BC Farms & Food

Last month the small European state of Portugal set an example for the rest of the world by running its electrical grid entirely on alternative power for four days (May 7–May 10). This country of ten million people, which occupies about a fifth of the Iberian Peninsula, kept the lights on with renewable energy, and produced zero carbon emissions.

This landmark accomplishment came after a series of renewable energy milestones, which included providing 70 percent of nation’s electricity consumption from wind, solar and hydroelectric power during the entire first quarter of 2013.
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The 100-mile diet on Vancouver Island has just become more accessible. The online Vancouver Island Farms & Food Map offers a way to find hundreds of farms and fresh local foods in Victoria, Vancouver Island, Salt Spring Island and Gabriola Island.

Local Food on Vancouver Island

A lot has changed since Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon, authors of The 100 Mile Diet, tried their one-year experiment of eating foods produced within a 100-mile radius of their Vancouver home. Their eat-local challenge galvanized the Canadian local food movement. In the past ten years, “sustainability” and “local foods” have become household words.

Nowhere has the 100-mile diet been taken more to heart than on Vancouver Island. Farmers have used the mild maritime climate to push the boundaries of what will grow locally. New crops like citrus fruits, olives, regionally-adapted wheat, gluten-free grains, lentils and green tea now thrive on the Island. Products such as hand-harvested sea salt, edible oils, and fresh-milled flour are extending the range of locally-sourced foods.

Residents and visitors can find these regional foods on the online Vancouver Island Farms & Food Map, along with more typical local farm fare like u-pick berries, vegetables, nuts, meats, dairy, mushrooms and herbs. The map also includes an extensive list of local farm-produced specialty items such as honey, pickles, syrups, fermented foods, baked goods, juice, wine, distilled spirits and cider.

Guide to 16 Vancouver Island Farm Regions

BC Farms & Food created the interactive farm map to connect people with locally grown foods in 16 Vancouver Island regions: Victoria, the Saanich Peninsula, Metchosin, Sooke, Cowichan Valley, Cobble Hill, Salt Spring Island, Ladysmith & Cedar, Nanaimo, Gabriola Island, Parksville, Qualicum, Alberni Valley, Denman & Hornby Islands, Comox Valley, and Campbell River.

With it users can find farm stands, u-picks, CSA farm box programs and farmers markets. The map also guides visitors to farms that offer tours, workshops, wine tasting, earth-to-table restaurants, events and overnight farm stays.

The Vancouver Island Farms & Food Map is a resource for residents and tourists who want to locate Island farms and enjoy fresh local food. By pointing the way to explore the dynamic local food movement on the Islands, the Vancouver Island Farms & Food Map demonstrates that sustainable farming is not only a dream, but an achievable reality.
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It’s the International Year of Pulses, and a new book, The Power of Pulses: Saving the World with Peas, Beans, Chickpeas, Favas & Lentils, is here to guide the way. If saving the world sounds like hyperbole, it’s because pulses may be one of nature’s most perfect foods. Nutrient-dense and packed with protein and fiber, these superfoods are seeds and edible foods at the same time. They are also important for sustainable agriculture. Peas, beans and lentils are easy to grow, require little water, and improve the fertility of the soil wherever they take root.

The Power of Pulses brings together organic seed grower Dan Jason, and culinary sisters, Hilary Malone and Alison Malone Eathorne, to provide everything you need to know about planting, harvesting and cooking peas, beans, chickpeas, favas and lentils. Accompanying this practical advice is Jason’s wisdom on why pulses are important for sustainable agriculture, and how they can help renew the health of the planet.
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RECIPE

Delicious eaten on their own or tossed onto salads and soups in lieu of croutons, these roasted chickpeas will be requested often and devoured quickly.

This recipe comes from The Power of Pulses: Saving the World with Peas, Beans, Chickpeas, Favas & Lentils by Dan Jason, Hilary Malone and Alison Malone Eathorne.


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RECIPE

With the increasing interest in heirloom beans, we’ve developed this delicious recipe for Beka Brown Maple Baked Beans. Plump, hearty, golden-brown Beka Brown beans add an extra edge of flavour to this traditional side dish. If you can’t find Beka Browns, you can substitute navy beans.

This recipe makes a lot so you can save and freeze the leftovers for future dinners. Also great as a large pot of beans for barbecues and parties.

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Traditional sausage making is an art that dates back thousands of years. About 500 BC, the Greek playwright Epicharmus wrote a comedy entitled, The Sausage. It is one of the earliest references to the ground spiced meat in casings we love to sizzle on the barbecue or fry up for breakfast with eggs.
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RECIPE

If you love vegetable chips, why not make your own? The trick is to slice the vegetables seriously thin so that they crisp up nicely in the oven. This beet chip recipe is easy to adapt to other root vegetables, such as carrots or parsnips.

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Three hundred sixty-five days, more or less — that’s the time it took. When Mitchell Morse and Chris Margetts told their friends they planned on starting a farm, no one expected to see it in a year’s time. Because back then Mitchell and Chris were living in the city, in Vancouver, with no land or tools — just an idea, a picture in their heads of how they would start a farm.

Of course, there was also that longing to return to their roots. For Chris, who grew up in the small town of Sidney, not far from Victoria on Vancouver Island, and lived for six years on a llama ranch on the Sunshine Coast, a city allotment garden in Vancouver was never going to cut it.
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In this video, Mitchell Morse and Chris Margetts talk about the planning, hard work and adventures that went into starting The Fickle Fig Farm. In just one year, they transformed an empty hay field on Vancouver Island into a fully diversified farm-to-table venture with pigs, chickens, ducks, goats, rabbits, beehives, an array of fresh vegetables and herbs, and an orchard of nearly 200 fruit and nut trees.

Their ultimate goal is to open a farm-to plate restaurant and supply it with the special produce and meats they cultivate on the farm.
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Cinda Chavich opens her new cookbook, Waste Not, Want Not, with an astounding fact: nearly 40 percent of the food produced in North America is wasted. The problem begins on the farm where a good percentage of harvested fruits and vegetables are rejected for cosmetic reasons. Once at the supermarket, under the influence of variable consumer demand and a poorly understood “best before” system, much of the food goes out the back door into the trash bins. Food waste culminates in the home kitchen where busy consumers throw away as much as a third of they food they buy. This river of wasted food winds up in landfills where it generates the highly reactive global warming gas methane and increases the problem of global warming. Worldwide, food waste produces as much greenhouse gas as some large nations. If food waste were an individual country, it would rank third behind China and the United States as greenhouse gas producers.
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RECIPE

These crispy fish tacos from The Waste Not, Want Not Cookbook by Cinda Chavish use organic corn chips to coat the fillets. Top with fresh salsa for a spicy, light meal.

Serves 4

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