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Welcome to Bailey's Local Foods
Do you want to eat more local food in Kitchener-Waterloo but it feels overwhelming and complicated? Whether you are the cook for your family, or an eager eater, I can help you find the local foods you are looking for. I can do this through a buying club for households (with weekly online ordering from May to October and monthly online ordering from November to April). My name is Nina Bailey-Dick and I've started Bailey's Local Foods to make it easier for households to find local foods.
There's an exciting shift in the food system from a focus on cheap and global to a new "re-localisation" (see Next Steps). We don't need to eat 100% local foods - but 50% isn't very difficult and it will have profound positive ripple effects in the health of our bodies, our air, farmers' livelihoods, and our local economy. I'm hoping to eat 50% local. What is your hope?
"Whatever you can do or dream you can do -- begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now." -- Goethe
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Favourite Local Food
Seems crazy to run a blueberry recipe in January but hopefully you were
thinking ahead and froze a few bagfuls for the winter. A couple of cups
is all you need to make this really amazing treat. (If not, tuck this
recipe away until July). You can also use your Grimo Nursery nuts. You
don't need many.
The original recipe, which comes
from The Complete Book of Small Batch Preserving (best book ever!)
calls for 1 cup of sugar and 1/4 cup of maple syrup but I have omitted
the sugar altogether in favour of just syrup. If you want to use sugar
instead, go for it. The raisins may seem weird, but trust me. Yum.
I like this stirred into Mapleton's plain yogurt but it's also good on
toast, on pancakes, with cheese and crackers... you name it.
Maple Blueberry Conserve with Walnuts
- 2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, crushed
- 1/2 cup water
- 1-1/4 cups maple syrup
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
- 1/2 tsp each ground allspice and ginger
- Combine blueberries, water, maple syrup and lemon juice in a medium
stainless steel or enamel saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat,
cover, reduce heat and boil gently for about 5 minutes or until fruit
is tender, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in
raisins. Return to a boil, reduce heat and boil gently, uncovered,
until mixture forms a light gel*, about 15 minutes, stirring
occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in walnuts, allspice and ginger.
- Ladle into hot jars and process
for 10 minutes in a boiling water bath.
Makes 1-1/2 cups.
*
To test for gel formation, try this: Place a small plate in the freezer
ahead of time. Put a spoonful of hot fruit mixture on the chilled plate
and return to the freezer and wait for 2 minutes. Meanwhile, remove the
saucepan from the heat source to prevent overcooking. If the mixture is
sufficiently cooked, it will form a gel that moves slowly as the plate
is tilted. If it runs off the plate, cook another 2 minutes and repeat
the test until the gel has formed.
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