Kids are notorious for asking questions… LOTS of questions! So whenever we try a new food, there’s usually a question about how it’s grown or where it comes from. I won’t claim that everything we eat is organic (far from it), but I do my best to buy organic whenever I can, and when my budget allows, for a few reasons:
- organic farms are sustainable, ensuring that the land will be fit for farming for years to come
- reduced groundwater pollution (because no pesticides, etc are used)
- no pesticides or synthetic fertilizers means I’m not ingesting harmful chemicals when I eat my food
- no genetically modified organisms (GMOs)
- and last, but not least, the food tastes better!
That’s why, when I found out about the Earth’s Own Planting An Organic Future initiative with Evergreen, I knew I wanted to share it with you.
Recently I attended an event at the Evergreen Brick Works to experience the program myself and had the pleasure of meeting (and cooking with!) Chef Brad Long, owner of Cafe Belong.
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| Chef Brad Long and me, captured by my 8-year-old! |
He believes strongly that it’s important to understand where our food comes from, and that we essentially vote with our dollars every time we buy food. This really resonated with me. I often see local and foreign tomatoes, for example, next to each other at the grocery store and wonder why the foreign produce is even an option? If we choose to buy food that has been shipped half-way across the world (when we produce the very same food locally), it sends a message that buying local isn’t important. And, if that happens, then local food production will continue to decrease.
That’s why the community food garden movement is so powerful and essential. The Planting An Organic Future initiative is all about inspiring the next generation of environmental champions by working with schools to create school-ground gardens. So Nice provides communities across Canada with the support and information kit to plant and cultivate organic food gardens at their schools, which encourages kids to get involved in environmental stewardship.
So Nice is passionate about organic food and I enjoyed chatting with the folks from Earth’s Own about how their products are made. (Did you know that no part of the almond is wasted in the production of their organic almond milk?)
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| So Nice is passionate about organic! Bottom right: plants grown by kids for the Evergreen children’s garden |
After a hands-on demonstration in Evergreen’s children’s garden, we were treated to a hands-on cooking segment with Chef Long.
Half of the group made delicious cauliflower soup and the other made biscuits. I can tell you that everything was delicious… and I’m excited to share Chef Long’s official Cafe Belong recipes with you! Click below to download the PDFs:
So Nice Cauliflower & Almond soup recipe
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| The final product… yummy almond cauliflower soup. |
Many thanks to Earth’s Own, Evergreen Brick Works, Chef Long & Cafe Belong for hosting a fun and informative morning!
Learn more about So Nice organic products at SoNice.ca, and to get your school involved with Planting An Organic Future, click here.
For more information on organic agriculture, click here.
Disclosure: Earth’s Own provided this experience free of charge in exchange for my review. No other compensation was received.
Wow! It looks like you learned a lot at! Thanks for sharing this information with us 🙂