It’s a new year, which means a new set of
Lakehead University In Conversation lectures here at the Thunder Bay Public
Library! The first 2016 lecture, “Food Innovation in Northwestern
Ontario,” will be held on January 23 at 2pm in the Mary J.L. Black Community
Program Room. This lecture is presented by Dr. Connie Nelson, a professor of
Social Work at Lakehead University. Dr. Nelson will be talking about five local
food initiatives that are creating jobs while helping people live healthier
lives in connection with their environment. Dr. Nelson’s lecture is very timely;
the local food movement is gaining momentum as many people attend the Saturday
morning Country
Market and more Thunder Bay
restaurants serve local fare. Want to find out more before the 23rd? Then
stop by your local library!
If you are totally new to the idea of the local
food movement, check out Amy Cotler’s The Locavore Way: Discover and Enjoy the Pleasures of Locally Grown Food.
Cotler covers all the basics; with her help you’ll be buying, cooking, and
eating more local foods in no time.
People in Northwestern Ontario aren’t the only
ones eating locally; the local food movement is springing up across North
America. Tanya Denckla Cobb profiles 50 different projects from across the
United States in Reclaiming Our Food:How the Grassroots Food Movement is Changing the Way We Eat. Cobb’s book
is a great read if you’re curious about what’s going on elsewhere in the
continent. Even though some of the projects detailed in this book are not
practical in our climate, their ingenuity is sure to inspire you. Likewise,
Robert Bates made a documentary on the American local food movement called Ingredients.
Bates speaks with chefs, farmers, and activists to show how the local food
movement began; they believe that the North American food system can and should
be sustainable, healthy, and tasty.
If you’re interested in growing your own food,
rather than just buying locally, we’ve got lots of books to help you as well.
An excellent overview of making your home self sufficient is David Toht’s Backyard Homesteading: A Back-to-BasicsGuide to Self Sufficiency. Backyard
Homesteading has all sorts of information on growing vegetables, raising
livestock, and storing all the food you produce. There’s even a section to help
you navigate the local rules and regulations concerning livestock in the city.
Toht freely admits that his book doesn’t go into lots of detail on any one
topic, so if you want to know more about a certain subject you’ll need to find
a more specialized book that is available on the topic. But if you’re wanting a
more general overview on self sufficiency, Backyard Homesteading is for you.
In recent years, more and more people have
become interested in keeping bees so they can have and sell their own local
honey. Local honey tastes good and may help alleviate pollen allergies. If
you’re interested in beekeeping but have no experience, definitely check out Beekeeping for Dummies by Howland
Blackiston or The Backyard Beekeeper:an Absolute Beginner's Guide to Keeping Bees in Your Yard and Garden by
Kim Flottum. Both books are excellent resources for beginners who want to keep
a Langstroth hive (they’re the fastest producers of honey). If you have
experience with beekeeping or want to know more about some of the other hive
types (like the Kenya top-bar hive or even the Warre hive), check out Natural Beekeeping: Organic Approaches toModern Apiculture by Ross Conrad instead.
All of this and more can be found at your local
library! And don’t forget to head to Mary J.L. Black on January 23 for
Dr. Nelson’s lecture. It starts at 2pm in the Community Program Room.
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