Ontario's first annual Local Food Week was a delicious success! To celebrate the end of Local Food Week, I wanted to share a seasonal recipe that is simple to make and guaranteed to please. The star of this recipe is Ontario-grown asparagus, one of the first vegetables of the season, bursting with colour, nutrients, and flavour. Check out a local farmers' market this weekend to find ingredients, and cook up this delicious recipe at home.

One of the first signs of the beginning of the growing season in Ontario is the arrival of fresh, ruby-red rhubarb. For the April Challenge, our participants were invited to create a spectacular dish with this vegetable that is most commonly used as a fruit.

When the monthly Local Food Challenges were revealed, Challenger St. James High School in Guelph didn’t waste any time in putting together their submission using five Ontario ingredients: chicken, sweet potatoes, leeks, mushrooms, and cheese. By looking at this photo, would you believe this recipe was created and executed by high school students?

This past Wednesday, five of our Greenbelters headed down to Gould Street for Ryerson University’s Homegrown Harvest Party and Cook-Off. The street was filled with farm stands, green organizations, and four teams competing in the Harvest Cook-Off. The challenge was to create and execute a recipe focusing on sustainability and using freshly grown produce from Ryerson’s own gardens. Now Ryerson is located near Yonge and Dundas, in downtown Toronto, so you can imagine this is quite a feat of urban agriculture! Our produce box came loaded with eggplants, zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, hot peppers, and fresh herbs. We set to work creating our Mediterranean Roasted Vegetable and Barley Salad and gave out tasting portions to the crowds. The recipe is not only delicious, but includes inexpensive staple pantry items, and can be made with whatever local, seasonal vegetables you happen to have on hand. In the end, the masses of tasters agreed, and voted the Galloping Greenbelt Gourmets the winners of the challenge. It was a great event, and we were fortunate to engage with so many students and members of the public in attendance about how Greenbelt funding contributes to supporting local food initiatives, and keeps our farmlands thriving. Way to go Team Greenbelt!

Hardly a recipe, more of a serving suggestion. The combination of eggs and asparagus on toast is completely classic; I like to throw in a little cheese too. I only had a baguette when I made this, but a more standard sized slice of bread is a better choice in my opinion.

And if you don't want a Mousse Pie, you can just put it in a bowl or bowls, and call it Mousse. Either way, this is a nice tart-but-not-too-tart rhubarb dessert.  I do like mousses etc, that are set with a firm meringue rather than whipped cream - so much lighter. The egg yolks do give it some more substance and help tone down the sourness of the rhubarb. Very nice!

Check out the following links for some local, healthy and kid-approved recipe ideas.

• FoodShare’s School Programs
• Ontariofresh.ca
• Foodland Ontario
• FoodShare’s salad bar toolbox
• Real Food for Real Kids
• Sprouting Chefs

My parents put serious effort into my school lunches.  They tried making my healthy snacks exciting so I wouldn't fall victim to all the unhealthy options available at the school cafeteria.  Let me tell you, however, that this little girl went crazy with her paper route money at the school cafeteria.

Custard pie is one of those things that seems to have fallen out of fashion. It's more subtle than flashy, I guess, with the contrast of the smooth custard and crumbly crust, delicately flavoured with a little vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon; definitely not in the death-by-chocolate catagory. On the other hand,  that's what I like about it. Best served with a good cup of tea.

This is a nice simple pudding for fans of tapioca - but don't forget to stir it! I did, and ended up with a horrible black mess the first time I tried to make this. I don't think it was even boiling properly before it was burnt. Stir, stir, stir! Otherwise, this is very easy and the maple flavour comes through well. I served mine with some of our canned cherries from last summer - delicious.