All field trips will be held on June 22, 2016
Niagara Wine Tour
Cost Per Person CA$120 + 13% HST, includes lunch
Start/End Time: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 16
Level of Activity: Light walking in vineyards
Although winemakers have been active along Lake Ontario and the Niagara Escarpment for more than a hundred years, the quality of Niagara wines have soared in the last few decades as vintners have learned to take advantage of the unique terroir of the region, including long summer days to ripen noble grapes. This tour will begin with a scenic bus tour from Scarborough along Lake Ontario and include tastings at three noted vineyards, with lunch at one of them. The tour and tastings will be led by Professor Rod Phillips, Carleton University wine historian and renowned wine critic. In addition, Professor Tony B. Shaw of the Cool Climate Oenology and Viticulture Institute at Brock University will discuss the ways that Niagara winemakers have adapted to the challenges of the northerly climate and to future change. The research and practices from Niagara offer lessons for established wine regions in both the Old and New World for dealing with the impacts of climate change, including extreme temperature, precipitation, and climate variability, on grape yields and wine quality.
Monforte Dairy
Cost Per Person CA$70 + 13% HST, includes lunch and tasting
Start/End Time: 8:00AM to 5:00PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 10
Level of Activity: Light walking in the dairy and home farm
Monforte Dairy produces some the very best goat, sheep, water buffalo, and cow’s milk cheeses in the historic southwestern Ontario town of Stratford (also known for its famous Shakespeare festival). Monforte is one of the most creative artisan dairies leading a recent renaissance of craft cheese making in Ontario. The tour leaves from campus on a bus ride across the northern Greater Toronto Area and into Ontario’s farming belt. In Stratford, noted cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen and others will offer a tour of the cheese making facility and their brand new home farm. The tour will visit innovative Amish and Mennonite dairy farmers in the Stratford area. Farmers and cheesemakers together will discuss the ethical, faith and political values that shape the Monforte mission. The tour will feature lunch as well as tastings of the some of the dairy’s most notable cheeses.
Dishing Up Toronto
Cost per Person: CA$65 + 13%HST, includes tasting
Start/End Time: 1:00 to 5:00PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 10 Per Tour
Level of Activity: Moderate walking
Toronto’s new Ward Museum is using the Scarborough Fare conference to launch its new project, Dishing Up Toronto, in collaboration with Heritage Toronto and the Culinaria Research Centre. Dishing Up Toronto is a series of food tours that will introduce participants to often-overlooked neighborhoods through the life stories of local residents who have developed and who will lead the tours. Through these migrants’ tales, the Toronto Ward Museum explores common themes that have brought people to Toronto while recognizing how the lived experiences of migrants have and continue to shape the city. Dishes selected by local residents will help bring their migration stories to life and will function as a point of departure for sharing and critical reflection around questions of identity, migration, home, citizenship and belonging. Three different versions of the tour will be offered. These tours are also open to the general public.
Bee Connected to Aboriginal Toronto
Cost Per Person: CA$60 + 13% HST, includes lunch and tasting
Start/End Time: 8:30 to 3:30 from UTSC with student guide (or meet at the Medicine Garden at Hart House, Downtown University of Toronto Campus, at 10:00 AM and finish by 2:00 PM)
Maximum Number of Participants: 15
Level of Activity: Light walking
Beekeeper Brian Hamlin introduces the practice and politics of urban beekeeping as well as the food practices of aboriginal Toronto, past and present. In a visit to several of his hives on the rooftops of University of Toronto buildings, he will discuss culture of culture of creativity and social structure of bees and their important contribution to environmental health and diversity in our food supply. The tour begins at the Medicine Garden near UofT Hart House. A member of First Nations House will share about the traditions of honouring the earth for the medicinal plants and foods of the area. The tour continues to the First Nations House apiary on the Earth Sciences rooftop. This will also bring us through the bees flight and forage path for environmental context. The talk will include a brief history of apiculture, beekeeping, environmental and food connections. The tour will include a visit to First Nation’s house and tastes of local honeys and a lunch of indigenous foods, such as wild rice bean salad, strawberries, popcorn and either chilled sumac or cedar tea.
New Growers in Old Suburbs
Cost Per Person: CA$ 70 + 13% HST, lunch included
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:30 PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 25
Level of Activity: Light walking in farms and gardens
The old suburbs of Toronto, some of which are now within the city limits, feature a number of new locations for growing food. Driving by bus across the Greater Toronto Area, the tour visits sites such as Ecosource, in Mississauga, a not-for-profit that has a range of food advocacy and training targeting suburban residents, including an Urban Agriculture Teaching Garden. Nearby, two young entrepreneurs have set up an aquaponics business called Aqua Greens. Black Creek Community Farm is the city’s largest urban farm. Downsview Park, a former aerospace district being transformed by the federal government, has served as an incubator for several farm businesses, including the social enterprise Fresh City Farms, which has become successful enough to set up a hub for processing and distributing products from greater Toronto as well as its surroundings. Finally, PACT is a not-for-profit that focuses on building skills in youth. Tour organized by Toronto Urban Growers.
Rooftops: Food’s New Frontier
Cost Per Person: CA$ 50 + 13% HST, lunch included
Time: 8:30 AM – 4:30PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 20
Level of Activity: Moderate walking, mostly along streets
There has been a rapid spread of food production spaces on rooftops around the world. Toronto illustrates well the wide variety of contexts where such projects can now be found. Using public transport and walking, we will visit some of the most interesting of these sites, such as Carrot Green Roof, a diverse community space atop a cooperative supermarket in a low-rise shopping center; Access Point on Danforth, a biodiverse garden above a community health center run by Access Alliance; Riverdale Hub, where raised beds and a small greenhouse can be found over a multipurpose building anchored by a center that supports immigrant women; School Grown RoofTop, a project by FoodShare to incorporate market gardening skills into the curriculum of Eastdale Collegiate school; the Native Child and Family Services Rooftop Garden; and Rye’s Homegrown Rooftop Farm, the highly productive farm that covers one of Ryerson University’s buildings. Tour organized by Toronto Urban Growers.
City and Community Food Centres
Cost Per Person: CA$50 + 13% HST, lunch included
Time: 9 AM – 4:15 PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 20
Level of Activity: Moderate walking, mostly along streets
Different models of multifaceted community-focused food centres can be found in Toronto. This public transport and walking tour visits such centres as Wychwood Barns, the showcase project by The Stop located in a historic facility where streetcars used to be repaired; FoodShare, the city’s largest food organization; Greenest City + PARC two working to strengthen food security in the diverse neighborhood of Parkdale. A more traditional community centre can integrate a great variety of food projects within its activities, as illustrated in Scadding Court. Tour organized by Toronto Urban Growers.
Downtown East: Gardening Across Ages and Cultures
Cost Per Person: CA$30 + 13% HST, snack included
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:45 PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 20
Level of Activity: Considerable but flat street walking
Gardening cuts across all ages and cultures. This can be seen clearly in highly diverse neighborhoods such as those found on the east side of downtown Toronto. This public transport and walking tour will visit a number of innovative gardens, such as Rye’s HomeGrown, an initiative at Ryerson University that shows how college-age students be engaged from food growing to food marketing. Allan Gardens is the city’s historic conservatory, where a showcase edible garden is being established by a broad range of downtown-based groups. Green Thumbs Growing Kids’ Winchester School Garden introduces food to young children. Regent Park, Canada’s largest social housing district, is currently undergoing radical transformation; food projects are embedded in the new Regent Park, including ground-level gardens run for years informally by residents, the 40 Oak community food centre, and One Oak where a new building for seniors includes a rooftop garden for residents. Tour organized by Toronto Urban Growers.
Indigenous Foodways
Cost Per Person: CA$80 + 13% HST, light lunch included
Time: 9:00 AM – 1:45 PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 25
Level of Activity: Light
Since 1995, First Story Toronto, within the Native Canadian Centre of Toronto, has been engaged in researching and preserving the Indigenous history of Toronto with the goal of building awareness of and pride in the long Indigenous presence and contributions to the city. Toronto has always been a gathering place of many nations – even prior to contact. On this bus tour, First Story will take us on a tour of historical landmarks that illustrate the foodways of the Anishnaabe, Haudenasaune and Wendat nations who stewarded these lands for generations prior to Canadian colonization. The tour will also include visits to current food projects in Toronto’s Indigenous communities and a performance by Ange Loft (Haudenasaunee artist and artistic director of Jumbalise Theatre). Ange will perform the “Dish with One Spoon” which explores the contemporary significance of the treaty framework established by the Anishanabe and Haudenasaunee nations.
Toronto’s Markets
Cost Per Person: CA$60 + 13% HST, includes lunch
Start/End Time: 9:00 AM-4:00PM
Maximum Number of Participants: 20
Level of Activity: Urban Walking
Toronto has been described as a city of markets. Walking through the heart of downtown, this city tour visits historical markets still thriving today, including Kensington Market and St. Lawrence Market, as well as the sites of food markets now gone. The tour connects changing social landscapes and immigrant foodways to the evolving urban form of Toronto. The tour will include a visit and market-themed lunch at the Chef’s House, the restaurant of George Brown College, Centre for Hospitality and Culinary Arts, one of Canada’s most innovative culinary schools.