The Low Down: 24th Toronto Vegetarian Food Festival

I had the opportunity to spend some time at North America's largest vegetarian food festival at Harbourfront in Toronto yesterday, and let me tell you, it never disappoints.  I have been visiting this festival on and off for almost 10 years now, and I always come out with bags of new skin products, food products and even clothing.  

The most popular food item on sale was chia seeds.  I had no idea how popular these seeds were until now.  I discovered them at a nicaraguan booth at the Sun Festival in London, Ontario, but it seems that every other vegetarian has taken a strong liking to them as well!  They were being offered in every way, shape and form. Black, white, organic, sprouted, ground, mixed in a cereal, blendered into a smoothie, mixed with flax, the list goes on and on.  But again, as I mentioned in my last post about chia seeds, they are not cheap. A 450 gram bag was going from $7-10, varying from vendor to vendor.  But, like I also mentioned, it seems that the popularity of these seeds is clearly rising, so the price should drop eventually. 

Herbal teas seemed to be making a come back as well.  Four O'Clock had some great new teas available, and there were plenty of booths offering various loose green teas, and some beautiful tea sets to serve them in! 

There were not as many new food booths as there has been in previous festivals, but there were a few.  Yoso, a Cambridge, Ontario based company had a fantastic soy yogurt, and their soy 'cream cheese' spreads were fantastic! It was creamy, spreadable, and the sun dried tomato flavored version had an intense tomato taste. 

Overall, it's always a great time at this festival.  I always come out with a full belly. Although, I do hope to see more new products lined up next year.