The following note was written to Longo Brothers of Toronto in response to my reading an article on Heirloom Tomatoes published in the August 7th Edition of MacLean’s Magazine on Page 58:
“The attached excerpt from MacLean's Magazine should be of interest to you. Methinks you are ideally placed to contract with some local farmers to grow these types of varieties of vegetables and that you have the right kind of upscale, well-heeled market to which to sell them.
It would be a longer term investment; but I wish someone such as you would contract long-term with a few local farmers to grow heritage varieties of apples, pears, plums, and shrubs such as elderberry, currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries, blue berries. If you could guarantee these farmers a market for their produce it would be profitable for them to grow these products and your customers would bless you for the opportunity to buy produce with such improved flavour.
When you think of it; the world is on the brink of losing it's entire crop of bananas because the world-wide crop depends on only a few varieties. Peaches and cream corn accounts for a frighteningly large market share of corn; Macintosh Apples--an inferior eating apple in my book--accounts for a large share of the apple market. Rather than import apples from half way around the world I would prefer to be buying varieties of apples grown by local farmers that ripen naturally throughout the winter rather than a few varieties that are placed in suspended animation by cold and chemicals. The difference in flavour would be phenomenal.
Many of the varieties the public have had marketed to them are chosen because they travel well, not because they particularly taste good. To ensure that heritage varieties of wheat, corn, beans, onions, apples, and the like are preserved for their genetic potential should a catastrophe hit the present gene-pool; Guelph University, The Nova Scotia Experimental Farm, and the National Science Council in Ottawa maintain "living museums" to ensure this genetic material is not lost. I'm certain they would be more than happy to assist in setting up a long-term project to actually raise many of these varieties for public consumption.
I hope you take this kind of thinking seriously. I believe an organization such as you are ideally placed to contract with local farmers to guarantee a market for the produce they grow. I'd hope you already have such an arrangement for a crop such as strawberries. If you buy into this concept I'd love to hear some feedback from you. Alas my farmboy roots appear to be lost, but I can still remember the days when I had ground under my fingernails and ground into the knees of my pants. I'd love to be able to buy a locally grown Gravenstein, August Apple, and Russet.
Think about it”
No comments:
Post a Comment