Local Delicious

The 100-Mile Diet Society of Vancouver has launched a fun, short, animated film, Home Is Where the Food Is, which follows every ingredient of a delicious and simple meal to its source.

“I visited a dairy farm, a mill/bakery, and a busy marina, all on Vancouver Island, and all within my 100-mile radius. I also spent time in the kitchen with Tina Biello, a busy working gal who makes time for her food, from growing her own veggies to learning about the production of local food for her favourite family recipes,” says animator Jody Kramer. “My film will make you feel hungry.”

The 100-Mile Diet Society and the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm have joined forces to explore how sustainable agriculture can help reduce climate change and nurture the environment.

There are a lot of reasons I like shopping local. I have been a passionate supporter of small business for as long as I’ve been in business (via my “real job“), I like to be part of making my local community economically viable, I like knowing that buying local has a positive effect on things global like carbon emissions, and I like to know what’s in my food.

Yeah, about that last one…

Remember all that scare about BPA, the nasty substance found in plastic bottles? There was quite the outcry and public awareness campaign with the result that Jill and Joe Average now know to choose plastic products that don’t contain the stuff. But did you know it also shows up in your food?

Yup, you read that right. Poison in our canned soup. Known to be toxin in small doses.

Sigh. I sure wish we didn’t have to goad and coerce industry into making their products safe for human consumption. I wish that were a given.

You can learn more about BPA in foods and how to make choices that allow you to live without it at Care 2 Make a Difference.

On the plus side, once we’re educated, consumers have the control here. How you can help:

1. Don’t buy food you know contains BPA — companies don’t make stuff people won’t buy;  and
2. Tell us about it — that’s what Local Delicious is here for.

Make sure your information is from a credible source, and not just someone trying to bad-mouth for personal reasons. Then tell your friends and let them know the source. The only way change has ever been effected is one step at a time. Be one of those steps.

Langara College, in concert with Village Vancouver, is hosting Fork in the Road, Cultivating Food and Community in Local Neighbourhoods this weekend, November 13 & 14. Participants to this workshop walk away with practical tools and ideas for involving friends and neighbours in local food issues and the inspiration to become involved in a neighbourhood food network.

Theatrical games and exercise are used to facilitate dialogue and personal change. Past participants have called these sessions, “Energizing”, “Fun”, “Mind-opening”, and “Empowering”.

Friday, November 13, 6:30 – 9:30pm and
Saturday, November 14, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm (workshop includes both sessions)
Langara College
100 West 49 Avenue, Vancouver
$50 admission fee
Register: 604.323.5322
Bring your own lunch and food to share

For further information, contact Leslie Kemp at 604.323.5981

Do you plan to attend? Please leave a comment and let us know how it goes.

I view access to a variety of local and “more local” food sources as an important part of building and strengthening our food systems at a grass roots level. (Like any product, if you don’t know it exists or where to get it, you can’t buy it. That means you can’t support the farmer, who may have to stop producing it, so now your only option is to get it from far away places… It’s a downward spiral.)

When my fellow community gardener Daryl told me about NOW BC, a member-owned food co-operative that operates within Metro Vancouver, BC, I asked him how he got involved.

“My initial reason for joining NOW BC was that I know the guy who started it. But besides that, there are several other strong reasons:

1. It’s a co-op where members have a say in how it’s run and share in its success. This means that profit isn’t a primary motive like other businesses.
2. Delivery ‘clubs’ allow fellow members within neighbourhoods to meet and form ‘community’ around the important topic of local and organic food. Individual delivery can’t do this. One club has started a ‘two-block diet’ network where they all grow food in their yards to share with each other.
3. And, prices are cheaper than other organic delivery services.

Plus, I think it’s important to support local organic farmers so they can continue to make a good living.”

If you want to be a part of the NOW BC network, find a delivery depot in your neighbourhood or start your own.

It kills me to see trees and gardens laden with fruit and produce going to rot. It’s such a waste!

A friend of mine was walking in Kerrisdale a few weeks back and came across a tree laden with beautiful Bing cherries that were ripe and as yet untouched by birds — a most unusual sight. There were a few branches overhanging the alley, so she and her partner sampled a handful — not only did they look good, they tasted amazing. A few days later, the cherries were still there, beckoning, with no harvesting efforts in evidence.

Being a good citizen, she curbed temptation and instead wrote a witty note offering to share the bounty if the home owners would allow her to harvest any fruit they didn’t want. She waited by the phone for days, but to no avail. A week later, the cherries were decimated, and the note she’d left under a rock on the porch was still there. Sadly, the home owners were clearly not in residence.

If you have a bounty of fruit or produce, or if your elderly neighbours are no longer able to harvest theirs, The Fruit Tree Project is just what you need.

It’s a basic, common sense idea: connect people who have excess fruit from their backyard fruit trees with those who have the time and energy to harvest it, all for a good cause.

Most of the harvested fruit is donated to community organizations and individuals in need. The Fruit Tree Project also partners with Community Kitchens and other local organizations that use the fruit in educational programs, such as the importance of fresh produce in a healthy diet, canning workshops, and other food security activities.

Skip the unnecessary guilt and bad karma — get on their list quick, before your fruit all rots on the ground!

One of the biggest challenges to eating more locally is sourcing the food. I’m not a rabid locavore — I love a good latte and savour chocolate on a regular basis, and those habits are not likely to change anytime soon.

I do, however, want the option to eat food from sources closer than farther.

I want to be able to choose the nearer farmer, which might mean a neighbouring province over another continent, rather than limiting my food choices to a strictly limited radius. (Given the state of our food systems, a 100 mile diet a great goal to aim toward, but not attainable at the moment.)

I was very interested to learn of NOW BC from a fellow community gardener. NOW BC is an organic, member-owned food co-operative whose mission is “to build a sustainable local food system by connecting local farms and processors with consumers and building community around sustainable food choices.”

In search of other than the usual fruit and vegetables, browsing the NOW BC product catalogue I find unbleached flour from Chilliwack, lentils from Saskatchewan (and you thought they only produced wheat), hazelnuts from BC, and whole wheat macaroni from Alberta.

You can make a purchase without a membership, food is organic wherever possible, and your purchase is delivered to a depot in your neighbourhood for pick up, keeping costs more reasonable and sustainable. Think of it as an expanded farmers market — those SK lentils might not make it to the Kits Farmers Market on Sunday, but you’ll still be supporting farmers and strengthening our ability to trace where our food has come from.

Now wouldn’t it be even more cool if the bakery at the weekly market made their bread with flour from Chilliwack?