Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
Local Grillin’
Check out the great article about our main meat man (and writer extraodinaire for WindsorEats) Jamie Waldron and Paesano’s Gourmet Market & Cafe written by Ted Whipp in today’s Windsor Star:
Go local for the grill. Food for a barbecue menu this Victoria Day weekend can be as close as the Ontario farm it came from, say people who know their meat and produce.
Adapt a favourite recipe with local ingredients, and taste the home grown pride, says Jamie Waldron, meat manager of Paesano’s Gourmet Market & Cafe in Tecumseh.“We’re very lucky we can get the best (Ontario) lamb, the best corn-fed beef, the best pork,” says Waldron.
He explains the store in the Village Grove Plaza, 366 Manning Rd., not only carries nothing but Ontario-grown meat, but also posts information about the farm and supplier sources.
One of a growing number of retailers in the Homegrown Ontario program for meat, including Schinkel’s Meat Market in Essex, the Tecumseh store receives a strong consumer response.
“I like it because it’s local,” Waldron says.
“I have Ontario pride. You can’t get these items anywhere else in the world.”
Daniele Palanca, a chef with the downtown Windsor’s St. Clair Centre for the Arts, helped develop recipes specifically for using greenhouse vegetables. He says they can be included with many recipes, such as the accompanying pizza on for the grill. “Just use vine-ripened tomatoes,” instead of recipe’s field tomatoes, he says.
Keely Shierl, from the Huntsville-area shop Dwight Market, works with the Homegrown Ontario to help promote provincial products.
Ontario lamb, she says, provides a sweeter, milder taste than meats from other regions.
“It’s hard to ruin on the grill,” she says.
Ontario pork is distinctive and lean and the beef corn-fed.
Mainly, she says, consumers are searching for local foods, sources and supplies.
“More and more people are asking where the products are coming from. That wasn’t the case 15 years ago,” when she started her first store, Shierl says.
Read on for more Ontario-based sources for recipes and retailers and the pizza and turkey recipes ready for a holiday menu.
On the website for the Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Growers www.greenhouse.com follow the links greenhouse veggies and recipes for the special collection of recipes Palanca helped develop, The Ontario Greenhouse Gourmet.
Homegrown Ontario offers a website www.homegrownontario.ca with recipes for turkey, lamb, veal and pork, as well as information and resources.
Foodland Ontario promotes Ontario-grown fruits and vegetables. On its website www.foodland.gov.on.ca, find recipes as well as factsheets, seasonal availability and more consumer information.
So if you haven’t already fired up the grill, head over to Paesano’s and load up on some of the best local beef, lamb and pork in the county!
Hmmmm….I wonder if she’ll remember me from 
