Local Delicious

I love Famous Foods grocery on Kingsway in Vancouver, BC. I like that they have such a great variety of locally produced food. I like that the staff are always friendly and helpful – they are friendly with each other, too, which is a good sign. They always offer carry out when I purchase by the case.

And I love that I always find interesting, local, and healthy food there. Most recently it was a cashew and date snack bar. That’s all it had in it. Nothing else. Especially no added sugar. Yum.

I love that I can buy lots of whole foods in bulk. One of the many fringe benefits of eating local is a focus on eating more healthfully. The bulk products may not all be local, but food that is unprocessed is a healthy option to have and that works for me.

I’ve “discovered” a few local products at Famous Foods that have become regulars on my shopping list, including Golda’s Cilantro Pesto and Spring Creek natural beef (no hormones or antibiotics).

And I found a new supplier of hemp hearts, Canada Hemp Foods, based in Gibsons, BC and sourced from Manitoba. As a Prairie girl at heart, I’m happy to be supporting my country’s farmers. Frankly, that’s damn cool.

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.

I made my “world famous pizza” again today — world famous because it’s on the Internet so theoretically anyone in the whole world could know about it. And famous because…well… my friends know and love it.

When I made it this past summer with my 17 year old niece, Falisha, she was skeptical, but after the fact she conceded that I had a point. (That’s as much credit as you’re going to get from a super cool teen on her way to graduating high school.) This despite that fact that she doesn’t like zucchini or sweet peppers. Kudos to her, she was “willing to try anything once” and ended up liking the veggies in their lightly cooked state. The fact that it was also actually healthy, slipped right by her.

My pizza is a favourite when I have guests coming for dinner. The whatever-I-have-in-the-fridge-and-garden recipe allows me to prep a variety of ingredients and let each guest make-your-own to suit individual tastes, including vegetarian.

Liz’s World Famous, No Guilt Pizza

So, here is my recipe for über delicious, world famous, healthy pizza. The beauty is, in summer even more of the ingredients can be local, straight from the garden:

• Lebanese flat bread — local producer Kandoo Bakery (looks like the restaurant gets rave reviews too)
• Pesto base — my favourite is Golda’s Cilantro Pesto but you can mix it up for variety
• Spicy Italian sausage, removed from casing, browned — local producer Freden Fine Foods, made fresh daily
• Zucchini, shredded, sliced, diced or however you like it
• Sweet peppers, any/every colour, diced small
• Tomatoes, cherry, grape or other — when I can get them fresh from the garden
• Fresh herbs — available from the balcony garden, I pick an assortment and mix/match
• Shredded Parmesan cheese, to taste — I don’t like a lot of dairy, but if I have it I want the good stuff
• Crumbled feta cheese, to taste — ditto above, a sprinkling is perfect to add a bit of zip

The instructions are pretty complicated, so pay attention here:

1. Cut a slab of flat bread
2. Slather on some base
3. Layer on an assortment of ingredients, to taste
4. Heat in the oven at 350 till the cheese melts, about 10-15 minutes

Here are some additional tips:

• All veggies can be optional; mix, match and add depending on what’s readily available. But just so you know, it won’t officially be Liz’s World Famous Pizza if you mess with the above.
• The flat bread comes in a big long flat and freezes extremely well. I cut it into sections before I freeze it, then pull out just what I need. It thaws lightening fast.
• Ground beef, chicken, or turkey work as well. Ditto the rule about messing with the recipe, noted above.
• I prefer pesto, but I guess a traditionalist could use tomato paste. Do I need to repeat the Messing with Recipe rule?

Mmmm, aren’t you hungry just thinking about it?! Oh, and if you don’t tell the kids it’s healthy they’ll love it.

Almost nothing makes me more crazy than not being able to get apples from the BC Okanagan while seeing apples from New Zealand or some other ridiculously far away place on sale in my grocery store produce section. Frankly, it’s insane.

I remember the good old days when I could harvest plump, juicy MacIntosh and Golden Delicious apples right from the trees in my grandpa’s back yard — and often did. There is nothing to compare to that sweet smell and the heavenly, crisp crunch of biting into a just-picked apple. Store bought just doesn’t come close.

Well, hello AppleBarn! My grandpa and his apple trees are long gone, but here’s a delicious alternative: an orchard in Abbotsford where you can pick your own.

Not only can you harvest as many apples as you want right from the tree, in October you can mix and match the varieties that are in season and walk away with a 10 lb. bag for $7. That’d make some mighty tasty apple cobbler, apple pie, apple sauce, apple cider…

Make it a day trip or catch them at a farmers market near you.

Some people eat crackers with homous. I eat homous with crackers — and then only because the latter are necessary as an eating utensil.

I often make my own humous, but am not above buying it when I don’t have time or am not in the mood to haul out the food processor and get creative.

I tried Royal Gourmet Foods pesto homous a while back and, even by my standards, it was inhaled pretty quickly. I didn’t share much of it, either. (No regrets, get your own.)

Unfortunately, the company website doesn’t provide info on the product, despite a link called “Product Details” (which leads to a blank page). My email to the company didn’t get a response either. The container has gone on to its next life via the recycling depot, so all I can tell you is it tasted good, and is made by a company in Burnaby.

Have you tried this product? Add your feedback, post a comment…