What We Should Know About The Ontario Food Terminal (OFT)...

Massive. Passion. Impressive. A well oiled machine. The lasting impressions from my first ever visit to the Ontario Food Terminal (OFT), and I've been a food professional for close to 20 years! Closed to the public, this important heart of Etobicoke's much loved wholesale and produce distribution centre since 1954, is THE largest in Canada and scaling third in North America after New York and Los Angeles. There are 83,500 growers in Ontario and OFT supports 45%. OFT is THE stock exchange of fruits and vegetables, priced accordingly to demand and supply daily, where farmers and buyers come from all over Canada and US to do business. We're talking ~2 billion pounds of produce annually!!! 🍇🍎🥝🍓🌽🥒🍅

OFT is a self-funding classified agency of the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, requiring no government funds or tax payers dollars. They are in fact, an economic generator; for every dollar of sales, approx. three dollars are returned to the Ontario economy 🤩. This invaluable world-class food centre is something to be extremely proud of! We heard countries like Spain, Beijing and Korea have sent their people all the way to take in learnings to model off back home. Impressed yet? Wait until you meet the farmers and the people that run the place.

In an OFT warehouse, with skids and skids piled high with produce.

This incredible insiders tour was organized through my partner Produce Made Simple, an educational campaign owned by The Ontario Produce Marketing Association (OPMA). They are a not-for-profit, member-funded (comprised of produce companies that are growers, wholesalers, shippers, and retailers), whose main objective is to facilitate trade and enhance the marketing and promotion of fresh fruits and vegetables in Ontario.

The goal of Produce Made Simple is to inform and inspire Ontario residents to enjoy more local fresh produce daily such as tender fruit, greenhouse grown produce, mushrooms and asparagus. Daily tips and food preparation ideas are shared on (ProduceMadeSimple.ca), Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and a bi-weekly e-newsletter. The OPMA is based at the Ontario Food Terminal. For more info: theopma.ca | Twitter: ONTProduce.

My partnership with Produce Made Simple, along with an awesome team of food professionals and bloggers, is as an ambassador who promotes and educate on local in-season produce to my audience (social media, my culinary programs) and develop recipes to highlight those for their web-site. We all came together for a first-hand learning at OFT and to meet each other 😄.

A gorgeous table spread and catered breakfast awaits us after our two hour tour.

Did You Know... OFT is not only the largest wholesale and fresh produce distribution centre in Canada, but a huge purveyor of floral and plants too.

We've been seriously talking about buying local in recent years, however, OFT has essentially anchored the BUY LOCAL movement since it’s establishment in 1954. The Terminal supports local farmers, local fruit and vegetables stores, independent and chain supermarkets, retailers, restaurateurs, food service, caterers, farmer’s markets, farm gate markets, florists, garden centres, landscapers, convenience stores and institutions.

Wow, Ontario Greenhouse Vegetable Grower (OGVG) tomatoes on the vine. Did You Know... for optimal freshness, never store tomatoes in the fridge? I had the opportunity to develop a recipe for OGVG using their vine-ripened tomatoes in a Chinese classic--Tomatoes and Eggs. Check out my food post to learn more about my simple weeknight family-honoured recipe and for tomato buying and storing tips.

Farmers and their bountiful of fruits and vegetable everywhere...

Our first presentation stop was with Welsh Bros. Farms from Norfolk Country's Scotland, in Southwestern Ontario since 1855. The ultra cool story about this generational family of farmers is that they made their intentional way here from their actual native home Scotland 164 years ago. As they say, the Welsh family has never really left Scotland! They are recognized as agricultural grower leaders on both the provincial and national stage, and produce the finest vegetables such as non- and organic asparagus, sweet corn, garden sweet peas and Jamaican pumpkins. 

Cool blue top Nicole leads us from Produce Made Simple.

Did You Know... An Ontario asparagus plant has to grow for five years before it can be harvested. Then in season, when it's hot, it spurts up to six inches in under 12 hours! Magical right? 🤩

They hand-harvest daily and grade their asparagus to seven different thicknesses. So size does matter in every bite. They recommend steaming, sautéeing and stir-frying extra fine to small spears, and roasting, broiling and grilling standard to jumbo sized ones. Makes so much sense!

We got a bunch to take home- thank you, along with some delicious recipes from their kitchen such as Pickled Asparagus Salad; Maple, Garlic, Lemon Roasted Asparagus and the one I'm eyeing to do with mine, Beer Battered Asparagus (with Chipotle Mayo). 😋

It's a hustling and bustling terminal. Many farmers and growers come in before 3 am with activity slowing down around 7 am (the time we arrive). It can be a dangerous place if one is not careful with the fast moving traffic on foot, on forklift with heavy cargo in tow. A big reason why it's not open to the general public.

Our next stop is at Koornneef Produce indoors. On the inside are warehouse store fronts, the middle, traffic way and on the outer sides, sliding doors to loading docks.

Koornneef produces cucumbers, coloured bell peppers, tomatoes, peaches, pears, plums, grapes, strawberries, apricots and cherries. Their roots as a supplier reach back more than five decades, when their father Arie Koornneef began selling choice tender fruit to customers out of a pick-up truck. From those humble beginnings, Koornneef Produce Ltd. has grown to become one of southern Ontario's premier suppliers of superior vegetables and tender fruit. And to this day, all are grown with one objective in mind: to ensure customer experiences only the very best in taste, appearance and consistency.

So much passion and pride illuminates in every farmer and grower who spoke to us. The unwavering sense of tradition and commitment to producing the finest and keeping customers happy with superior service was well felt over at Koornneef.   

Did You Know... all bell peppers start out green and if left to ripen they turn yellow or orange, and then eventually red? AND a green pepper has twice as much vitamin C as an orange.

This complimentary produce has been cooked and enjoyed over dinners with my family.

Swinging by J.E. Russell Produce to look and hear about their beautiful fresh wares.

At J.E. Russell Produce, they’ve built their reputation on good old-fashioned values and a commitment to doing things right. They are dedicated to providing the very best in quality and service, specializing in berries, salads, organics and local produce.

Three kiwifruit fun facts: Did You Know...  

Kiwi grows as vine. It can reach the size of 10 meters (33 feet) in length.
Kiwi can produce fruits up to 30 years and survive more than 50 years.
The kiwifruit was first found growing in China, where it was known by the name “Yang Tao”.

Mmmm, nice!

With 40 years of operational experience, all their produce is stored in temperature controlled environments to retain their freshness and nutritional value. They transport and receive fresh product on a daily basis from around the province and the world. Thank you for talking to us and I made guacamole with your jumbo creamy fleshed avo- so yum!

Spring Trick or Treating! It's Avocados!

Each loading area/dock has a number for shipping and receiving to a specific region. Farmers come in from as far north as Cold Water, from Leamington to the west, from Kingston to the east and Fort Erie to the south.

Buyers come from all over Ontario, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Manitoba as well as the north-eastern USA.

With an average of 5.5 million pounds of produce being exchanged daily, OFT does their best to minimize waste, something I'm big on! Less than 1% is waste (~12000 tons of a million tons), with recycling a regular practice and a separate garbage system in place. Furthermore, they work closely with food rescue and food access organizations such as Second Harvest, Food Share, Daily Bread Food Bank and Gleaners Food Bank 😄 . 

Improvements are always undergoing. Currently, they are working on adding loading dock extensions and farmer's market waste compaction stations. The guys who run this place are so passionate about what they do to make it thrive and would love to provide more educational tours to spread the great importance OFT has in our great city.

Speaking with OFT General Manager Bruce Nicholas

Touring through the massive cold storage areas.

The pretty back drop with lights, elegant dishware and gorgeous floral arrangements made for a fun and chic party setting! And we are just having breakfast here, imagine the creativity of the Produce Made Simple team if they hosted a real party 😄?

The lovely catered-in breakfast consisted of asparagus, mushroom, potato and red peppers frittata, a caramelized apple French Toast and maple syrup casserole (so neat to see the bread slices baked up standing, pressed side-by-side like that), and fruit kebabs with a vanilla yogurt dip. Deelish! And Nicole, I too love the pretty gold and pink floral themed plates and flatware 😊.

This awesome impromptu ensemble was the creative artistic genius of Betty @stemsandforks with food and flora her palettes of flair 🍓🥑🍒🌿🌼 Shot alongside @abhishekdekate @jesusmazaphoto @thevietvegan @justcrumbs @emilia_ds @theyummyfarm @rhubandcod (we missed you @foodislife.ca)... see y'all again, you rock guys💥!

Photo Credit: Betty Bihon of @stemsandforks

Thank you Ontario Food Terminal for the guided tour with your amazing staff and for this generous spread of fresh local farmer's produce! #eatmoreproduce #producemadesimple

Amazing! All of this happening right in our great city! The Ontario Food Terminal is without a doubt a world-class food hub and thriving economical heritage to our region where fresh, local and healthy food access is provided for businesses and food security organizations.  🤗🤗 🤗 To learn more, see OFT FAQS.