In the forest with Michael Stadtlander

Published On Wed Oct 05 2011

By Jennifer Bain Food Editor

We have gathered in the maple forest outside of Toronto to celebrate the land that feeds us and hear about fears for its future. We are chefs, farmers, activists and journalists brought together by renowned Ontario chef Michael Stadtlnder to talk about Foodstock, his community's impending culinary and musical show of strength against a proposed limestone mega-quarry. But first, we gather by the fire pit to eat slices of smoked ham from Stadtlnder's Eigensinn Farm. It is almost Thanksgiving, a time to give thanks for our families, our food, and our farmers. Fifth-generation farmer Bill French is here in the woods on his neighbour David Vander Zaag's potato farm. We are northwest of Orangeville between Shelburne and Honeywood. French's normal work day involves rhubarb, Brussels sprouts and peas. Today he rose at 12:45 a.m. and drove to the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto before meeting us at 11 a.m. for lunch. Now he's briefing us on how the Highland Companies, headed by an Ontario man named John Lowndes but backed by a billiondollar Boston hedge fund called the Baupost Group, spent five years quietly buying more than 6,500 acres of land around here (at a 30 per cent premium) for potato farming.

Recipes: Lennox Farms Rhubarb Crisp or Squares Trail Bosss Juicy Grilled Sirloin Maple Brussels Sprouts Highland is now the largest grower, packer and distributor of potatoes in Ontario and that's fine by everyone here. It took over large potato farms, Downey's and Wilson's, and employs more than 50 people. But its application to use 2,316 acres of its land for a quarry has divided the community and sparked a grassroots Stop the Mega Quarry movement. The proposed open-pit quarry would be about one-third the size of downtown Toronto and deeper than Niagara Falls. It's full of a high-quality aggregate (the term for sand, gravel and crushed stone) called amabel dolostone that's needed to build roads and homes. Highland wants to blast its way to this coveted limestone and promises it will only be sold to the Greater Golden Horseshoe market. You can't eat gravel, scoffs David Waters, an Orangeville real estate agent who lives in Shelburne and is coordinating Foodstock volunteers. Yes, we have to pave roads and whatnot, but there's a right place to take these things from. It's lunch time so we move to a circle of hay bales. We are served spoonfuls of cream of potato soup in the bowl of cabbage leaves. The potatoes are from Jim Black who, like the

Frenches and Vander Zaags, won't sell his farmland. Quarry opponents are morally opposed to sacrificing farmland for concrete. They fear this proposed quarry, which is below the water table, could harm their water supply. (Highland would have to pump 600 million litres of water a day from the quarry, equivalent to the volume used by 2.7 million Ontarians, but says there would be no adverse impacts beyond the quarry on water quality or quantity.) The proposed quarry land is Class 1 farmland. It's at the headwaters of several river systems, but outside protected areas like the Niagara Escarpment, Oak Ridges Moraine and Greenbelt. Concerned citizens created the North Dufferin Agricultural and Community Taskforce (NDACT) and believe Ontario's Aggregate Resources Act needs strengthening. More than 5,000 people, including members of the David Suzuki Foundation and the Council of Canadians, have filed letters of objection to the proposed quarry. On Sept. 1, Ontario Environment Minister John Wilkinson ordered a full environmental assessment that is expected to take several years. The proposed quarry is not a done deal like Waters says many people mistakenly believe. It's definitely not a done deal to a chef/farmer/artist/activist like Stadtlnder. The German-born chef gained fame in Toronto before decamping to 100 acres in Singhampton in 1993 with his wife Nobuyo. He has earned global praise for exclusive dinners of local, foraged and homegrown foods at his farm, and now has Haisai Restaurant & Bakery in the Village of Singhampton.

Stadtlnder is also president of the Canadian Chefs' Congress, a group that connects chefs to our land in solidarity with farmers, fishers, gardeners, foragers and all artisanal food producers. About 100 chefs will gather on Oct. 16 for Foodstock, a paywhat-you can roving picnic/concert to raise awareness about the proposed quarry and money to fight it. Fittingly, Oct. 16 is World Food Day, created by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to draw attention to agricultural food production. Foodstock features a who's who of chefs from Toronto restaurants including Enoteca Sociale, Pizzeria Libretto, Jamie Kennedy Kitchens, Oyster Boy, Caf Belong, Mildred's Temple Kitchen and Scaramouche. They'll join chefs from Collingwood, Creemore, Owen Sound, Shelburne, Orangeville, Niagara, Parry Sound, Barrie and Huntsville. The chefs will work with donated ingredients and share the forest with buskers. A stage in a nearby field will have more than a dozen musicians including Jim Cuddy, Cuff the Duke, Sarah Harmer, Hayden and Ron Sexsmith. Slow Food Toronto is organizing buses. The alcohol-free event is BYO plate, cutlery, napkin and water cup. If organizers get the crowd of 20,000 they're planning for, Foodstock will be epic. Even if they get a fraction of that, it will be a success. French says the population of Melancthon Township is just 2,400, causing farmers and ordinary citizens to wonder how they could possibly fight a quarry proposal backed by Seth Klarman's Baupost Group. In a 2010 article, Forbes.com described Klarman as a deep value investor who obsesses over risks. His hedge fund manages billions and boasts returns reported to be in the 16 per cent to 20 per cent range.

This Foodstock is really going to tell us how many people are concerned, allows French. Taking a break from the heavy talk, he enjoys more food from Stadtlnder and his five assistants. His peas show up with foraged chicken of the woods and honey mushrooms in chicken broth on a cabbage leaf. Butter-poached Georgian Bay lake trout winds up in an oyster shell with Eigensinn Farm beets and blue potatoes. Salad greens and grilled turban squash come on a cabbage leaf. So does Eigensinn Farm slow-roasted pork and crackling with grilled cabbage, carrots and green beans. We're getting fed well today, aren't we? says French. This is top-quality land. You cannot waste that, says Stadtlnder. Don't you think when you come here and feel the vastness, you can really feel how much you can grow here? Foodstock has amassed countless donations for the chefs to play with. Harmony Organic will provide all the needed milk and cream. Other companies are donating cheese, ice cream, meat and fish. Farmers are pitching in with fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains and greens. Chef Alexandra Feswick of the Brockton General will pair roasted duck from Mount Forest with highbush cranberry and pear compote. Derek Bendig of Pangaea will do smoked rainbow trout chowder. Stefan Czapalay representing Nova Scotia is planning potato risotto with lobster. Taters not craters is one of Foodstock's area-appropriate slogans. The other is Save the land that feeds us.

Miriam Streiman, a former Torontonian who's new to the township, is coordinating Foodstock chefs and food donations and distribution. She reminds us how food produced in this area winds up on city plates. If you eat food and drink water, then this affects you, Streiman stresses. We finish our extravagant campfire luncheon with two desserts. Caramelized wild apples with butter and maple syrup come in oyster shells. Morsels of chocolate cake, poppyseed squares and chocolate hazelnut balls come on maple leafs. There are no musicians, but it's impossible not to hear This Land is Your Land in our heads. jbain@thestar.ca www.twitter.com/thesaucylady