Food Blogger Heaven in Toronto - Great Food & Great Discussions

The first, and possibly the last post with no pictures...still worth the read folks!

This past weekend Hellmann's Canada invited nine foodbloggers from across the country to discuss their 2009 Eat Real Eat Local Program...and I was one of them...very lucky and very honored to be included, I might add...and, full disclosure here...they paid to bring us in, put us up at the very chic Pantages Hotel, wined us and dined us (awesome and more about that at another time), but had no expectations of us...no hidden agenda, no contracts to sign, just to spend the weekend and share what they learned from Canadians over the last few months and gain our insights as well. It was a fantastic experience.

Before I begin to tell you all that I've learned...and it's a lot... They shared some very interesting stats with us, from surveys taken by Canadians across the country who were asked about their thoughts/feelings/understanding about what eating local means, where their food comes from...and that's just the tip of the iceberg that was the weekend. Did you know that 9 out of 10 said they would prefer to eat locally sourced foods but that in the last 15 years, the population has grown by 15% but our food imports have risen more than 160%!? ...but I digress for now.

I really wanted to introduce you to the very cool bloggers I spent so much time with ...talking...eating...talking...eating...more eating...lots of laughing.

Starting on the West Coast...

Robin lives on Vancouver Island and is the editor/publisher of Our Big Earth with lots of wonderful ideas for those of us who want to make less of a carbon footprint. The focus is on families and sustainable living and there is so much information, you'll be reading for weeks and then coming back for more.

Kate lives in Vancouver, works in the software industry by day and writes her about her kitchen experiments on her blog Daily Unadventures in Cooking by night...with some great photos and delicious recipes.

Andree writes from Calgary and travels as often as she can...as her blog Are You Gonna Eat That? reflects with her take on life...with a focus on food...is there any other focus, people!

Charmian hails from Guelph, Ontario...in the Niagara Fruit Belt. Lucky her, close to all those peaches, cherries, berries, wines....I'm drooling and green with envy - although we do have our own Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia...it just starts much later. Her blog Christie's Corner (and her banner says it all) shares her adventures and misadventures in the kitchen with fantastic photos to illustrate everything.

Andrea is an Ottawa based blogger and you can find her here... A Peek Inside the FishBowl - more fabulous photos and excellent musings...and here at Savvy Mom (for great resources for the Canadian Mom).

Pierre has developed a fantastic, breakthrough, bilingual meal and grocery planning service S.O.S. Cuisine that provides smart menu suggestions based on local fresh products (very seasonal!) and weekly supermarket specials (how cool is that - fresh AND inexpensive!).

Angelique writes the blog for Bitchin' Lifestyle TV starring Nadia G (check out the videos, not your frumpy, boring take on food, by any means). I have no words. "Trendsetting" and "hilarious" come to mind, but you really do have to check it out for yourself. And she brought cookbooks for us...You KNOW I'll be talking more about that over the next while.