ten mostly legal steps to virtuous eating