Canadian tomatoes

[mandoann]

I searched for tomato and came up with Chicken Riggies from Utica (sounded good!), so I think this new thread will be largely unexplored territory!

I recently bought some tomatoes " on the vine" at the grocery store. I instinctively looked at the label (on each tomato) and saw that they were a "product of Canada". After seeing so much produce from Chile and other places south, I was amazed to find they were from north (of Portland anyway).

Anyone familiar with agriculture in Canada who might know exactly which province they might have come from?
Thanks!

[charlene]

they could be Ontario tomatoes..we have a large farming area just north of Toronto. I'm sure other provinces have scads of farms that grow produce of all sorts for shipment around the world..

[fezo]

There's a ton of good farm land in Ontario. The area above Lake Erie is a huge farm area. I'm always amazed that you can grow tobacco that far north.

[Yuri]

The Niagara peninsula (between Hamilton and Niagara Falls is known for it's fruits and vegetables. Roadside stands offer fresh produce each summer. Sadly, the last cannery in the area closed down a few years ago - cheaper to process it elsewhere, then buy it back.
The Niagara peninsula has ideal soil and climate for vineyards and produces some world class wines.

Another exceptional area is the 'Holland Marsh' north of Toronto as you head towards 'Lightfoot country'. The rich soil is as black as soot and very productive. Much of southwestern Ontario is still agricultural - a variety of crops and dairy farming. To the south, the sandy soil around Delhi & Tillsonburg was ideal for growing tobacco. Tobacco drying kilns still dot the roadsides. With decreasing demand for tobacco, some of the farmers experimented with growing peanuts (and soy) which require about the same conditions from what I understand.

One has to be careful when buying canned or processed items labeled "Made In Canada" as the rules are so lax, sometimes just the water used or can they're packed in is Canadian but meets government content rules being 'Canadian'. I've come across a can of pineapples labeled "Product of Canada" and as far as I know, global warming hasn't made us tropical yet!

Canadian folk band 'Tamarack' once lamented in song that if you try to farm in north Ontario all you reap is "fields of rock and snow"

I wonder if Ontario tomatoes throw better too???........

[fezo]

Canadian pineapple? Must be a Vancouver thing.... Maybe you guys annexed Hawaii when we weren't looking.

That area around Delhi and Tillsonburg is right where I;d be traveling through for half a dozen summers or so. Fred Eaglesmith (great singer/songwriter and an Ontario farm boy himself) puts on a music picnic every August over in Aylmer. This takes us through all that country. I think it's officially gotten to be too far to drive the last couple of years....

[timetraveler]

Being from the South (sort of) tomatoes are something that seems to be on practically every Southerners table at meal time, especially during the summer. I've eaten tomates that have been grown in a hothouse, as well as some that have been grown hydropnically, but the ones that I really prefer are those that are grown outside on the vine. They seem to have a more satisfying taste to them. Right now, I'd just about give my eye teeth for some decent okra. See, my mum makes a MEAN tasting pickled okra when she can get some that are just right. There was one batch that she made that was good enough that I didn't wait the recommended two weeks, I just opened a jar up & had it half eaten before the day was gone. MMM! TASTY!

[mandoann]

I'm jealous! Went to the Farmer's Market near my apt, NO TOMATOES!

[timetraveler]

That's too bad really. They may be having a hard time getting them due to the way the weather may have done some major damage to the crops.

[SherylKat]

HI, Mandoann, Podunklander, and Char (not to mention other corfidians)... when I first read this thread about a month ago, I just smiled condescendingly and thought, they are SO wrong! Most fruits and veggies come from CALIFORNIA! EVERYBODY knows that! (If California were a country, I think we'd be what, Number 9 on the list of exporting COUNTRIES.)

Okay, you guys sprang up in my supermarket today. I was SHOCKED because there were TONS of bing cherries (my favorite) - and usually bing cherry time is around Memorial Day. So, the price was okay and a grabbed a sack, when I saw, PRODUIT DU CANADA on the label! I could HEAR you guys chuckling! Shut UP...! And no, I'm not going to make a cherry pie to take to Napa with me - bing cherry time wi;; HAVE to be over by October...I really don't want to sit there with a pie on my lap, tapping along to the music and worrying about spilling the contents all over myself....

Have a great one, everybody! And, could you all keep fingers crossed for me next week? I'm going to start to pound the pavements then in search of a GREAT JOB (or any legal assistant job that pays well and the attorneys aren't TOO impressed with themselves - well, forget that last part, that's asking for too much! I'm trying to use Lightfoot concerts as a "carrot" to get this old donkey moving - no job, no concert! SherylKat