Edible Vancouver - Issue One - Spring 2008

a member of edible communities
edible Vancouver
tm
the story on local food
issue one • spring 2008
farmer in the sky
imaginary apple wars
do-it-yourself butter
Contents
Asparagus-Prosciutto Rolls in Phyllo
recipe p. 5
edible NOTES
3
edible SPRING
4
What’s in season?
edible HEROES
8
edible gardens
9
the imaginary apple wars
11
Organic or local? One parent’s take on the ethical tug-of-war
by Becky Southwell
Why I Took Up Smoking
14
by Robert Olaj
farmer in the sky
17
City Farm Boy brings local food even closer to home
By Kimberley Fehr
Buffalo Love at Fairburn Farm
20
by Joanne Will
churn, baby, churn
22
Bambi Edlund makes her own butter
field NOTES
How do you
like them apples? p. 11
24
Meat Laws: New regulations make it harder to buy local
By Jeff Nield
Eulogy for a much-loved orchard
26
What is the future of a once-fruitful industry?
By Debbra Mikaelsen
Time to start smoking? p. 14
Photos from top: Philip Solman, Carole Topalian, Robert Olaj
Cover photo, Finish photo and asparagus: Bambi Edlund
Other uncredited photos: Philip Solman
What the Girls Are Drinking
28
What the Boys Are Drinking
29
directory
30
finish
32
Letter from the Editor
edible Vancouver
Publisher
Philip Solman
Edible Vancouver is all about local food (and drink). There’s been a lot of talk about eating
local, even before the New Oxford American Dictionary called Locavore the Word of the Year
for 2007. So what does ‘local’ mean? It means that if you like food (and have I mentioned
drink?), Metro Vancouver is a great place to call home. We’re surrounded by riches from the
soil and the sea, the tree and the vine.
One apple grower told us we shouldn’t write about the Okanagan, because local has to come
from within 50 miles. But this is not a 50-mile magazine, or even a 100-mile magazine
(although I ate up every word of The 100-Mile Diet). We think that local is a relative term;
it means supporting the producers in your area, whatever you consider that to be. So we’ll
choose food (and drink) from 50 miles when we can, but even 500 miles is preferable to
5000. Beyond geography, ‘local’ expresses a connection with food and the people who grow
it. In this, our premiere issue, Bambi Edlund’s pancakes start with a bottle of cream from
Avalon Dairy, just a hop, skip and a jump away. Steveston mom Becky Southwell finds
peace of mind by walking to a neighbourhood farm, and Kim Fehr talks to 3-mile gardener,
City Farm Boy, about his ideas for Zero Carbon Food.
Some have called this movement a trend. It is indeed a hot topic, but eating local is much
more than the flavour of the month. For most of human history, food and community have
been inextricably linked. We used to depend on and support the local farmers and fishers
who provided us with fresh, healthy food. Theirs are the hands that feed us, and honouring
them is both a return to tradition and the way to a more sustainable future.
Debbra Mikaelsen
Editor
Editor
Debbra Mikaelsen
Art Director
Bambi Edlund
Contributors
Bambi Edlund, Kimberley Fehr, Brian Harris,
Margot Harrison, Chad Heringer, Mara Jernigan,
Debbra Mikaelsen, Jeff Nield, Robert Olaj,
Philip Solman, Becky Southwell, Carole Topalian,
Joanne Will, Chris Whittaker
Mailing
1038 East 11th Avenue
Vancouver BC V5T 2G2
[email protected]
www.ediblevancouver.com
Advertising
Philip Solman
[email protected]
Phone: 604 215 1758
Letters
[email protected]
Edible Vancouver is published quarterly by Two
Spoons Media Inc. Subscription rate is $28 annually
($29.40 including GST) for delivery within Canada,
or $35.00 in Canadian funds for delivery to the USA.
No part of this publication maybe be used without
written permission from the publisher. ©2008.
Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings
and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your
attention, please accept our sincere apologies
and notify us. Thank you.
Edible Vancouver is printed locally on 40%
post-consumer recycled paper (cover is 30%
post-consumer). Together, the result is:
28 trees left in the forest
2420 lbs net greenhouse gases prevented
10,044 gallons of wastewater flow saved
1290 lbs of solid waste not generated
19,000,000 BTUs of energy not consumed
2 | edible vancouver spring 2008
edible NOTES
A Well-Fed Nomad
Do you salivate at the prospect of visiting the farms and kitchens of
North America’s finest food artisans? Feast your eyes on Craig Noble’s
film Tableland. Noble became a well-fed nomad in 2005 and spent
two years filming the small-scale bakers, chefs, cheese-makers, brewers,
vintners, foragers, and organic farmers who make up North America’s
culinary high ground. British Columbian producers are prominent, a
reminder of how fortunate we are to live in the thick of a sustainable,
handcrafted-food culture.
Carole Topalian photo
The experience gave Noble a new appreciation of quality food and what
it costs to produce. When on home turf, the well-fed nomad supports
the farmers’ markets as much as possible and also frequents Granville
Island, Famous Foods and Choices. “I’ve always made time for cooking,”
he says. “Now I make time for shopping, too.” The DVD is available at
Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks and you can find out about screenings at
p1-productions.com.
Follow the Blue Dots
Vancouver’s East End Food Co-op makes it easy to get local with a Blue
Dot Campaign that identifies locally grown, refined and packaged products.
Buying local is a great excuse to sample their frozen croissants (from Burnaby’s
Gourmet Baker). You bake them at home and start off your day with a warm,
buttery salute to good eating. Beyond local edibles, the Blue Dots will lead
you to BC-made shampoos and detergents like Vancouver Only laundry soap,
specifically formulated for our soft water. The Co-op also has a good selection
of organic produce, meat and dairy, as well as exotics like Romanesco broccoli
and Cara Cara oranges (sadly, not local). Although all shoppers are welcome,
members receive a small discount. 1034 Commercial Drive
Blue dots identify Yarrow and Angela as locals
Green Gadget
If you’re in the habit of saving used produce bags and taking them to
farmers’ markets, this strange-looking object will make life easier. It’s a
plastic bag dryer, made at Agora Concepts in Nelson. Just rinse your
mucky bags and drape them over the spokes for a few hours. It closes up
like an umbrella for compact storage when not in use. agoraconcepts.com
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 3
edible SPRING
Spring means: asparagus, beans, bok choy, gai lan, garlic scapes,
gooseberries, halibut, mint, morel mushrooms, peas, pea shoots, new potatoes,
radishes, rhubarb, salad greens, spinach, spot prawns, strawberries and more…
Rhubarb
Humans have only considered rhubarb food as recently as the 18th
century. Before that it was used primarily for medicinal purposes—
prepare yourselves—to induce vomiting. And as a laxative.
Don’t worry. That purgative medicine was the root, and what we
eat is the stalk. This is technically a vegetable but more commonly
used as a fruit, although almost always cooked with sugar. Eaten
raw, its fierce tartness will challenge the most determined smile. It’s
a good source of vitamin C and dietary fibre, and has a reasonable
amount of potassium as well. Note: rhubarb leaves are poisonous
and should never be eaten.
Carole Topalian photo
Rhubarb bread pudding, on the other hand, is delightful and
should be eaten at least annually. Perhaps you associate bread puddings with autumn’s cool, drizzly weather. Well, this one is for those
days when spring goes into hiding and summer seems far, far away.
Or for those days when you just need a bowl of something comforting, tart and topped with alcohol.
There’s a recipe for Rhubarb Cheesecake at ediblevancouver.com.
Rhubarb Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce
Pudding:
Sauce:
4 eggs
¼ cup butter
1 cup milk
½ cup sugar
Beat eggs together and whisk in milk, cream, ¼ cup sugar, vanilla
and salt. Put bread into a buttered 8” baking dish. Pour milk and
egg mixture over the bread and refrigerate for about 2 hours,
pushing down the bread into the liquid from time to time.
1 cup half & half cream (10% m.f.)
¼ cup sugar
3 Tbsp half & half
cream (10%m.f.)
Meanwhile mix the sliced rhubarb with remaining ¼ cup of sugar
and cinnamon and let stand.
1 tsp vanilla
2 Tbsp whiskey
pinch of salt
Pinch of salt
Stir the rhubarb well into the bread mixture before putting into a
375°F oven. Bake about 55 minutes to one hour, or until golden
brown and slightly puffed. Remove and cool for about half an
hour.
5 cups day-old cinnamon bread,
cut into ½” cubes
1lb rhubarb (about 6 hefty stalks),
washed and cut into ½” slices
Make the sauce. In a small saucepan, melt butter over medium
heat. Whisk in remaining ingredients. Simmer until thickened
slightly, whisking often. Remove from heat.
¼ cup sugar
Spoon pudding into serving bowls with a puddle of warm sauce.
1 tsp cinnamon
4 | edible vancouver spring 2008
edible SPRING
Ah, asparagus
How do we love thee? The classic method is to steam it lightly and
serve with butter, but for an unforgettable flavour try grilling it
until it begins to brown in places. Then pile it on a plate, drizzle
with a splash of good-quality olive oil and sprinkle it with sea salt.
Use a bit of fresh baguette to mop up the juices. It’s hard to imagine
a more delicious way to get a bit of folic acid, potassium and dietary
fibre—unless it’s these scrumptious little pies that get a lot of oohs
and ahs at parties:
Asparagus-Prosciutto Rolls in Phyllo
By Margot Harrison
Edible Events Spring 2008
April-September
June 13, 2:00 pm
Heirloom Vegetable Garden
Nutrition for Kids-How and
vandusengarden.org
What to Feed Your Preschooler
Whole Foods, West Vancouver
Wednesdays/Saturdays
wholefoodsmarket.com
Filling:
(alternating), 8:30 am
1Tbsp olive oil
Granville Island Market Tour
June 16, 6:00 pm
½ onion, finely chopped
Edible British Columbia
Food Culture:
2 cloves garlic, minced
(tickets online)
Salumi & Charcuterie
12 mushrooms, sliced
edible-britishcolumbia.com
bookstocooks.com
May 23, 24 and 25
June 22
Eat Vancouver
R&B Brewing BBQ Beer Dinner
The Everything Food
Aurora Bistro
and Cooking Festival
aurorabistro.ca
12 fat asparagus spears
12 slices of prosciutto
Pastry:
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
6 sheets phyllo pastry, cut in half
Sauté onions and garlic together in olive oil for a couple of
minutes or until translucent. Add mushrooms and brown.
Set aside to cool.
Use your fingers to snap off the ends of the asparagus.
(You can save and use these in soup stock.) Cut asparagus
spears in half, so each piece is about 3” long, and plunge
into boiling water. Cook until just tender. Drain and rinse
with cold water.
Melt butter with olive oil and lightly brush each sheet of
phyllo. Place one folded piece of prosciutto on each, top
with two halves of asparagus and a spoonful of the mushroom mixture. Leave about ½ an inch of space at the sides
to fold over the filling. Roll up and bake at 375°F until golden
brown, about 20 minutes.
eat-vancouver.com
June 23, 6:00 pm
June 6, 7 and 8
Food Culture: Food Security
Tofino Food and Wine Festival
bookstocooks.com
Tofino, BC.
tofinofoodandwinefestival.com
July 1
Tickets on sale for
June 9, 6:00 pm
Feast of Fields 2008
Food Culture:
farmfolkcityfolk.ca
Sustainable Seafood
bookstocooks.com
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 5
edible SPRING
strawberries
There was a time when Canadians impatiently anticipated strawberry season. Throughout those long, dreary months, they ate
no fresh strawberries. They dreamed of strawberry shortcake and
strawberries dipped in chocolate, until finally the berries were ripe
in the fields. People ate strawberries every day while they were in
season; you could see the telltale blush of berry juice on their lips
and an extra sparkle in their eyes.
Things are different now. The big supermarkets sell strawberries
year round, so why wait for local?
Because although most strawberries are good, locally grown berries
are best. The long-distance hybrids for sale in the winter have been
developed for their ability to travel well, not for flavour. The sweetness has been bred out of them, because a lower sugar content makes
them less perishable. Truly sweet berries are tender, delicate things
that have conniptions if asked to spend a few days in a truck. These
long-haul berries are another thing altogether, but it isn’t their fault.
Instead of sweet, they’re strong. You can’t have everything.
If you haven’t noticed a difference, or have never tasted a justpicked strawberry, we suggest you head straight to a farm and pick
a few pints. (The fresh-picked strawberries at farmers’ markets and
choosier grocery stores are almost as good, so don’t despair if you
don’t have time for the pleasure of picking.)
People have been known to dress strawberries with balsamic vinegar,
freshly ground black pepper (scant), mayonnaise and (of course)
cream, but the very best partner for sweet, just-picked berries is an
open mouth. Still, if you’re looking for an unusual way to eat them,
try this salsa:
Strawberry Salsa
Two cups strawberries, hulled and chopped fine
½ of a small red onion, chopped fine
¼ cup cilantro leaves, chopped fine
½–1 jalapeno
Juice of ½ of a lime
½ tsp sea salt
½-1 tsp cumin
Combine the first 3 ingredients in a bowl. Remove the ribs
and seeds from the jalapeno and discard (unless you like a
lot of heat). Chop about half the jalapeno fine and add it to
the strawberry mixture. Add the lime juice, salt and cumin.
Let sit for about 2 hours so the flavours can mingle, then
taste it, adding more jalapeno, cumin or salt to your taste.
Nice with tortilla chips or brie quesadilla. Excellent with
grilled fish, fabulous on halibut tacos.
About strawberries:
• A cup will give you 160% of your daily vitamin C
requirement—that’s more than an orange. They’re also
high in potassium, folic acid, and antioxidants, including ellagic acid, which is believed to have cancer-fighting
properties.
• Like most dogs and some small children, strawberries do
not like to be washed. Rinse gently, if you must, immediately before using. Better yet, wipe each berry with a
damp cloth and pat dry with a soft towel. Leave the caps
on until you’re ready to use the berries.
• Take them out of the fridge about an hour before eating,
as their flavour intensifies at room temperature.
6 | edible vancouver spring 2008
edible SPRING
peas
These sweet little pearls of spring are generous sources of 15
vitamins and minerals, and they provide some protein and dietary
fibre. Good for the immune system, bone and heart health.
O’Doul’s Crispy-Skin Polderside Farms Duck Breast with
English Pea Risotto, Pearl Onion and Pinot Noir “Marmalade”
from Executive Chef Chris Whittaker
Two cleaned and trimmed Polderside Farms Duck Breasts
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp butter
¼ cup minced onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 Tbsp minced shallots
½ cup Arborio or Carnaroli Rice
2 ounces white wine
1 ½ cups chicken stock (have hot before starting risotto)
2 Tbsp English Peas (shelled)
3 Tbsp freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese
Marmalade:
½ cup Pinot Noir
½ cup pearl onions, peeled
2 oranges, zested and juiced
¼ cup sugar
For the Risotto:
Heat a medium-sized sauce pan and add olive oil and 1 Tbsp
of the butter. Sweat off onions, garlic and shallots until translucent, then stir in rice. Coat rice with oil and continue to sauté
and stir for approximately 2 minutes, then deglaze with the
white wine and stir constantly. Once wine has reduced, begin
adding chicken stock, ¼ cup at a time, stirring constantly. Once
the rice has reached the ‘al dente’ stage, add the remaining 1
Tbsp of butter, peas, and parmesan cheese. Season with salt
and pepper. (Risotto should not be too thick; if it is add a little
more stock to loosen it up.)
For the Duck:
Season the breasts with salt and black pepper and preheat pan
on burner at medium-low heat. Place the duck skin side down
and render fat until crispy. Flip to other side and cook just until
medium rare (total cooking time is approximately 9 minutes).
Remove from heat and let rest for 3-4 minutes before serving.
For the Marmalade:
Place all ingredients into a pot and reduce until it reaches a
marmalade consistency. Refrigerate.
2 bay leaves
bok choy
Bok choy, baby bok choy, Shanghai bok choi…take your pick. We
like baby bok choy for its sweet flavour, tender texture, and size
that is easy to manage with chopsticks. For freshest flavour, choose
stalks that are free of brown spots. Lightly steamed, it’s nice in Thai
coconut curries, or as a last-minute addition to stir-fries.
Grilled baby Bok Choy with Sesame
4 or 5 whole baby bok choy
2 tsp sesame oil
Chad Heringer photo
1 Tbsp sesame seeds
Toast sesame seeds in a skillet over a low flame for a few
minutes or until golden. Rinse bok choy and cut each in half
lengthwise. Place on a hot grill for about three minutes, lid
closed. When done, leaves should be bright green and wilted
slightly, stalks tender but crisp. Drizzle with sesame oil and
sprinkle with seeds. Salt if necessary.
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 7
edible HEROES
the weed eaters
When someone casually mentions making their own baking powder—yes, baking powder—you know they’re in a totally different
league from someone who, say, makes their own sandwich. And
when someone takes you out for a country walk on a barely-spring
day, gathers an assortment of suspicious-looking weeds, and transforms them into a belly-pleasing meal, well, you know you’re in the
company of a living-off-the-land gourmet who could teach us all a
lot about feeding ourselves in a post-peak-oil world.
Trudie Bouchard is a trained herbalist and a fan of the wild plants
that most of us ruthlessly evict from our gardens. Her classes teach
students to identify and cook with unlikely ingredients such as
chickweed and stinging nettle. “Wild greens have significantly
higher levels of nutrients than cultivated vegetables,” she says,
reaching into a stream for a handful of the sharp, peppery watercress that she uses in egg salad sandwiches instead of parsley. “This
is an immune-system builder and a natural antibiotic.”
The class starts with a walk behind her Agassiz farm. Trudie stops to
pick a few young dandelion leaves, some earthy miner’s lettuce and
just a pinch of the wormwood used to make absinthe, offering each
student a taste. “Everything has a season,” she explains. “Most of these
are best in early spring, when the plant’s energy is in its leaves.”
She wears protective gloves for picking the stinging nettles, and
cautions the students to be careful as they approach. Anyone who
has brushed against these while hiking will understandably feel
a nervous twitch in their mouth as they imagine eating them for
lunch, but when cooked, the nettles do mellow out and lose their
sting. Don’t even think about tasting these in their raw state, or
adding them to a salad.
Back in the kitchen, Trudie’s husband Claude magicks them into a
hearty frittata flanked by flaky cheese biscuits. After hearing Trudie
enthuse about the nutritional, blood-purifying benefits of nettles,
of course you know lunch is going to be good for you; the element
of surprise is the nettles’ unique flavour: deliciously smooth, faintly
sweet, without a hint of bitter.
The Limbert Mountain experience is proof: foods that heal don’t
have to taste like medicine. As Trudie says, “there’s a big difference between something edible and something palatable.” These
Bouchards are well-practiced in the art of making food palatable;
their line of Simply Fine Foods includes hazelnut pesto (made
with their own fresh basil and local hazelnuts), tomatillo relish and
chili-lime infused chocolate. See limbertmountainfarm.com for
cooking class schedules and opening hours. Claude’s recipe for the
nettle frittata is at ediblevancouver.com.
8 | edible vancouver spring 2008
edible gardens
a toothsome
office garden
Last December, long after most tomato growers had given up, Vancouver dentist Harry Killas picked a few beauties from his office
plant and took them to Fortune Garden restaurant, where a surprised but accommodating chef used them to make an exceptionally flavourful Tomato Beef.
The resourceful Dr. Killas built his indoor garden from resurrected
materials: a used Styrofoam fish cooler was the container and an
adapted plastic water bottle served as a funnel for the fertilizerwater solution.
The garden rested on the sill of a large, north-facing window, and
two plants yielded 100 pounds of tomatoes. “All you need is heat,
light and fertilizer,” says Dr. Killas. “It’s easy and economical. Five or
six plants could easily give a family all the tomatoes they need.” He
harvested tomatoes from July through December 2007, and hopes
the next generation of plants will bear fruit for eight or ten months.
If the thought of the off-season’s pale, wimpy excuses for tomatoes fills you with despair, do try this at home. Dr. Killas used a
technique called hydrofert, but gardening gurus say you can grow
tomatoes indoors using traditional methods too. The key is lots of
light, a room that doesn’t drop below 18° C, and a good fertilizer.
You’ll need to stake the plants and manually pollinate the flowers
by gently tapping the stems.
FarmFolk/CityFolk presents
Feast of Fields 2008
Sea to Sky Feast
Rebagliati Park,
Whistler
Saturday, August 30
Lower Mainland
UBC Farm,Vancouver
Sunday, September 7
Island Feast
Southern
Vancouver Island
Sunday, September 21
™
fair trade
creates good
Tickets Available Online July 1st
climate
www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca
604 730-0450
929 Denman Street
(604) 683-0929
www.TenThousandVillages.ca
1204 Commercial Drive
(604) 323-9233
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 9
IF THIS WINE WERE HUMAN,
IT WOULD TAKE A CLEAR,
STARLIT SKY
OVER DIAMONDS ANY DAY.
OKANAGAN VALLEY
BRITISH COLUMBIA
This wine isn’t human, but
you are. With our colourcoded labels and Stelvin
twist-off tops it’s easy to
enjoy the Tinhorn Creek
wine that goes best with
the moment. We promise
that every bottle of
Tinhorn Creek you open
will be as satisfying as the
last—an important thing
to us humans.
Wine country. Online.
Plan your tour at winebc.com
Proud to be a Conservation Partner of The Land
Conservancy as a result of our multifaceted
approach to protecting the environment.
10 | edible vancouver spring 2008
the imaginary apple wars
by Becky Southwell
Organic or local?
One parent’s take on
the ethical tug-of-war
Shopping for produce used to be so fun and sexy. The rounded
bottom of a butternut squash, the outrageous purpleness of the
eggplants, the bad-boy chili peppers acting all laissez-faire…but
recently I’ve been stuck in the middle of an ethical tug-of-war that
has just killed the joy. Which is why, on a drizzly morning in Richmond, my stroller clogs the aisle of a local produce market as I
panic over my apple choices.
I can buy either organic Galas from New Zealand or conventionally
grown McIntoshes from the Okanagan. I can’t find apples that are
both organic and local today, so which do I choose? Before having
children, it would have been a no-brainer: reject the Kiwi apples
with their massive carbon footprints and go for the Macs. Now that
I’m a mom, though, “conventionally grown” suddenly sounds more
like “cloaked with poison” so I’m vacillating (nearly hyperventilating actually) as I try to decide.
The reality of Canada’s pesticide laws is anything but sexy; our standards are among the lowest in the developed world. The government
already allows 58 chemical ingredients onto our food, substances
that have been banned in the E.U. and other western countries. It
gets worse. In an effort to streamline regulations between Canada
and the U.S., our conservative government plans to further lower
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 11
some of the pesky pesticide controls that they call a “trade irritant”.
Knowing this, do I take the short view (what’s on my lunch) or the
long view (the future of the planet)?
An oft-quoted statistic is that shipping one (organic) strawberry
from California to New York requires 435 calories of fossil fuel
but provides only 5 calories of nutrition. Not only is this an
obnoxious level of consumption, it means that whatever I spare
my children in pesticide chemicals will be made up for in carbon
emissions spewed out while transporting their organic foreign fare,
which my children (or someone else’s) will ultimately breathe or
consume in the water. The complexity of the issue means no single
food ideology is going to solve the earth’s problems. The website
eatlocalchallenge.com understands this and has created a helpful
cheat-sheet for navigating our food choices:
If not LOCALLY PRODUCED, then Organic.
If not ORGANIC, then Family Farm.
If not FAMILY FARM, then Local business.
If not a LOCAL BUSINESS, then Fair Trade.
I have two children under age three, which means I’m the proud
owner of a sleep-deficit that could make you cry. On a good day
I’m able to tell you what month it is—give or take–—but my
mental dexterity stops there. The Eat Local Challenge guidelines
12 | edible vancouver spring 2008
give me permission to just do the best I can, and I don’t have to
think too hard.
Good choices are difficult to make when as a society we’re stressedout and over-extended. Nothing numbs my soul more than doing
the big shop at Save-On twice a month, with both my kids in
tow. It’s not Save-On’s fault; their helpful produce labeling tells me
what is BC grown and what is organic, and the rows of bulk bins
absolutely delight me. But after my son has rolled several kabocha
squash down the aisle before being restrained, after I’ve unloaded
the cart while my daughter sticks her index fingers up my nostrils (from her vantage point in the baby sling), after assuring the
cashier that I’ll put every chocolate bar back that my son has laid
out in a train track along the floor, and after noticing that same
cashier’s slight sigh as I pull out my canvas bags (because I guess
they’re a little harder to load than the plastic ones?)…after that
interminable drama, I always stumble into the glare of the parking
lot hauling children and groceries and blinking into the sunlight
like a dazed survivor of a nuclear holocaust. Did I mention I have
to do this twice a month?
Compare this to the days we can walk the dike from our home in
Steveston to shop at the neighbouring farms. We watch the river
shift from copper to green, depending on the weather. We wave
at the tugboats and the eagles (you do a lot of waving when you
become a parent). At JS Nature Farms, Susan Buerger tells me
exactly what she puts on her famous German yellow potatoes—
nothing—and invites me to look around her farm. My son races
through the muddy field, stopping to pat the tractor wheels,
while Susan gives me a friendly lecture on how to spot food that
is being sold as local but is actually imported. Hint: it makes an
appearance in Vancouver out-of-season.
Food from small, local farms is GMOfree, and buying local preserves genetic
diversity. I have to admit that when I first
learned this, I understood why GMOs
were bad things, but genetic diversity
sounded like something I’d take on as
a cause sometime after learning how to
churn my own butter. Then I read that
the planting of a single crop (a common
practice in modern agriculture) depletes
the soil and makes the fruits and vegetables become more susceptible to pests
and disease, requiring ever increasing
amounts of chemicals to control them.
Like so many industrial agricultural
habits, mono-cropping is inherently
destructive.
Carole Topalian photo
This kind of shopping experience is what people who work
in the food system call transparency. It’s the same concept as
having a restaurant kitchen in plain view (I love that), because
when customers can see what’s going on, it creates a relationship.
Experiences like this are at a premium because BC farms are in
decline. And no wonder—the farm now gets less than ten cents
of the retail food dollar. Buying direct from farmers lets them
bypass the middleman, so they get the full retail price for their
food. (It also reduces food miles, and 80% of food energy is
consumed after the food leaves the farm,
mostly through transportation.)
By contrast, local farms grow a large
number of crops for a long harvest season and superior flavours.
No plant is an island, and the varieties protect one another in
a finely tuned dance. Many of these are from heirloom seeds,
passed down for generations. A friend of mine (she’s 73) talks
about an apple that once grew on her father’s farm in Abbottsford. It was faintly zebra-striped, and very sweet (“chocolatey”
was how she described it). It’s extinct now, along with thousands
of other apple varieties, and even though I never got to meet this
fantasy apple, I find myself missing it at the oddest moments.
Fortunately, several local farms are committed to preserving
heirloom varieties; you can find them at allaboutapples.com.
Proponents of the organic-only movement like to remind us that
organic foods are higher in nutrients than their conventionallygrown neighbours. But that only applies if you’re eating the food
I’d like to raise children who understand
that just because they can get a strawberry
shipped from anywhere in the world, doesn’t
mean they are entitled to it.
fresh. The average distance food travels from farm to plate is 2400
kilometers—that’s at least a week-long delay from harvest to dinner
table. That organic strawberry from California has one foot in the
grave before it even hits the border, let alone your cereal bowl. This,
of course, is one reason why local food tastes better: it was likely
picked within the last 24 hours.
And so where did I end up with my
Mom dilemma, back in the apple aisle?
I’d like to raise children who understand
that just because they can get a strawberry shipped from anywhere in the
world, doesn’t mean they are entitled
to it. (Isn’t that the kind of imperialism that got our world into this mess?)
I hope our weekly trips to the local
farms will mean my kids grow up to
understand that squash doesn’t grow in
a grocery store bin and coffee doesn’t
magically appear in Mommy’s mug in
the mornings (if only). Buying squash,
coffee, oranges, or bread requires
making choices. Just being aware of
those choices is a great beginning.
So I bought two bags of the locallygrown Macs and decided to make apple
sauce for the babies and apple bourbon
tartines for the grown-ups. After we’d wrangled the kids into bed,
my husband and I settled onto the couch balancing tartines and big
glasses of Blue Mountain pinot (we’ll pair red wine with anything).
The Blue Mountain Winery in Okanagan Falls is one our favorites
and tonight their pinot serenaded us, all smooth and sultry… she
was positively slutty about it, actually. The tartines were so good
that I’m tempted to call them sumptuous. With food like this in our
backyard, who needs berries shipped from California?
Becky Southwell is a recent transplant to Vancouver from Los Angeles,
where she spent ten years writing for TV and film. Her new focus is
on writing fiction and getting five hours of sleep in a row whenever
possible.
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 13
Why I Took Up
Smoking
by Robert Olaj
Robert Olaj photos
It’s the smell. It just transports me. That earthy,
fundamentally organic smell of wood smoke,
tinged with a hint of leather and spice. This is
why, at a time when most people are giving up
smoking, I decided to start.
From a young age, I’ve associated the smell of smoked food—
particularly smoked meats and fish—with the comforts of home.
When I was a youngster, my father built a small smokehouse in our
backyard. Made of welded steel panels, it stood maybe eight feet
tall, four feet deep and just as wide. The bottom contained a reservoir for burning wood chips and sawdust; the top half had a swing
door that revealed metal rods for hanging the smokables. Over the
years a procession of hams, home-made sausages, wild game, bacon
and all manner of freshwater fish emerged from that little metal
box, glistening reddish-brown and deeply infused with the smell of
fruitwood smoke.
14 | edible vancouver spring 2008
Over the years I’ve toyed with the idea of trying to smoke meat
and fish myself, but until recently I held the misconception that
smoking is extremely complicated: a dark art best left to the professional charcoutier or backwoods survivalist. It wasn’t until I saw an
ad last summer for a small domestic smoker that I took the plunge,
and quickly learned that smoking your own food is quite simple.
The Bradley smoker I purchased has an ingenious design. Most
domestic models require that you burn and tend a small fire made
of loose wood chips, but this one burns its own pressed wood chip
pucks, or “bisquettes”, which move through the smoker on an automated feed system. The bisquettes are proprietary (read somewhat
expensive) but fool-proof, and they come in wood flavours like
maple, pecan, alder, cherry, apple, oak, mesquite and hickory.
I fill the smoking cabinet, set the temperature control, load my
bisquettes, turn the smoker on and leave. After a while I return
to perfectly smoked foods that would make my father proud. The
manufacturer’s website has a comprehensive list of smoking procedures, mouth-watering recipes, and a friendly discussion forum
where newbies and gurus alike can share smoking experiences,
techniques and advice. The forum is vegetarian-friendly and has a
whole section devoted to smoking vegetables, nuts and cheese.
Wood smoke is a decent antimicrobial and antioxidant, but it isn’t
enough to safely preserve food. Most smoking today is for flavour,
and smoking meat or fish requires basic preparatory steps to ensure
food safety. One of the most common processes is curing: rubbing
the protein with either a dry salt-and-sugar cure, or immersing it in
a salt-and-sugar-infused liquid brine. This flavours the protein and
slows the development of harmful microorganisms. The process
can be as brief as overnight (for smoked salmon) or as long as a
week (for bacon). Once cured, the brine or rub is rinsed off with
water and the protein is placed on racks to dry, forming a firm,
shiny crust that helps to seal in moisture.
Once dry, your protein is ready to smoke. Hot-smoking raises the
temperature of the smoking cabinet high enough to actually cook
the food. Cold-smoking exposes the food to 80-90°F smoke for
an extended period of time, but no cooking takes place, and the
resulting meats and fish have a raw texture, like the cold-smoked
salmon known as lox.
Over the last year I’ve smoked rich and oily spring salmon, pork chops,
chicken and sausages. I recently made my own hickory-smoked bacon
with Windsor Meats’ pork bellies, from hogs raised in Langley. This
summer I want to try smoking vegetables from the farmers’ market.
Smoked garlic smeared on crusty bread, anyone? Smoked tomatoes
for a pasta sauce? If it fits in your smoker, it’s smokable.
I don’t ever plan to kick this habit. Of course I’ve heard about the
health implications of smoked foods. And here’s what I say: everything in moderation. Here’s hoping smoke gets in your eyes.
Bradley Smoker Company is based in Delta. bradleysmoker.com
Robert Olaj is an East Van omnivore with a serious smoking addiction.
In a former life he worked as a pastry chef for restaurants and hotels
around Vancouver.
• Visit our student-run Saturday markets: June to
October
• Organically-grown veggies, fruits, eggs, honey,
andmore,straightfromthefield!
• Find out how you can help create a future for
Vancouver’s last working farm
CBC Radio One and Barbara-Jo’s Books
to Cooks are pleased to present a CBC
Radio Studio One Book Club featuring
Taras Grescoe
sunday, May 18Th, 2008
12:00 To 1:30 pM
Win your entry to the bookclub at
www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub
Buy your copy of Bottomfeeder from
Barbara-Jo’s Books to Cooks at the event
($29.95) or call 604-688-6755 to
pre-order and receive 10% off.
harpercollins.ca | bookstocooks.com
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 15
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360.676.1307
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16 | edible vancouver spring 2008
farmer
in the
sky
City Farm Boy brings local
food even closer to home
By Kimberley Fehr
Ward Teulon, otherwise known as City Farm Boy, surveys the bustling traffic far below the seventh-floor patio garden of a Seymour
Street condominium. A fresh ocean current blows through the city,
and as he inhales the salt air he seems to stand even taller than his 6’
3” frame. Spring is coming and anything is possible. He is dreaming of zero carbon farming.
On this wispy day in March, the 1,100 square foot raised garden
before him is a blank canvas. The waist-high weeds have been
cleared, the soil is tilled, and some day soon he’ll plant basil. Builtin irrigation and a sheltering glass wall make the raised garden ideal
for herbs, and Teulon envisions selling them to downtown restau-
rateurs—by bicycle. “I’d like to set it up where once or twice a week
I’d come here with my bike and do deliveries using a detachable
bike cart,” he says, blue eyes alight. “The only part that wouldn’t be
zero-carbon would be the fertilizer.”
The garden was more or less forsaken before it became a welcome
addition to Teulon’s City Farm Boy enterprise, which started small
last year as a patchwork farm of three backyard gardens (including
his own) within a five-kilometre radius of Teulon’s Cedar Cottage
home. Originally from a farm in Swift Current, Saskatchewan,
Teulon really is a farm boy in the city. In addition to selling produce
at the local farmers’ markets, he designs and builds urban vegetable
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 17
gardens. His eureka moment came when he’d done an estimate
on garden boxes for Steve Lloyd and Melanie McLaughlin, who
live near Commercial Drive. They didn’t go for the boxes, but
when they asked Ward about doing work around their house,
he mentioned urban farming, and serendipity did the rest.
Lloyd, who is a teacher and Vice-Chair of the East Fraserlands
Committee, says, “The garden is a lovely thing to look at, and I
like knowing the food is being sold to my neighbours around the
corner. We need to start growing food in the city. Urban farming
is one of the solutions to making this a sustainable city.”
Teulon got his third plot—and started his official farm in the
city—when a retired neighbour who was struggling to keep up
with the weeds gave him another 600 square feet.
This year he has expanded to about 12 gardens and almost
8,000 square feet of land, thanks to a Vancouver Sun article last
autumn that sent his phone ringing off the hook. Apparently, a
lot of Vancouverites love the idea of someone else farming their
backyard. Offers of acreages in Surrey, huge yards in South Vancouver—suddenly Teulon had his choice of prime farmland.
He sat down and did the math, looked at the practicalities and
came to the conclusion: anything farther than five kilometers
just didn’t make sense. Teulon uses a van to take the produce
to the markets and pick up heavy items like soil and fertilizer,
but he aims to do most of the garden maintenance on his bike,
and farming gardens within five kilometers is ideal. Ultimately
Teulon turned down many of the offers, because having too
many gardens and covering too much distance would defeat
the purpose of running his own business: spending quality time
with his three-year old son.
“I wanted to be here while he was growing up. I didn’t want to
be in Philadelphia at some Holiday Inn,” he says. Teulon previously worked as an agrologist for Nutri-Lawn, a Toronto-based
company that specializes in ecology-friendly lawn care. He was
on the road for 100 to 150 days a year.
City farming is no get-rich-quick scheme, and this is not about
money. It helps that Teulon’s wife, Jennifer Griffiths, is a lawyer,
and that during the lean winter months he picks up some work
as a computer consultant. Teulon also sells a unique brand of
raised beds in collaboration with J.D. O’Connor Designs, a
high-end furniture designer in East Vancouver. “A lot of boxes
fail at the joint. The big fingerjoints differentiate us. They’re
high quality. They’ve been sanded and finished and boiled.
They’ve been glued, screwed and tattooed (with the City Farm
Boy logo, of course),” he says, chuckling.
7960 Winston Street Burnaby, BC
604-421-2711
www.thenewmanhattan.com
18 | edible vancouver spring 2008
Teulon also differentiates himself by growing varieties that you
can’t buy in Safeway. Last year, one of his market success stories
was French Heirloom pole beans, which hail from France in
the 1700s. They’ll be back again this year. Teulon was his own best
customer: “I ate these for three months last summer, pan-fried with
my garlic and some butter for lunch every day.” Another regular
sell-out was Rouge D’Hiver, a beautiful, big-leafed red romaine
lettuce, which Teulon contrasted with some brilliant green, almost
fluorescent lettuce on his white tables.
“Urban farming is
one of the solutions
to making this a
sustainable city.”
This year he plans to sell garlic like wine. With names like Persian
Tempest, Leningrad and Korean Purple, and flavours to match, it
might catch on. “Most of the garlic in stores comes from China,”
says Teulon. “After fresh garlic, the taste is disappointing.”
Garlic aside, his true ambition is to add some momentum to the
urban food movement. “I’m the guy who put the seed in the ground,
I’m the guy who pulled it out, who washed it and cleaned it, and I’m
handing it to you right now. It’s a different experience than going to
the supermarket and buying a package of iceberg lettuce.”
At the end of February he spoke at the Food for All Dialogue, a
food security conference in Richmond. Teulon’s aim was to spread
the message about urban agriculture and pick up a few collaborators. If people are willing to weed and harvest, he’ll help with the
seeding and selling. Together they can split the profits.
Teulon looks at Vancouver and sees a lost opportunity. “We’ve got
beautiful soil in some parts of Vancouver,” he says. “Most cities are
built on some of the best farmland there is, because initially when
they were building a city they were looking for a place that had
good water, good land and good soil, so they could grow food. The
cities grew up around that, and they’re still sitting on some of the
best farmland in the world.”
This summer, Teulon plans to introduce a new element to his
neighborhood: an honour box. The self-serve corner stand will have
vegetables and a tin can for money, so his neighbours can share in
the bounty. He is also musing about pocket markets—just setting
up a stall on the street corner and selling his goods, but he suspects
he may have to get a license.
“I have vivid childhood memories of my father being so proud of
his crop,” Teulon recalls. “It’s great to be able grow your own food,
and know it’s quality food, and sell it to people who get so excited
about your lettuce or your carrots that they’re coming back the next
week. I was at the West End market four times last year, and at the
fourth market people were lined up five-deep. I sold everything I
had. That was such a great feeling of accomplishment.”
To learn more about City Farm Boy, visit cityfarmboy.com.
Kimberley Fehr is a professional writer and photographer whose job
description occasionally includes lurking on high-rise patios to get the
dirt on urban farming.
oceanwisecanada.org
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 19
Buffalo Love
at Fairburn Farm
by Joanne Will
Mara Jernigan photo
Anthony and Cleopatra fell in love
while eating buffalo mozzarella
If you’ve never been nose to nose with a water buffalo, you’ll have
to take my word that these magnificent creatures, with their shaggy
hair, long eyelashes and sweet round eyes, mean you no harm. “The
only way they could hurt you is by loving you to death. When
they’re being milked, they love having their faces and necks rubbed
and scratched. They close their eyes in complete ecstasy,” says
Darrel Archer, who along with his wife Anthea, operates Canada’s
first and only water buffalo dairy in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island.
The creamy, dense buffalo milk is sent to the Natural Pastures
Cheese Company in Courtenay, where Master Cheese Maker Paul
Sutter oversees its transition (including hand-stretching) into porcelain-white mounds of buffalo mozzarella. Natural Pastures has
been producing Mozzarella di Bufala Fairburn for less than two
years, but it’s already garnered a handful of awards—including
third place at the British Empire Cheese Show.
The water buffalo dairy is at Fairburn Farm, which was purchased
by Darrel Archer’s parents in 1954 (who, one year later, formed
20 | edible vancouver spring 2008
the Vancouver Island Organic Co-operative, the first in Canada).
Darrel and Anthea took over the farm in 1978. In its 120-year
history it has never used chemical pesticides, herbicides, growth
hormones or antibiotics.
The Archers have raised sheep and cattle in the past. It was their
search for an animal that would thrive on local vegetation and
produce a unique product that led them to import Canada’s first
herd of water buffalo from Bulgaria in 2000. These are river buffalo,
originally bred in Asia for milk production, and are very different
from North American buffalo, which are actually bison.
Chef Mara Jernigan offers farmhouse accommodation at Fairburn,
where she also holds cooking classes and hosts special events. Mara
attended the Slow Food Master of Italian Cooking program in the
Marches region of Italy, a country she has traveled extensively. “I
specialize in seasonal, local food. I’m not trying to reproduce Italy
here—I just really like their terroir and approach to food.”
Buffalo mozzarella is a popular summer cheese, but, as Darrel
Archer says, “it tastes just as good in winter.” Thankfully, Natural
Pastures produces it once a week, year round. “It can be served at
room temperature in Caprese salad, but it’s also a beautiful melting
cheese—just be careful not to overcook it,” says Chef Mara. It’s
great in grilled sandwiches, pizza, lasagna, or
stacked with grilled vegetables and baked in
the oven.
The Archers milk the buffalo every day, which
is a full-time job for both of them. “Natural
Pastures told us we could never send them
too much milk,” says Darrel. To expand their
current operation, they’d need more hands
on the farm. “If you’re looking to get into a
unique operation, you’re more than welcome
to join us here,” he says.
Legend has it that Anthony and Cleopatra fell
in love while eating buffalo mozzarella, floating down the Nile on a barge pulled by water
buffalo. I won’t promise you romance, but I
guarantee if you try Natural Pastures Mozzarella di Bufala Fairburn, you’ll fall in love.
Joanne Will was born on Salt Spring Island,
grew up on a farm in southern Saskatchewan,
and currently lives in Vancouver (although she’s
seriously considering a move to Fairburn Farm to
spend more time with Heather, Naomi, Hayley,
and all of the other buffalo gals).
Joanne Will photo
Natural Pastures Mozzarella di Bufala Fairburn
is found at Les Amis du Fromage, Stong’s
Market, Bosa Foods and Urban Fare.
Warm Green Salad with Water Buffalo Mozzarella wrapped in Prosciutto
By Mara Jernigan, Fairburn Farm
Most people only think about serving fresh mozzarella in the
summer with heirloom tomatoes, but this quick and easy
warm salad using local greens and prosciutto is a wonderful
way to enjoy Natural Pastures Fairburn Buffalo Mozzarella any
time. I like to serve it with a vinaigrette made using Venturi
Schulze Balsamic Vinegar from BC’s Cowichan Valley.
Slice the ball of mozzarella into eight wedges and wrap each
wedge with a slice of prosciutto. Place on a baking tray and
put in the oven for approximately five minutes.
Vinaigrette:
5 Tablespoons good quality extra virgin olive oil
Preparation time: 15 minutes
1 Tablespoon Balsamic vinegar (ie Venturi Schulze Balsamic
Vinaigrette)
Preheat oven to 350°F (or a toaster oven)
pinch of salt
Salad:
a few grinds of freshly milled black pepper
4 heaping cups of spring greens salad mix, washed and
spun dry
8 slices of prosciutto
1 ball of Natural Pastures Fairburn Buffalo Mozzarella
In a jar, combine vinaigrette ingredients and shake for about
a minute. Toss the greens in a bowl with the dressing and
arrange on four plates, topping each with two wedges of the
warmed prosciutto and mozzarella. Serve immediately.
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 21
churn, baby, churn
by Bambi Edlund
With only memory to guide her, our
fearless reporter makes her own butter
Childhood memories are funny things—all at once accurate in
detail, but way off in terms of scope. You may remember the precise
tangy aroma of the grilled cheese and tomato soup that magically
appeared on your tray after Sesame Street, but the time your mother
spent preparing it is completely gone. It was with this skewing of the
facts in mind that I contemplated recreating a favourite childhood
meal, entirely from what was likely a highly selective memory.
22 | edible vancouver spring 2008
I have wonderful recollections of Sunday morning breakfast with
my family and friends, delicious from-scratch meals featuring
freshly-made butter slathered on my mother’s buttermilk pancakes.
We bought our milk from a nearby farm (which I remember purely
for the kittens in the barn—yet another example of childhood filtering) and skimmed the cream from the top, putting it aside for
just these occasions. Memory told me that you shake the jar of
cream for a few minutes and next thing you know—presto!—you
have butter. Suspecting it couldn’t really be that easy, I decided to
invite a few friends over and take a run at it myself, 30 years later
and sans parental guidance.
The progress:
• 10 minutes—the cream was thick and began to
coat the jar
• 20 minutes—the jar felt full, and upon removing the lid, we found the jar was stuffed to the
brim with perfectly whipped cream
• 25 minutes—small particles were suspended in
the thick whip
• 30 minutes—a large ball had formed, surrounded by thin, bluish buttermilk
Right, well. I was off the mark by a good 20 minutes, but to
my credit, the cream-to-butter transitions did take place just
as I remembered. We used Avalon Dairy’s Valley Pride organic
whipping cream (30% m.f.), which I set out for a couple of
hours, allowing it to reach room temperature. When the troops
arrived we poured it into clean jars with tight-fitting lids, filling
to three quarters full. And then we began to shake it.
And shake it…
And shake it…
If you try this at home, you’ll want to have a few shakers on
duty, as there is some passing-of-the-jar required in order to
placate exhausted biceps.
As a kid, I always had a tough time believing it was actually
going to happen, and even now I found myself wondering a
little. It’s an impossible-seeming transformation, and no matter
how many times you’ve experienced it, when you suddenly
(okay, after 30 minutes) have a lump of yellow butter floating
in the jar, it seems downright magical.
We put the buttermilk aside for the pancakes, placed the butter
in a medium-sized bowl and rinsed it under cold water. We continued folding and pressing it with a rubber spatula, removing
as much of the excess buttermilk as possible. (This is especially
important if the butter is to be stored for any length of time,
as any buttermilk left within the butter can cause it to sour
quickly). As we continued folding, droplets of milk escaped and
the butter became thicker.
All was going according to plan. Whew. Once it wasn’t offering up
any more beads of bluish milk, we added just a pinch of salt and put
into a dish to wait patiently for its pancakes.
Any recipe for buttermilk pancakes can be used. This fresh buttermilk is much thinner than the cultured, store-bought variety, but it
achieves the same fluffy result. We used a recipe that I coaxed out
of my mother years ago—she never measured and so the first draft
contained a lot of “I don’t know, maybe about a cup?” statements. I
have made it a number of times since, and have honed it to a more
precise recipe.
We topped them with fresh strawberries (growing our own would
have extended the feeling of smug self-satisfaction) and a drizzle
of pure maple syrup. The taste and texture were just as I recalled.
A completely different experience from pancakes brought by a
waitress, to be sure—and I think all of the diligent butter-shakers
would agree that these babies come with one extra, unbeatable
flavour: pride.
Butter yield: 500ml whipping cream made approximately ¾ cup
butter and 1 cup buttermilk.
Buttermilk pancake recipe available at ediblevancouver.com
Bambi Edlund is a Vancouver designer, illustrator and writer with a
profound love for the kitchen. She prefers the just-wing-it approach to
cooking and tends to treat recipes as well-intentioned suggestions, resulting in both disaster and triumph.
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 23
field NOTES
Meat Laws:
New regulations make it harder to buy local
By Jeff Nield
There’s a crisis in BC’s farming communities. The Ministry of
Agriculture’s new plan to support local agriculture sounds farmerfriendly, but it was released just months after revised meat regulations put a major obstacle in the path of small producers. In September 2007, public concern over food scares ranging from mad
cow disease to e. coli to avian flu prompted the provincial government to rewrite the regulations as part of the 2004 Food Safety Act.
However, rather than making our food supply safer, they’ve simply
added a deterrent that makes it harder for farmers to produce food
for their local markets.
At their most basic, the regulations ensure that every animal killed
for human consumption is processed in a federally or provincially
licensed facility, a requirement that is making it difficult for small
and specialty producers to stay in business. Although some government assistance is available to upgrade facilities to comply
with the new standards, the money available would only cover a
portion of the cost.
Remote producers have been slaughtering on-farm, in some cases
for generations, and shipping livestock hundreds of miles to the
licensed facilities would put undue stress on the animals. Most
small producers raise their animals humanely, and subjecting them
to additional trauma is counter to their whole philosophy. Moreover, the unnecessary carbon emissions that result from driving
animals the extra distance seems contrary to the provincial government’s goal to reduce greenhouse gases. It’s a classic case of government departments working at cross-purposes.
“Its a bit of a blanket regulation for large and small producers,”
says poultry and beef farmer Christine Piltz on the phone from her
Quesnel farm. “Small producers don’t have the capacity to upgrade
like the big producers.” In a creative approach to problem-solving,
Piltz has joined together with other local producers to form the
Cariboo-Central Interior Poultry Producers Association. With the
closest licensed facility currently hundreds of miles away in the
Lower Mainland, the Association is working to establish a mobile
poultry slaughter facility that would serve farmers from 100 Mile
House to Vanderhoof.
photo © brianharrisphotography.net
Most small producers raise their animals
humanely, and subjecting them to additional
trauma is counter to their whole philosophy.
24 | edible vancouver spring 2008
Before the regulations came into effect, animals raised and processed in the region were among the 5% across the province
that were slaughtered either on-farm or in small mom-and-pop
operations. While these facilities weren’t provincially or federally licensed, they did have to meet local health codes and were
kept up to standard by visits from local health inspectors. Most
of the animals processed through these facilities were sold at
the farm gate and in the local community.
It would have been easiest to continue processing animals as
they always have, but Piltz and others in her association view
this as an opportunity. “We’re looking at the changes in a proactive and progressive way,” she explains. “Each community
will have a stake in making this a success.” The association’s
efforts have already given members a six-month license extension to continue slaughter for direct-to-consumer sales. Piltz
hopes that by that time, all of the pieces will be in place for the
mobile slaughterhouse to be funded, licensed and operational.
“We want to show that instead of having chickens produced
elsewhere coming into our community, we should be able to
produce birds locally.”
It’s difficult to argue with legislation that is meant to make
something safer, but if anything, the new regulations give a
false sense of security to consumers. A plant that is inspected
and licensed doesn’t ensure that a sick animal won’t enter the
slaughter line, or that workers follow proper procedures and
keep the food supply safe. The recent recall of 140 million
pounds of beef in the U.S. illustrates the point. The video
that prompted the recall shows workers forcing cows too sick
to stand into the facility so they could be slaughtered, processed and sold. If consumers were given the choice, it’s hard to
imagine anyone choosing to eat meat processed by underpaid
workers with no vested interest in the end product over meat
raised and slaughtered within their own community by friends
and neighbours.
There is speculation that the government is considering exceptions to the regulations for producers supplying local markets.
While this would be a step forward, it would most likely
affect only on-farm slaughter for farm-gate sales. It will take
consumer pressure to make government understand that the
regulations unfairly penalize small and specialty producers. If
you think the regulations should be revised, write your MLA.
To view sample letters and for more in-depth analysis of how
various communities throughout the province are reacting to
the regulations, visit the News page of the FarmFolk/CityFolk
website at farmfolkcityfolk.ca.
SPCA Certified:
Eat Locally, Choose Ethically
At the BC SPCA, we put farm animal welfare at the top of our
list by certifying farms that meet our high standards of humane
care.
Put SPCA Certified foods at the top of your grocery list and
support local farmers who care.
Cage-Free Eggs
Specialty Meats
Artisan Cheeses
For a list of retail & farmgate stores visit:
Jeff Nield, based in Vancouver, works with FarmFolk/CityFolk to
cultivate a local, sustainable food system. farmfolkcityfolk.ca
www.spca.bc.ca/farm
BCSPCA
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 25
Eulogy
for a much-loved orchard
By Debbra Mikaelsen
PICO photo
What is the future of
a once fruitful industry?
Springtime in the Okanagan used to be radiant with blossoming
fruit trees, but the scene before me is one of carnage. I have danced
at two weddings in this orchard, but today I am a mourner at its
funeral, and I hide my eyes from the sight of a thousand apple trees
uprooted, lying on their sides and blackening, like soldiers defeated
on a battle ground.
26 | edible vancouver spring 2008
The owners are going through a divorce and need to sell their
house. But although the real estate market has been superheated, a
year passed with no offer on this orchard home. And so the healthy,
productive trees have been pulled out, as if they were a cancer that
threatened the property’s salability. An orchard doesn’t generate
much money in return for the work required, and few buyers seem
interested in taking one on.
One thousand healthy, fruit-bearing trees, apparently more trouble
than they’re worth: this is a perplexing lesson in economics. If a
productive orchard is more liability than asset, are BC’s tree fruits
endangered species? And does anyone care? A grower’s worries have
always included harmful insects and destructive weather, but farmers
now face a new challenge: apathy from consumers who believe that
peaches and pears come from supermarkets and not from the land,
who do not connect the fruit they eat with the season, the soil, the
community, or the farmer who produced it.
With every orchard that disappears we lose so much more than
fruit alone. The trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere,
protect the soil from erosion, and provide habitat for wildlife. I
pity the child or adult who has never
witnessed the surreal spring blizzard of
petals adrift on the wind: nature’s dreamy
promise that in a couple of months our
lips will be stained with cherry juice and
our bellies will be full of pie.
I can’t help wondering how much longer
Okanagan fruit will be the source of that
juice and those pies. The machines that
came in to break these tree limbs and
pull the roots from the soil are no longer
an uncommon sight here. It’s difficult
to hire someone with the skills to prune
your orchard these days, but it’s easy to
find people to rip out the trees, or advise
you to grow grapes for the wineries as a
more lucrative alternative.
Carole Topalian photo
I grew up in this valley, amidst apple,
peach, pear and cherry orchards. Most of
them are only a memory now, replaced
by residential developments that climb
high into the hills. The Agricultural
Land Reserve areas are home to winery after winery. My mother,
descended from a family of ranchers, says that at least when nobody
in the Okanagan is growing food anymore, we’ll all be too tipsy to
care.
The sight of uprooted trees is distressing, yet it is not always the
sign of an abandoned way of life. Every year about 500 acres are
replanted with smaller, high-yield trees that grow cheek by jowl.
Like me, my city friends are shocked by the destruction of the original, healthy trees. But like me, they do not know what it means to
care for an orchard. We are not prepared to commit to the farmer’s
demanding lifestyle, although we hope with all our hearts that
others will continue to provide us with fresh, locally-grown food.
The new high-yield trees are less tree-like, and harder for this idealistic urbanite to love. They don’t look much like the orchards of
my childhood, but they produce approximately twice as much fruit
on the same amount of land. Their heroic productivity allows a
shrinking number of BC orchards to produce more than double the
number of apples that British Columbians consume each year.
Productivity, viability and innovation are words that farmers must
live by, and the high-yield trees are just
one example of science at work in the
orchards. BC growers know there’s little
point in competing with the cheap but
flavourless commodity fruit that has
traveled an exhausting journey to reach
our supermarkets. Instead, their competitive edge is in hard-to-find heritage
apples, or new varieties bred for superior texture, juiciness and flavour.
These innovations are the work of the
Pacific Agri-Food Research Centre
(PARC) in Summerland, one of the
world’s very best breeding facilities for
cherries and apples. Their new varieties
are making ripples in the food world,
intriguing the palates of chefs and specialty produce buyers. They have also
extended the harvest; the Okanagan
cherry season used to last for about three
weeks in July, but new breeds produce
cherries from June through late August.
I’ll continue to grieve for every healthy tree pulled out of the soil
in the name of progress, but my orchard-love is worth little to the
grower, who can’t use it to pay the mortgage or send the kids to
college. And if replacing the trees of my youth with these new varieties is the only way to save BC’s orchards, I thank the farmers for
their pragmatism and their courage.
Debbra Mikaelsen lives in Vancouver now, with a single ornery pear
tree and a too-tall cherry that provides a summer banquet for birds and
raccoons.
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 27
Bouquet, schmouquet.
We just want to know if it was yummy.
what the girls are
drinking
Chardonnay (2005): The world is divided
into people who love oaky Chardonnays
and those who claim to prefer cat pee. This
one is not going to convert the unbelievers, although about half of
our Chardonnay aficionados enjoyed it. The others
found it a bit too young or
acidic for their tastes, but
said it improved after a
slice of Farm House Gouda
and a sliver of pear.
Enigma (2003): Ah. Much contented sighing
as the girls took their first sniffs of this rubycoloured goddess. They loved Enigma all by
itself, but with spiced pecans—well, that
was almost a religious experience. Velvety
and refreshing on the tongue, one taster
thought it would be a great afternoon-onthe-patio alternative to white. Another said
“Ooh-la-la, après-ski!” Other random comments: “Isn’t there any more???” and “I
want to dive into the glass and curl up with
it.” By the following day, at least one drinker
was on the hunt for another bottle.
www.lighthousebrewing.com
28 | edible vancouver spring 2008
Our tasters (girls and a few honorary girls) were asked to
have a cozy chat about the wines, while trying to steer clear
of any high-falutin’ winespeak. The featured sips were from
Lotusland, an organic winery in Abbotsford whose products
are found at a few fine restaurants and wine shops in Metro
Vancouver. (lotuslandvineyards.com will tell you where.)
Black-and-white photography and twist-off caps give these
bottles a distinctive, modern look. Here’s the lowdown:
Pinot Noir (2001): Enigma was a tough act
to follow, but the girls thought this pinot
would make a nice, light-bodied accompaniment to a full-flavoured meal. The hints
of vanilla and licorice were interesting, but
became more subtle with each sip. Probably a good partner for pizza or pasta.
The bottom line: Lotusland is certainly
a winery worth getting to know, and how
can you not love them for being organic?
And by the way, if you do pick up a bottle of
that Enigma, the girls will be right over.
Our opinionated tasters may not
be in the pro leagues, but they
sure do know what they like.
The boys (and a few wannabee boys) gathered in
Steveston to sample three from Tree, a Kelowna
craft brewery whose award-winning brews are
widely available. Here’s what our admittedly unscientific drinkers had to say:
Spy Porter: The dark horse of the evening,
because these particular boys wouldn’t
usually choose a dark beer. But Spy looked
and smelled great, with chocolaty, sweet
and spicy notes. A true seductress of the
come-hither variety, Spy’s flavour delivered
on its promise. “Yum. Bold, rich and
ribbony.” Yes, ribbony. Another taster
liked the way it “trinkled over the
tongue”. (Spy obviously inspires linguistic creativity.) One simply described it
as “Surprisingly delicious.”
what the boys are
drinking
Cutthroat Pale Ale: The name and label
don’t exactly say “drink me”, but the brew
looked promising when poured. The aroma
got an enthusiastic thumbs-up, with terms
like sweet and hoppy bouncing around
the room. The flavour? Tart, fruity, sweet,
smooth and full of
character. Three out
of four would drink
it again and recommend it to beer-lovin’
buddies.
Kelowna Pilsner: Its smooth, “gluggable”
flavour made the boys crave poppadums,
vindaloo and bhangra music. The consensus? A good, mellow match for the assertive flavours of a spicy meal.
The bottom line: The boys liked these way
more than they’d expected to, based on
Tree’s packaging. Like most of us, they’ll
judge a book by its cover and a beer by its
label, but Tree should be judged with your
tastebuds. treebeer.com.
Home of B.C.’s first organic
milk and the province’s oldest
continuously operating dairy
Yellow Pantone 102 C
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 29
Green Pantone 356 C
directory
Bakeries
Farms
THE SPELT BAKERY *
Vancouver’s Original Spelt Bakery started
in 1998. We produce some of the finest
Spelt baked goods in the world using
organic Canadian grown and milled Spelt
flour. For more information: 604-258-2726.
www.thespeltbakery.ca
SURREY FARMS*
Discover the amazing flavour of fresh, local
strawberries. U-pick, or ready-picked, plus
Okanagan fresh fruit daily. Farm Stand
open 8am to 7pm every day; now until mid
October. One block off Highway 10 at
5180 152nd Street, Surrey. 604-574-1390
Bookstores
WESTHAM ISLAND HERB FARM*
In 1994 I established a farm produce outlet
at my family’s farm in Ladner. Come out
and experience my farm and enjoy our
plants, fruits and veggies. Thanks. Sharon
Ellis. Open Daily 9-5 May 3–Oct 31. 4690
Kirkland Road, Delta. 604-946-4393.
www.westhamislandherb.ca
BARBARA-JO’S BOOKS TO COOKS*
We are joining with CBC Radio One to
present a CBC Radio Studio One Book
Club featuring Taras Grescoe, author of
Bottomfeeder.
Visit www.cbc.ca/bc/bookclub for details
and call 604-688-6755 to pre-order Bottomfeeder for 10% off.
604-688-6755. www.bookstocooks.com
Breweries
LIGHTHOUSE BREWING COMPANY
Brewer of premium quality, craft brewed
ales and lagers, with styles to suit any
palette or cuisine. Look for us at your
favorite pubs, eateries and liquor stores.
Unit 2-836 Devonshire Rd., Victoria.
1-866-862-7500.
www.lighthousebrewing.com
Cafes, Coffee & Tea
ETHICAL BEAN COFFEE
Ethical Bean Coffee roasts only the finest,
fair trade certified organic coffee. We’re
passionate about making both a positive
social and environmental impact, while
maintaining the highest quality standards.
Carbon neutral.
Vancouver, BC. 604.431.3830.
www.ethicalbean.com
PRADO CAFÉ *
Organic espresso and baked goods. Open
Monday-Friday 6AM-8PM. Weekends
7AM-8PM. 1938 Commercial Drive,
Vancouver. www.pradocafe.com
Caterers
THE NEW MANHATTAN CATERING &
DELI *
Party food should seduce the eye before
it caresses the palate. Our stunning presentation is surpassed only by a delicate
balance of the freshest flavours….Winner
of Burnaby Now’s 2008 Reader’s Choice
Award for Best Caterer. 7960 Winston
Street, Burnaby. 604-421-2711.
www.thenewmanhattan.com
Dairies
AVALON DAIRY
Home of BC’s first organic milk and BC’s
oldest continuously operating Dairy.
We have been a family business since
1906 and sell milk, cheese, butter, sour
cream, yogurt and eggs. 5805 Wales St.,
Vancouver. 604-434-2434.
www.avalondairy.com
30 | edible vancouver spring 2008
UBC FARM CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLE
FOOD SYSTEMS
Managed as a productive working farm
using organic methods, we invite you to
visit our summer markets and festivals,
participate in our volunteer program, or just
come by for a visit. 6182 South Campus
Road, UBC, Vancouver. 604-822-5092.
www.landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm
Farmers’ Markets
EAST VANCOUVER FARMERS MARKET
More than a market, a community institution.
Every Saturday May 17–October 25 from
9am–2pm
15th Ave & Victoria Drive.
604-879-FARM. www.eatlocal.org
KITSILANO FARMERS MARKET
Get all the fixin’s for a great local brunch.
Every Sunday June 1–October 26 from
10am–2pm
10th & Larch, Kits Community Centre.
604-879-FARM. www.eatlocal.org
RILEY PARK FARMERS MARKET
Stock up mid-week and beat the weekend
rush!
Every Wednesday June 4–October 22 from
12:30pm–5:30pm
30th & Ontario Street. 604-879-FARM.
www.eatlocal.org
WEST END FARMERS MARKET
Urbanites rejoice–fresh local food in your
neighbourhood.
Every Saturday June 7–October 25 from
9am–2pm
1100 Block of Comox St. 604-879-FARM.
www.eatlocal.org
For a full list of local farmers’ markets visit
www.ediblevancouver.com
Food Retailers
CAPERS WHOLE FOODS MARKET *
We strive to offer the highest quality,
least processed, most flavourful, naturally
preserved foods. Why? Because food
in its purest state—unadulterated by
artificial sweeteners, colourings and
preservatives—is the best tasting and
most nutritious food available.
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Food Retailers
Restaurants
EAST END FOOD CO-OP *
Vancouver’s longest serving co-operative
grocer is the local food store for the larger
community. We emphasize buying local,
healthy organic and fair-trade products. A
member driven, unionized shop where all
shoppers are welcome! 1034 Commercial Drive, Vancouver. 604-254-5044.
www.east-end-food.coop
C RESTAURANT
Deconstructing seafood supply lines
and dealing directly with the fisherman,
C Restaurant is an industry leader in
working with top-quality sustainable
seafood. 1600 Howe Street, Vancouver.
604-681-1164.
www.crestaurant.com
THE PUBLIC MARKET ON GRANVILLE
ISLAND
Whether it’s produce or flowers, meat
or fish, tea or coffee, pies or pastries, or
even breads or bagels, shop the Public
Market for the finest products from the
people who know them best. Open until
7pm, 7 days a week.
www.granvilleisland.com
Organizations
SPCA CERTIFIED
Want to eat ethically? Look for the ‘red
barn’ logo on SPCA Certified foods.
In 2002 the BC SPCA developed this
important program. It remains one of the
only farm animal welfare certification
programs in Canada.
1245 East 7 Ave,. Vancouver.
604-681-7271.
www.spca.bc.ca/farm
WINES OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
Find out what’s unique and special about
the Wines of British Columbia by visiting
our website, www.winebc.com—VQA
Wine Store listings, wine touring tips, BC
wine events, wine & food pairing information, and much more!
www.winebc.com
FARM FOLK/CITY FOLK
A non-profit society focusing on issues
affecting food producers and consumers.
Our three programs are protecting farmland, supporting farmers and producers,
and connecting farm and city through
education, celebration and inspiration.
604-730-0450. www.farmfolkcityfolk.ca
GREEN ZEBRA
Green Zebra makes it easy to live
sustainably in Vancouver. More than 250
coupons. Thousands of dollars in savings.
Discover eco-friendly retailers. Supports
City Farmer’s Youth Education Garden.
www.greenzebra.ca
OCEAN WISE
Ocean Wise is the Vancouver Aquarium’s
assurance of seafood harvested in a
sustainable manner. Look for the Ocean
Wise logo where you buy your seafood
and be Ocean Wise!
www.oceanwisecanada.org
SLOW FOOD - GOOD, CLEAN & FAIR
We believe the food we eat should taste
good; be produced in a clean way that
does not harm the environment, animal
welfare or our health; and food producers
should receive fair compensation.
www.slowfood.ca
FOOLS ONION RESTAURANT AND
CATERING
Fools Onion is committed to bringing
local food producers and foragers closer
to our community with globally inspired
seasonal menus. 1007 Harris Ave.,
Bellingham (Fairhaven). 360-647-2801.
www.foolsonion.com
NIMBUS RESTAURANT
Nimbus offers creative upscale dining
with chef’s tasting menus, a lively
late-night menu and seasonal cocktails
in a striking top-of-the-tower downtown
setting. 119 N. Commercial St., 15th
Floor, Bellingham. 360-676-1307.
www.nimbusrestaurant.com
NU RESTAURANT & LOUNGE
Literally perched above the water with
sweeping views of False Creek and
Granville Island, NU is the place to enjoy
farm-to-table casual cuisine in Vancouver.
1661 Granville Street, Vancouver.
604-646-4668. www.whatisnu.com
Preserve the environment.
We
m
f
u
Support your community.
ndra ake
is
fun
Pocket great savings....
& ea ing
sy!
It’s easy with Green Zebra!
The 2008 Green Zebra guide makes it easy
and fun to live sustainably in Vancouver.
You’ll save thousands of dollars while
discovering the city’s greener side.
Your purchase will help to support
City Farmer’s Youth
Education Garden.
It’s easy to change
your stripes.
www.greenzebra.ca
RAINCITY GRILL
Home of the Canada’s premier 100 Mile
Menu and an award-winning Pacific
Northwest wine list, Raincity Grill is
dedicated to the bounty of our backyard.
1193 Denman Street, Vancouver.
604-685-7337. www.raincitygrill.com
WILLOWS INN
True farm to table dining at one of the
most sought after B&Bs and agritourism
destinations in the San Juan Islands. 2579
West Shore Dr., Lummi Island, WA.
1-888-294-2620.
www.willows-inn.com
Specialty Retailers
TEN THOUSAND VILLAGES
An exciting array of fairly traded gift
items, food products, home décor and
much more from over 120 artisan groups
in 35 countries. Make your purchase
count! 1204 Commercial Dr. Vancouver.
604-323-9233
929 Denman St. Vancouver.
604-683-0929
for other locations
www.tenthousandvillages.ca
Wineries
TINHORN CREEK VINEYARDS
Nestled in the hillside of a former gold
mining creek, Tinhorn Creek Vineyards sits
unrivalled on top of the “Golden Mile”
in Oliver and offers a truly unique wine
experience. Oliver, BC. 1-888-484-6467.
www.tinhorn.com
Advertisers marked * also distribute
Edible Vancouver. For a full list if distributors visit www.ediblevancouver.com
edible vancouver spring 2008 | 31
finish
“Doubtless God could have
made a better berry, but
doubtless God never did.”
William Butler (1535-1618)
32 | edible vancouver spring 2008
We partner with groups
that support sustainable
agriculture efforts.
We favour growers
and producers who farm
organically and are dedicated
to environmentally friendly,
sustainable agriculture.
We are committed
to buying from local growers,
harvesters and producers.
We actively seek out
individual growers in our
communities and encourage
our department Team Leaders
at each store to buy local
items directly.
www.wholefoodsmarket.com
Kitsilano 2285 W 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
Robson 1675 Robson Street, Vancouver, BC
Cambie 3277 Cambie Street, Vancouver, BC
Village at Park Royal 925 Main Street, West Vancouver, BC
P 604.739.6676
P 604.687.5288
P 604.909.2988
P 604.678.0500