The Compost Pile originated with using a picture of a compost pile in a rant I wrote about deceptive labelling in our mostly monthly newsletter. The oblique connection between the two was that both were a pile of crap. I’ve decided to keep “The Compost Pile” as the heading for my personal opinion pieces because it seems to fit everything I write about so well. A compost pile can be viewed as a pile of crap or it can be viewed as a source of nourishment for plants. This is especially true on an organic farm. This week my topic fits into the latter definition. I want to write about a couple of organizations that are providing much needed support to people around food: The Stop and The West End Food Co-op. I don’t have a direct connection to either organization other than The Stop is the organizer of the Wychwood Barns farmer’s market at which we are vendors. Through the market we have met a number of the staff of The Stop and have come to understand some of the programming provided by The Stop. I’m highlighting these two organizations because I am aware of them. There are many more doing excellent work in and around the city.
Before I get into the reasons why, I want to share a story that happened at our market booth a couple of years ago that really opened our eyes to the depth of the food illiteracy in Toronto. A gentleman in his mid-twenties stopped at our booth and picked up a vegetable from our display and asked what it was. Harrison, who was 11 or 12 at the time told him what the vegetable was. The gentleman then asked how it was cooked. Harrison rhymed off several different ways that the vegetable could be cooked (much to the amusement of several ladies in line behind the gentleman). The gentleman thanked Harrison put the vegetable back in the display and walked away. It had never occurred to me that someone wouldn’t know how to cook a potato. Or even recognize a raw one. The gentleman appeared to be a middle-class Torontonian, born and raised.
The Stop and The West End Food Co-op are both providing cooking lessons to people within their communities. Not high-faluting Cordon-Bleu cooking. Just good old fashioned make a meal with wholesome ingredients in the case of The Stop and basic canning and preserving in the case of the West End Food Co-op. These are valuable skills if you are trying to eat healthy. The best way to ensure you have a healthy diet is to cook it yourself. It’s also the most cost effective way to have a healthy diet. I take my cooking skills for granted. I started helping my mother as soon as I was tall enough to stand on a chair and stir a pot. I grew up making jam, pickles, relishes, bread, gravy, sourdough biscuits, cookies, cakes and many main course dishes. I baked and decorated my own birthday cake for several of my birthday parties (when you bake the cake you have control over who licks off the beaters and you can sneak a little icing when no one is looking). Last Saturday the kids and I picked enough black currants and gooseberries to make two double batches of jam. They all helped pick and stem the fruit and Rebekah helped measure out the sugar and was the official taster when it was all said and done. For me that is a much more rewarding family food event than going to a restaurant. Each time we open a jar of that jam, we’ll get to relive the memory of the four hours we spent last Saturday picking fruit and making jam. Plus, knowledge was passed on to the next generation.
One of the best ways to ensure that your children eat healthy foods is to involve them in the cooking process. But it has to be more than teaching them how to read the label on the box and microwave on high for 6 minutes. Real cooking skills give you real control over what you eat. I encourage you to try out a class for basic cooking skills if you’re intimidated by the thought of cooking real food. With a few basic skills and some confidence, you’ll be cooking, preserving, and baking wholesome, healthy food for your family in no time.

Harry. (Did I surprise you that it was me and not Silvia writing this?)