Raised over 1,000 lbs. of produce for four Ontario food banks and found a great way to use those fresh pears!

Fresh picked Clapps pears at Market on Broadway in Orangeville

Buy Local Share Local made stops in Peterborough, Kingston, Orangeville and Toronto this past week to raise donations of fresh produce for food banks in each community. The donated produce went to: Kawartha Food Share in Peterborough, Loving Spoonful in Kingston, the Orangeville Food Bank and the Fort York Food Bank in Toronto. Peterborough residents and market vendors were incredibly generous with a total of 600 pounds of donated produce at the end of the market last Wednesday. Thank you to all of the generous market goers and vendors who helped out their communities by donating nutritious local produce!

Kingston's Loving Spoonful delivers donated produce to food banks and meal programs by bike trailer

There is an amazing variety of produce in season right now and I couldn’t resist buying some pears at Market on Broadway in Orangeville to take home with me. The farmer was selling a variety of pears I had never tried, Clapps pears, which he explained were great for baking. I decided to poach them in syrup (4 pears in 4 cups of water with 3/4 cup of sugar, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a cinnamon stick or two). If you have some extra white wine in the fridge that works nicely also. I let the pears simmer on medium heat for about 20 minutes until they were tender, then cooled them in the syrup and halved and cored them. Poached pears are perfect on icecream, but I made them into a pear almond tart using a recipe similar to this one.                                                        

 

 

 

 

This Thursday Buy Local Share Local will be at Covent Garden Market in London and Saturday at the North Bay Farmers’ Market. Stop by and visit our booth!

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