Local Delicious

Ever since I was a kid I’ve noticed that the impression a meal makes on me is directly proportionate to the lengths I went to in order to prepare it. Like when I go fishing whatever I catch tastes great, way better than any fancy local fishmonger bought equivalent. Having an inquisitive mind with a bit of analytical twist, being a foraging enthusiast and a lifelong foodie I decided to put that theory to the test.

So last fall off I went with my mushroom guru Sequoia Lesosky to see what can be found in a local forest floor this time of year, and I came home with a variety of exotic mushrooms. I also bought some wild mushrooms of the same or similar kind on Granville Island Market to use in the same recipes for my “control group”. I patiently waited until tomorrow when I prepared a feast of three different dishes from the wild and bought mushrooms and shared them with my family. The verdict?

To my family there was no discernible difference. To me the wild stuff tasted stronger and quite different than any of the store bought stuff, which is what I sort of expected as for me it wasn’t a blind tasting – I knew which was which. And then I decided that it must be that the difference is owed to the residual “spirit of the hunt”. It took a lot of effort to get the whole thing together, and it was all in my plate. In theirs? It was just soup or risotto or whatever. I decided they missed out. I am taking my family with me the next time I take to the forest.

As the beautiful spring sun begins to awaken our gardens ’tis the season to start growing your own gourmet mushrooms. It’s not as hard as you’d think!

Start with a mushroom block. It’s a super easy way to keep yourself stocked up on delicious mushrooms throughout the year. The blocks come pre “seeded” and just need to be kept moist and cool. And, if properly cared for, each block can produce 3 to 4 crops.

The mushroom blocks, supplied by Western Biologicals Ltd. here in BC, will be available by the end of February. Email stephanie.lynn.leclair@gmail.com to reserve yours, instructions included. Last season’s sold out quickly, so order early!

Shiitake and Oyster blocks are available for $15 each with $1 from each block going to support VanGrow, the Vancouver backyard garden growing club.

Oh, and if you can’t get to mushrooms, they will come to you.

Bicycle delivery is available for an additional $2 if you live within the delivery area (west of Main St., north of 41st Ave, and downtown Vancouver). Map

Woman may not be able to live by bread alone, but if I had to try I’d be choosing Silver Hills. Silver Hills bakery has been around for a long time with their signature Squirrelly bread, but you may think they’re new because they’ve recently re-branded (good job!). They’ve got a fresh new look, and a fun new cheeky attitude. I burst out laughing – out loud – at the grocery store, reading the backs of each package. (Each flavour has its own story, take a moment to look for them next time you’re in the bread aisle.)

In addition to Squirrelly, there are 8 other flavours. Hardy Hearty Harvest is my favourite…I think. It’s hard to choose.

A BC home grown success story, Silver Hills keeps ingredients simple and literally easy-to-read. Their sprouted grain innovation, which uses various grain sprouts in place of flour, gives gluten sensitive souls some it’s-hard-as-a-puck options. Wait, I think I hear dancing in the street.

I was very pleased to discover that with the new look their bags are now biodegradable. I have a little experiment going in my community garden compost pile, to see if I can prove it.

One of the many great fringe benefits of buying local food is that it can often lead to reduced packaging and therefore a reduced need for recycling. Buying producer-direct at a farmers market is a prime example of this. You buy from a bin, you bring your own reusable bag and bingo, no extra packaging necessary.

That’s ideal, but not always possible. For me that means I’m looking for reduced (or reduced-impact) packaging when no-packaging options aren’t an option. Confused?

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned having discovered that the meat I’d purchased to make my Liz’s World Famous Pizza came on a non-recyclable tray. (From the label I had surmised that the product would have a Canadian processing plant, and therefore be more locally produced than a product from the US — Johnsonville is a US company. Having looked at the website, I’m not so sure.)

Anyway, I asked Johnsonville about the non-recyclable trays they use, but never got a response. I’m not really surprised. So I did what I said I’d do and bought truly local, this time from Freden Fine Foods. Turns out Freden wholesales to my local grocery store and the store uses recyclable trays for their meat.

It’s not no packaging, but it is reduced-impact packaging. Sweet.

The US has the National Organic Program as its certification and labeling system. Items certified through this system carry the “USDA Organic” label.

Excerpt from Ecoholic

“This stamp reflects the fact that the US (namely the Department of Agriculture) finally implemented a national organic system in 2002. Trouble is, it created a ceiling, not a floor, and certifiers that might have been more stringent were forced to ‘harmonize’ or drop their standards to get in line with the national program. Some say the USDA system is weaker than the European system and, in some cases, the Canadian system in that it allows substances such as Chilean nitrites on organic crops (making California lettuce much prettier than ours), and farms can have pesticide-sprayed crops on one side and organics on the other. But Canada also allows a couple of substances that the US doesn’t. Several attempts to significantly water down USDA regs have been bucked.”

From the USDA website

“The National Organic Program (NOP) develops, implements, and administers national production, handling, and labeling standards for organic agricultural products. The NOP also accredits the certifying agents (foreign and domestic) who inspect organic production and handling operations to certify that they meet USDA standards.”

Also see:
Biologique Canada Organic
Organic
100% Certified Organic

What? Certified Organic doesn’t mean 100% Certified Organic? Sorry, but according to Wikipedia, products made with up to 95% organic ingredients can still carry the USDA Organic label.

What Ecoholic has to say:

“You might pay a little more for it, but this is the purest stuff you can find under any certification system. No synthetic inputs can be snuck in, no matter who the certifier.”

FruitandVeggieGuru.com agrees:

“All ingredients – the produce itself and anything used in processing – were grown and harvested according to USDA organic standards. The name of the certifying agency must appear on the package.”

Also see:
USDA Organic
Biologique Canada Organic
Organic