LocalHarvest

If you missed our first post on Love Catering Co., don’t hesitate to catch up and read on as we follow this “start-up” locally-sourced, organic catering company on their adventure of creating a business and growing/sourcing all of their unique product throughout Ontario. Here is what they have to say about week 2 of working on their “labour of love”:

Since our Maiden post, we have been approached with a really exciting and unanticipated opportunity: We will be providing some local coffee shops with custom eats - check back in the next few weeks as we will be revealing their names as soon as ends are tied and terrines are sampled.

What’s more exciting is that we have finally gotten approval to use a small commercial kitchen - which basically means that we have a Health and Safety certified place in which to work. After typing it out, I now realize why this small achievement might not seem worth the embarrassing victory dance that happened in our living room this morning, but it is an achievement nonetheless, and we're so excited to have it.

Unfortunately promises of a peek at our "fresh new logo"- see last weeks post - can't be fulfilled this post. It is still in the works. Next post, hopefully we'll have something cool to share with you.

And without further ado, the results of Thursday's local bread-tasting mission:

Three local bakeries provided three different breads for our "tasting" last Thursday, which really just turned into a lunchtime massacre of olive oil and fleur de sel, anyway. Lesson 1: everything tastes good when you are hungry. Thus, tasting bread for future use, on an empty stomach, will not produce the most accurate results. However, having tasted it again (this time après dinner) each loaf proved a lively contender: the Russian marble rye tangy and dense; the Parisienne baguette was perfectly crusty-on-the-outside-chewy-on-the-inside - as one should be; and the Challal was beautifully sweet and moist. But it’s not just taste that needs to be considered - I wish! - We have to take into account the proximity of the boulanger to our neighbourhood; the density of the bread - will it stand-up to brine-soaked pickles?; and finally the availability of the bread - does the boulanger make this particular bread daily? Are they open Sundays? The bread tasting mission has developed far beyond a "tasting." Of course there is also the question of ingredients, whether they are organic and locally sourced or otherwise. In the end, though, we decided that each loaf was worth its salt (and oil,) so we are going to mix it up and use all three. We might even recruit more bread, should we feel the need. That’s the wonderful thing about having your own business: you can have all the bread you want!

We sourced fantastic bread from these 3 local businesses:

The Harbord Bakery

115 Harbord Street, Toronto, ON

http://www.blogto.com/bakery/harbordbakery

Venezia Bakery

951 Ossington Avenue, Toronto, ON

http://www.blogto.com/bakery/venezia

Le Comptoir de Celestin

623 Mount Pleasant, Toronto, ON

http://www.blogto.com/bakery/celestin

Next week: outcomes of our terrine tasting, and making our own pickles at home

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