Making it in Canada

TARTE AU SUCRE DE TANTE LISE

Canada is a major producer, exporter and importer of an immense variety of agricultural and food products ranging from processed foods with global value chains to local, farm-based value chains. In this section, we share 3 of our research insights and assess to what extent our recipe can be made from Canadian agricultural and food products.

Brown sugar comes from a plant called sugar cane. Canada is not one of the top ten producers of this item. However, Québec did not traditionally use brown sugar in their recipe due to the lack of access to it, when people first settled. Instead maple trees were abundant in the area, and soon they replaced the brown sugar with maple syrup in the recipe. Later on, the production and trades of brown sugar were made more available.

Canada is the third largest producer of fresh cream. Cattle were brought down by French settlers to Québec. These Canadienne cows contributed to the establishment of livestock in the area. Since then the breed has been cross-bred to improve conformity and production of the milk.

Cornstarch unsurprisingly is made from corn, which is heavily produced all around the world. Interestingly, every province in Canada grows corn, but 96% of the yield comes from Eastern parts of Canada like, Ontario and Québec.

In summary, two of the three ingredients I needed are produced in Canada, while the other one can be purchased without much difficulty. No ingredients were not available and did not require a substitute. 

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