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If you’ve walked through the Cook St. village lately, you may have noticed a little more activity in the lot adjacent to Bubby Rose’s Bakery. What started with Red Fish Blue Fish’s satellite operation, 1 Fish 2 Fish, back in February, has grown to a cozy cluster of street carts.
On a perfect late summer’s day in September, I drove up Rose Lane in Saanich and parked beside the entrance to Haliburton Community Organic Farm. I saw a sign that said Terralicious Garden and Cooking School, a large Slow Food banner hung up on the fence, and knew I had found the right place.
This is the time of year known affectionately at the butcher shop as Turkey Madness. It begins September 1st, when we open the books to take orders for Thanksgiving turkeys. We sell fresh, locally and naturally raised birds that arrive in th e shop straight from processing a day or two before Thanksgiving itself.
If a photograph is worth a thousand words, then Brian Harris’ slideshow, "Farm Folk/City Folk Heroes" speaks volumes. With a mellow soundtrack provided by Liona Boyd, the six minute homage to twenty-seven farm and city sustainable growers visually portrays a series of heartening stories from the frontlines of local food action: the small scale growers and producers.
The weather is only one of the changes that I notice since my first visit to the Cook St. carts to gather information for this article, but it does set the mood. The late fall gloom is a stark contrast to the happy, sunny lunchtime bustle I observed back in early September. The lot is all but abandoned, with only Jesse Cornes, still manning the Mean Bean, and a mushroom vendor, selling bolete mushrooms under a small awning. I guess non-stop rain for three weeks will take its toll on the outdoor eating scene. But it’s not just the weather.
British Columbians will once again be able to purchase fresh meat products from local farmers if a bill introduced in the legislature by New Democrats is passed.
The first in a two part series on how a new crop of coffee shops and tea rooms cements Victoria’s status as the West Coast’s caffeine capital.
Thud. Thunk. Whack. The crowd cheers. A line forms as hungry visitors clamour for a turn with the wooden mallet. This is Mochitsuki, an ancient rice-pounding ceremony that occurs during shogatsu, the Japanese new year, which falls on January 1. Mochitsuki usually takes place in late December. At Mochitsuki, rice is pounded until it forms a sticky rice cake called mochi.
Green, white, red, black: a rainbow of colour was on display this past weekend at Victoria’s fourth annual Tea Festival. Billed as North America’s largest tea exhibition, it was impressive to see just how many independent tea importers and suppliers are based here in British Columbia, each covering their own specific areas of expertise.
I, for one, am happy the Olympic games are over. Don’t get me wrong. I had a grand ole’ time. Our athletes were remarkable. The city was gloriously insane. I couldn’t be more proud to be Canadian and a Vancouverite. But the lungs cannot yell another cheer. The eyes can’t take another big screen. The ears can’t take more din. And the belt can’t take another celebratory bite, (or beer). While those super bodies were burning pounds I was building them. And those were proud Canadians too.
Dine Out, Fight AIDS. This annual dining fundraising event raises funds for AIDS service organizations.
It's a familiar scene: You've pressed your table linen, dusted your favorite vase from Salt Spring, and spent the morning picking fresh blooms and twigs to arrange on your hors d'oeuvre table. It's a magazine-worthy display. It's so fine, in fact, that you hesitate to subject it to a tired platter of baby carrots and dip.
Andre LaRiviere is a leader in the emerging sustainability sector. He has worked as a CBC Radio executive producer, is a trained Chef and has spent many years as a food writer. Currently, he is the executive director of Green Table, a network of restaurant professionals creating a roadmap towards sustainability.
When the bright pink cherry blossoms start to bud I know that Market Season is just around the corner. Farmers all around the island are busy getting ready to share their array of produce with an anticipating public. We are a lucky population here in Victoria, benefitting from a small but highly passionate and organized local organic farming community.
Victoria is getting younger. Over the last few years, Victoria’s age demographic has become decidedly more youthful and one of the side effects of this shift is an increasing number of people going and staying out late, and often eating when they do.
Writing about an event after the fact is tricky; the news is so last week. It’s a particular challenge when it comes to rounding up the Vancouver Playhouse International Wine Festival, a seven-day sip and savour fete. The immediacy of tweets and blogs disperses festival highlights and industry award winners quicker than you can say gewürztraminer. I, being a terrible twit, just wanted to share with you how the Playhouse Festival and wine fests of its ilk can offer the wine lover more than a boozy walk about
Festival season is upon us, and with so many possibilities to choose from, we thought a little guide might be of some use to our readers. You'll want to bookmark this page, because we'll be updating it regularly as more details and events are announced.
Something about watching Heidi Fink before her class starts reminds me of a hockey player getting in the zone as the national anthem is playing. There is a slight sway, and as she surveys the countertop in front of her, you can tell she is mapping out her game plan. Once the class begins she is on, leaving no seed or spice left unturned. Every element of cooking that comes up in the course of the class is explained in detail.
I have, at times, been described as an incorrigible optimist. I do tend to see the glass as half full, not half empty. But lately, I am coming across more and more evidence to support my undying hopefulness, at least in the future of food department.
Farmers, chefs, artisans and food lovers alike spent a gloomy rainy day celebrating island food, local farms and tantalizing flavors.
Staff from the Victoria-based BBQ joint headed south last month to attend the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest, and came back with some stories. Grab some ribs and beer, and enjoy some armchair travel courtesy of Pig BBQ.
For many islanders the concept of the picnic may seem like an elaborate activity of the past, one that sparks memories of childhood birthday parties, the egg toss, three-legged races, watermelons and water balloon fights. But the picnic has unlimited romantic potential with its varied, secluded local location options: lakeside, ocean view, rooftop or shady tree setting.
On the eve of Sea Cider Farm’s third anniversary celebrations, the popular ciderhouse hosted a fundraiser for one of their partners; LifeCycles. With noble goals that include picking and redistributing thirty thousand pounds of fruit every year there is no wonder that the community came together in such an impressive way to show its support.
If the World Cup has got you in the mood for some international flavours, check out one of this summer's cultural food fests. This past weekend saw both an Italian Fest and a Afro-Carribean Festival, but Victoria blogger Melody Wey tells us about two upcoming events.
EAT's new Vancouver Reporter, Anya Levykh, launches her weekly column. Check back every Wednesday to find out what's new and noteworthy in Vancouver's food scene.
One day shy of summer and a typically eclectic crowd converged in Fernwood Square to eat, drink and be merry. It was the first-ever Fernwood Bites– a fundraiser in support of the newly created Fernwood Neighbourhood Chest Fund. Armed with wine glasses and soon-to-be dishevelled napkins, ticket-holders to the sold-out event were greeted by an impressive array of sips and samples.
Pictured above:
Front row. Sol Kinnis and Lisa from City Harvest/$1315. for green house.
David Mincey, Camille’s & ICC Member
Second row. Wendy and Darren Montana from West Wind Farm
Patrick Miller, tall blonde guy in between, ICC market coordinator
Jana McLaughlin from Rare Earth Organic Farm 
Brock and Heather McLeod from Makaria Farms 
Ken Nakano, Empress Hotel & ICC Member 
Heather Robinson and Naomi from Haliburton Farms
Missing Sylvia Hancock from Holly Hill Farm
Tofino Food and Wine Festival, Long Beach Lodge Resort, Black Rock Resort, SoBo, The Tofino Public Market, Shelter, Calm Waters Dining Room
On July 10th and 11th this year, I headed to Glendale Gardens for the 6th annual Organic Islands Festival and Sustainability Expo. Along with a throng of eco-conscious Victorians, I garnered solutions for how to "Live Green and Buy Local" from 150 vendors and visionaries while wandering between apricot trees and ornamental beds of grass.
In 2003, The World’s Longest Barbecue was a national first. City folk, country folk, Canadians all, “gathered” together from all three coasts (That’s right. There are three) to celebrate Canadian beef. Anita Stewart, Food Day founder, had come up with a simple premise: at 6:00 PM “Your Time”, fire up the BBQ, invite some friends and celebrate Canada as a culinary nation.
There is a lot of talk these days about sustainable seafood, and what that implies. It’s a complicated subject. A few years back, the idea was that anything wild, as opposed to farmed, was sustainable, specifically anything wild that was caught without producing dolphin by-catch.
This week has been an accidental continuation of last week’s sustainability theme. And it’s been interesting to find that theme creep into areas that I might not have necessarily considered, like macarons, gelato and pickled garlic stems, but such is life.
I’m not sure we’re on the right road, I worry, as we work our way higher and higher along the narrow winding road. My brain is definitely in summer mode, feeling almost as foggy as the weather we’re driving through. Instead of my usual organized strategy of printing up a google map with precise door-to-door instructions, this particular Sunday morning I’ve left the house without a map, telling myself I’d find some information or a brochure on the ferry.
Victoria’s third volume of the international phenomenon, PechaKucha, brings together local Victorians to discuss all things food.
I didn’t eat my hen, Roo, when she died. It happened while I was out (at the farmers’ market, in fact, asking for advice on what to do with my sick chicken), and the day was hot, so I did the next best thing to making soup—I did an autopsy, trying to learn first-hand about chicken anatomy. It sounds grizzly, but it felt respectful.
