Niagara

Canadian Woman Wins Les Dames d’Escoffier International M.F.K. Fisher Award

LOUISVILLE, KY–(Marketwire – November 02, 2010) – Natalie MacLean, an award-winning wine writer from Nepean, Ontario, won first prize in the M.F.K. Fisher Awards for Excellence in Culinary Writing competition, sponsored by Les Dames d’Escoffier International. In addition to a $1,000 cash prize, MacLean won a trip to the LDEI Annual Conference in Palm Springs to accept the award at the October 23 gala banquet honoring M.F.K. Fisher.

Profile: Natalie MacLean, First Prize Winner

“I was shocked,” Natalie MacLean said in response to being told that she had won the 2010 MFK Fisher Award for Excellence in Culinary Writing. “In fact, I’m still convinced there’s been a tabulation error in the results, so I’m hoping to collect the award quickly before anyone discovers the mistake.

“On a serious note, winning this award is something you must live up to rather than something you deserve. The point is to remember and honor M.F.K. Fisher and her gloriously sensuous prose.”

At the World Food Media Awards in Australia in 2005, MacLean was named the World’s Best Drink Writer. She has also won four James Beard awards and six IACP Bert Greene Awards. MacLean is a leader in social media for the wine industry.

www.twitter.com/nataliemaclean and www.facebook.com/natdecants

More than 10,000 websites and blogs have posted her Drinks Matcher tool (www.nataliemaclean.com/matcher). In 2008 MacLean won third prize in LDEI’s contest for a story about women Champagne makers in France.

Her columns have appeared in more than 60 newspapers and magazines; more than 115,000 subscribers get her free monthly newsletter. In her book “Red, White and Drunk All Over,” Natalie chronicles three years of sipping, spitting and slogging her way through the international wine world. The book was chosen the Best Wine Literature Book in the English language at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. Rex Pickett, author of Sideways, says that MacLean “writes about wine with a sensuous obsession,” and is “laugh-out-loud funny.”

A Rhodes Scholarship finalist, she studied 19th-century English literature at Oxford University in England and earned an MBA at UWO, London. However, for her current preoccupation, she credits the long Scottish line of hard drinkers from whom she descends for her ability to drink like a fish — and for the motivation to write about it — in a transparent attempt to make it look respectable.

Second prize of $500 went to The Washington Post staff writer Jane Black. And T. Susan Chang of Leverett, Mass., a food writer and regular cookbook reviewer for the Boston Globe, won third prize and $250.

MacLean won with an Internet entry, “Flying High,” on her website www.nataliemaclean.com. Her story, about Featherstone Winery in Niagara, chronicles the winery’s battle to protect the vineyards from airborne predators and weeds without using synthetic chemicals. It’s also the story of a husband and wife team who dream of creating a benchmark wine despite a harsh climate.

“Winning this award is something you must live up to rather than something you deserve. The point is to remember and honor M.F.K. Fisher and her gloriously sensuous prose,” MacLean said, in accepting her award.

Twitter @LocalFoodWine * FaceBook/LocalFoodAndWine

OKANAGAN FOOD AND WINE *  VANCOUVER FOOD AND  WINE

TWITTER.COM/LOCALFOODWINE

*LOCAL FOOD AND WINE*

FACEBOOK/LOCALFOODANDWINE

Black’s award was for “Snob Appeal. Won’t Someone Knock Heirloom Tomatoes off their Pedestal?” Black writes, “The best tomato I ate last summer was not an heirloom tomato. If those don’t seem like fighting words, then clearly you do not take tomatoes seriously.” She adds, “‘Heirloom’ is not synonymous with ‘good.’ The key to a great tomato is how it is grown.”

T. Susan Chang’s award was for “Gather Ye Squash Blossoms While Ye May,” a feature on National Public Radio’s website, www.npr.org. The article details the handling and cooking of squash blossoms that “on the vine… unfurl like a Kleenex crumpling in reverse.” Chang writes that picking the blossoms is “a highly effective form of zucchini birth control.”

About LDEI’s 2010 M.F.K. Fisher Awards

M.F.K. Fisher, one of America’s finest food writers, was described by the poet W.H. Auden as the best prose writer of her time. She wrote more than 20 books before her death in 1992.

The 2010 contest in her memory drew 78 entries. “This is the best contest I’ve ever judged. Very difficult,” a veteran food editor and judge commented. “All three of the winning stories are right in sync with the spirit of M.F.K.,” noted another judge.

New to this year’s competition was the inclusion of works from Internet websites and blogs. Judges did not know the source of the entries, which included 24 stories from newspapers, 22 articles from magazines, 15 excerpts from books and 14 from the Internet.

Representing seven states, the eight judges are food editors at Better Homes and Gardens Magazine (Iowa), Houston Chronicle, New Orleans Times Picayune, Desert News (Salt Lake City), San Francisco Chronicle, and Indianapolis Star. A writing coach from Charlottesville, Va., and a newspaper columnist also judged. None of the judges was a member of LDEI. The 2010 M.F.K. Fisher Awards chair was CiCi Williamson, of LDEI.

To read more about the winners and the prize-winning articles, go to www.ldei.org

Twitter @LocalFoodWine * FaceBook/LocalFoodAndWine

OKANAGAN FOOD AND WINE *  VANCOUVER FOOD AND  WINE

TWITTER.COM/LOCALFOODWINE

*LOCAL FOOD AND WINE*

FACEBOOK/LOCALFOODANDWINE

Profile: Jane Black, Second Prize Winner

“As a former judge of LDEI’s M.F.K. Fisher Award (in 2008), I know how stiff the competition is. So it is an honor to be one of the winners,” said Jane Black. “I was also thrilled to win for an essay, a blend of personal experience and real reporting, which I think can be so effective when writing about food.”

Jane is a food writer at The Washington Post where she covers food politics, trends and sustainability issues. Her reporting has taken her from Immokalee, Fla., where she wrote about tomato pickers’ struggle for better working conditions, to Monterey Bay, where she attended a “secret meeting” of the “Sardinistas,” a group of environmentalists who advocate the culinary joys of small, sustainable fish.

Black began her career as a business and political reporter. In 2003, she switched directions and attended culinary school in London. Before moving to Washington, she served as food editor at Boston Magazine. Jane’s writing has received many awards including two James Beard Awards for The Washington Post Food section. Her work has also been featured in the collections of Best Food Writing in 2008 and 2009.

Profile: T. Susan Chang, Third Prize Winner

“I’m more pleased than I can say to be recognized by Les Dames d’Escoffier and the judges for third prize in the M.F.K. Fisher Award,” said T. Susan Chang. “I think that when we write about food, we share something both intimate and exposed. I don’t know if it’s hard for everybody, but it’s certainly hard for me. In my experience the food writer lives, absurdly, by the following set of axioms: ‘We think, therefore we are. We think about what we eat. Therefore, we are what we eat.

“It’s the easiest thing in the world to fall victim to a jaded palate and start over-intellectualizing the act of eating. What I always love about M.F.K. Fisher is that she knew you could fall for what was right there on the plate before you. You could fall simply and forever, and you could live to tell about it. I never dreamed I would have the chance to share just a bit in her legacy. Thank you so much for giving me that chance.”

Chang has been a food writer since 2000, when she first began writing for the Boston Globe. Prior to that, she had worked in academic publishing as an acquisitions editor specializing in literary studies.

Currently, Chang is a frequent contributor to the Kitchen Window series on NPR, where she also appears twice yearly with a comprehensive list of seasonal cookbook recommendations. She is the regular cookbook reviewer for the Boston Globe, where her reviews appear about once a month. At the cookbook indexing website www.eatyourbooks.com, Susan is the host of the Community page and resident cookbook reviewer. She’s also the cookbook reviewer for AOL’s new website, Kitchen Daily. Links to her newest pieces can be found at www.tsusanchang.com, along with a complete list of publications.

In 2004, Chang was named a Food and Society Policy Fellow by the Kellogg Foundation and began work advocating for food sustainability. During her fellowship, she wrote federally mandated wellness policies for her regional school district and started a teaching garden at her children’s elementary school. She continues to advocate for kids’ nutrition and bringing fresh, local foods to the school lunchroom. Susan lives in western Massachusetts with her husband and her two children. She enjoys gardening and sewing, and is excessively fond of apples.

Twitter @LocalFoodWine * FaceBook/LocalFoodAndWine

OKANAGAN FOOD AND WINE *  VANCOUVER FOOD AND  WINE

TWITTER.COM/LOCALFOODWINE

*LOCAL FOOD AND WINE*

FACEBOOK/LOCALFOODANDWINE

**********************************************************************

Food Down The Road – Summer Reading And References

Want to dig deeper into the issues of food and farming? Click on the links below to find more information relating to sustainable local food systems. Enjoy!  Read More on Food Down The Road, Kingston and Countryside.

Fiction

• Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver
• Close Range by Annie Proulx
• Bad Dirt by Annie Proulx
• The Devil’s Larder by Jim Crace
• The Garden of Reading by Michael Slung

Non-Fiction

• Fertile Ground by Janette Hasse – Combines detailed information for growing your own vegetables in a small, efficient, and productive garden with dozens of recipes and ideas for eating seasonally and locally in a northern climate. Arranged in monthly chapters, an article about a food related issue accompanes each section. Available at Tara Foods, Novel Idea and Sigrid’s Natural Foods for $27.00.
• Stuffed and Starved by Raj Patel
• Food Not Lawns: How to Turn Your Yard into a Garden and Your Neighborhood into a Community by H.C. Flores
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
• A Short History of Progress by Ronald Wright
• First the Seed: The Political Economy of Plant Biotechnology by Jack Ralph Kloppenburg Jr.
• Gaining Ground: Making a Successful Transition to Organic Farming by the Canadian Organic Growers
• Nature’s Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West by William Cronon
• The End of Food: How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Food Supply—And What You Can Do About It by Thomas F. Pawlick
• The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan

Cookbooks

• Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert
• Simply in Season Chilren’s Cookbook by Mark Beach and Julie Kauffman
• More with Less by Doris Janzen Longacre
• Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon
• Farmer John’s Cookbook: The Real Dirt on Vegetables by Farmer John Peterson and Angelic Organics
• From Asparagus to Zucchini by Madison Area Community Supported Agriculture Coalition

Periodicals & Reports

• Acres: A Voice for Eco-Agriculture published by Acres U.S.A.
• The Farm Crisis: Its Causes and Solutions, The National Farmers Union’s Submission to the Ministers of Agriculture Meeting (2005)

Films

• The Real Dirt on Farmer John
• Babette’s Feast
• Deconstructing Supper
• Fast Food Nation
• The Future of Food
• The Gleaners and I
• Like Water for Chocolate
• The Promise of the Land
• Food Inc.

Websites

For links to other relevant websites, please click on a following category:

• Local Food Directories
• Farmers Markets
• Local Food Stores
• Food Security
• Local Food Programs
• New Farmer Training and Resources
• Education Centres and Courses
• Urban Agriculture and Growing your own Food
• Food Related Events
• Activist and Action Groups
• Preservation Initiatives
• Research Initiatives
• Kingston Community Meal and Food Programs
• Cooking with Local Food

Local Food Directories

• Ontario CSA Directory — csafarms.netcompass.ca
• Durham Farm Fresh — www.durhamfarmfresh.ca
• Eat Local Sudbury — www.eatlocalsudbury.com
• Foodlink Grey-Bruce — www.foodlinkgreybruce.com
• GTA Local Food — www.gtalocalfood.ca/GTALocalFood/home.html
• Hamilton Local Food Directory — environmenthamilton.org/eatlocal/directory
• Kawartha Choice Farm Fresh — www.kawarthachoice.com/buylocal.php
• Local Flavours (Leeds, Grenville & Frontenac) — www.localflavours.org
• Ontario Farm Fresh Marketing Association — www.ontariofarmfresh.com
• Waterloo Foodlink — www.foodlink-waterlooregion.ca
• The Eat Well Guide — www.eatwellguide.org

Farmers’ Markets

• Kingston Market — www.geocities.com/kingstonmarket
• Farmers’ Market at Queen’s — www.thefarmersmarketatqueens.com
• Frontenac Farmers Market — www.frontenacfarmersmarket.ca
• Farmers’ Markets Ontario — www.farmersmarketsontario.com
• Harvest Ontario — www.harvestontario.com/fmoeast.html

Local Food Stores

• Desert Lake Gardens — www.dlgardens.com
• Tara Natural Foods — www.taranaturalfoods.com
• Local Family Farms — localfamilyfarms@bellnet.ca
• Glenburnie Grocery (613-542-6234)
• Be Now Natural Foods — www.benownaturalfoods.ca
• Sigrids Natural Foods — www.explorekingston.com/sigrids_natural_foods.htm

Food Security

• Just Food Ottawa — www.spcottawa.on.ca/ofsc
• Foodshare — www.foodshare.ca
• Toronto Food Policy Council — www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm
• Food Net — www.opha.on.ca/foodnet
• Food Secure Canada — www.foodsecurecanada.org
• Food 2030

Local Food Programs Ontario

• Local Food Plus (Toronto) — www.localflavourplus.ca
• Foodlink Grey and Bruce — www.foodlinkgreybruce.com

Canada

• 100 Mile Manitoba — 100milemanitoba.org
• 100 Mile Diet — 100milediet.org

USA

• Be A Local Hero (Massachusetts) — www.buylocalfood.com
• Food Routes (USA) — www.foodroutes.org
• Sustainable Table (USA) — www.sustainabletable.org

New Farmer Training and Resources

• CRAFT Ontario — www.craftontario.ca
• FarmStart — farmstart.ca
• SOIL — www.soilapprenticeships.org

Education Centres & Courses(for Farmers and Eaters alike)Ontario

• Everdale — www.everdale.org

Canada

• Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada – Web Courses — www.oacc.info/courses/course_web.asp
• Falls Brook Centre — www.fallsbrookcentre.ca

USA

*  New England Small Farm Institute — www.smallfarm.org

• Intervale — intervale.org

Urban Agriculture & Growing Your Own Food

Kingston

• FRILL Community Garden — www.frillgarden.org
• Sunnyside Community Garden — opirgkingston.org/info/groups/garden
• Kingston Horticultural Society — www.ikweb.com/khs
• Kingston Plant Trade — ca.groups.yahoo.com/group/kingston_plant_trade
• Sisters of Providence – Seed Sanctuary — www.providence.ca/seeds

Canada

• City Farmer — www.cityfarmer.org
• You Grow Girl: Gardening for the People — www.yougrowgirl.com
• Urban Harvester: Edible Landscape Consultant — www.urbanharvester.ca

Food Related Events Kingston

• Taste of Kingston — www.whatsonkingston.com/tasteofkingston

Ontario

• Guelph Organic Conference — www.guelphorganicconf.ca
• International Plowing Match — www.plowingmatch.org
• Canadian Organic Growers (COG) – Ottawa Chapter ECO Farm Day 2008 in Cornwall — www.cog.ca/ottawa/EFD_2008_main.htm

Activist & Action Groups  Biotechnology

• Canadian Biotechnology Action Network — www.cban.ca

Climate Change

• ECO Perth — www.ecoperth.on.ca

Other – Kingston

• Queen’s Oxfam — clubs.myams.org/oxfam/about.html

Other – Ontario

• National Farmers Union – Ontario — www.nfu.ca/on

Other – Canada

• National Farmers Union – Canada — www.nfu.ca
• Canadian Organic Growers — www.cog.ca
• Equiterre — equiterre.org/en
• ACORN — www.acornorganic.org

Other – USA & International

• ETC Group — www.etcgroup.org/en
• The Ethicurean: Chew the Right Thing — www.ethicurean.com
• The New Farm — www.newfarm.org

Preservation Initiatives Seed-Saving

• Sisters of Providence – Seed Sanctuary — www.providence.ca/seeds
• Seeds of Diversity — www.seeds.ca

Land Preservation

• Ontario Farmland Trust — www.farmland.uoguelph.ca/oft/oft.htm

Animal Breeds

• Rare Breeds Canada — www.rarebreedscanada.ca

Research Initiatives

• Canadian Association for Food Studies — www.foodstudies.ca/public.html

Organic Research Initiatives

• Organic Agriculture Centre of Canada — www.oacc.info

Kingston Community Meal &Food Programs

• St. Paul’s Anglican Meal Program kingston.cioc.ca
• Martha’s Table kingston.cioc.ca
• Partners in Mission Food Bank kingston.cioc.ca
• Good Food Boxkingston.cioc.ca
• Food Sharing Project www.limestone.on.ca
• KFL&A Public Health Emergency and Supplemental Food Access Directorywww.kflapublichealth.ca

Cooking with Local Food

• Slow Food www.slowfood.com
• Taste Ontario www.tasteontario.ca/index.html
• Culiblog: Inside the Secrets of the Culinary Elite — www.culiblog.org
• Edible Tulip — www.edibletulip.typepad.com

Twitter.com/localfoodwine

Okanagan Food And Wine *  Vancouver Food And  Wine

*Local Food And Wine *

FaceBook/LocalFoodAndWine

**************************************************************

By: The Wine Ladies

With spring in full swing, this week we’ll explore how the fresh herbs from your garden can influence the perfect food and wine pairing. Our in studio guests from beautiful Niagara-on-the-Lake, will be our guides sampling select herb-inspired appetizers and wine combinations, courtesy of participating wineries at the “Wine and Herb Touring” weekends taking place throughout the month of May.

On today’s show Jana Bonifero with the Niagara Grape and Wine Festival who will lead us through the wonderful up and coming events that taking place in this stunning wine region as well as Executive Chef David Penny of Jackson-Triggs Vintners who is in charge of the food component bringing with him some wonderful fresh-herb inspired appetizers with wines to match.

And finally, navigating Niagara wine country whether on foot, on two wheels or four, Lance Patten, Proprietor of Niagara Wine Tours International will be with us to share a variety of tours to suit your every need.

---

If you missed last week’s TV show not a problem, watch The Wine Ladies TV podcasts and archived shows on www.thatchannel.com/TheWineLadies from anywhere and anytime.

 

Today we explore the Languedoc, often referred to as the largest vineyard in the world, producing some of the best value wines out there, including a very hot wine that has just hit the LCBO here in Ontario. Introducing JUST Chardonnay and JUST Cabernet Sauvignon. Joining us in studio to tell us all about it, Tom Noitsis, President of Eurovintage Wines and Spirits. Also while discovering this fabulous region and sipping on these wonderful wines today, we will be working up an appetite as always as joining us too, sommelier and chef, as well as Director of Vintages for Eurovintage Wine and Spirits, Deana Folco Robles.

And until May 22nd when you purchase either a JUST Chardonnay or a JUST Cabernet Sauvignon at just $9.95 per bottle you will receive a bonus mini bottle of the other wine varietal just in case you want to try that too! It’s just that simple.

---

Up-coming events in May not to be missed

Terroir Wine Celebration in Prince Edward County May 29th,2010

This year 5 new county wineries will open their doors, bringing the total number of wineries in the county to over 20. Come taste their wines first at Terroir, Sat. May 29, 2010 from Noon – 5:00pm.Wineries will be serving their own unique county-produced wines, featuring the new spring releases. Crystal Palace Fairgrounds, Picton, ON $20.00 pre-purchased ~ $25.00 at the door (cash only) Please note that attendance is restricted to those 19 years and over. Wheelchair accessible. Click here for Tickets.

Wine and Herb Weekends in Niagara-On-The-Lake, May 2010

Niagara-on-the-Lake’s casual spring celebration of great wine and fresh herbs! Spend a weekend in May exploring our neighbourhood of 22 wineries with your Wine & Herb touring pass. As you tour, each stop will feature a different herb-themed food pairing matched to a premium Niagara VQA wine selected to highlight the flavour and aroma of the herb. Your touring pass may be used any weekend in May. Touring pass $43.00. Passes can be purchased online at www.niagaraonthelake.com

---

Twitter @LocalFoodWine

* Okanagan Food And Wine *  Vancouver Food And Wine*

*Local Food And Wine *

Facebook.com/LocalFoodAndWine

*********************************************

Niagara Wine And Winter

Local Food And Wine

Niagara’s Wine Visionaries: Profiles of the Pioneering Winemakers. The book tells how a “handful of idealists and stubborn, single-minded enthusiasts” created a great wine region in Niagara . It’s written by Linda Bramble, wine educator and writer.

John Schreiner, whose book is reviewed here on Local Food And Wine under the heading Wineries of British Columbia, says, Bramble’s book “is a must for anyone interested in Canadian wine, with its lively profiles of leading figures that have shaped the business.”

In 2001 Linda was awarded the Grape and Wine Festival Citizen of the year; in 2002 she was given the industry recognition award for the Celebration of Excellence of Women in Gastronomy; and in 2003 she was inducted into the Ducata dei Vini del Friulani, an Italian organization dedicated to the wines and foods of Friuli.  From The Wine Writers’ Circle of Canada.

Another great book to have on hand as you make your way through the world’s wine regions, including the spectacular Niagara region in Ontario, Canada, is Billy Munnelly’s, Billy’s Best Bottles For 2010.

“My focus (and motivation) has always been the drinking experience because that interests me more thant he winemaking side,” says Munnelly in Vines Magazine’s winter issue.  “There’s a world of difference between knowing about a wine and knowing/understanding the experience of  a wine.”

Since writing his newsletters beginning in 1990, his “user-friendly” approach quickly became popular amongst the recreational vino drinking crowd.  Billy’s unpretentious approach has made buying and enjoying wine very accessible to many who might otherwise have felt wine was more for the wine “snobs” and not so much for everyone to enjoy.

See for yourself: Billy’s Best Bottles.

Follow Us On Twitter@LocalFoodWine

Okanagan Food And Wine *  Vancouver Food And Wine

*  Local Food And Wine *