So our first step was to discover more about the produce available on Vancouver Island. We decided to check out Nanaimo and Area Land Trust (NALT) because they have a wild plant sanctuary where indigenous plants are potted and sold as well as grown in their peak seasons. Going out there in the middle of February, however, is not the most exciting.
Not a lot grows in the cold of February. It did show me what was potentially available in a month or so though, Violets, Maple flowers, Miners Lettuce, Nettles... Perhaps growing our own interesting gear could be the answer, but I’ll leave that for another post.
Locally available cultivated ingredients include apples, turnips, beets, cabbage. Pretty standard stuff, think winter = think root vegetables. In fact, February and March seem to be the worst for local produce.
It seems like the immediate answer is to look for local stock piles of these types of ingredients and prepare ourselves for the next growing season. This revelation brought me to a gentleman that I met while attending a farmer’s market last summer.
Mr. Dirk Bekker.
He’s an urban farmer who focuses on supreme quality and has a serious passion for growing.
His story is an interesting one and is best described here, (http://www.synergymag.ca/a-lantzville-couple's-fight-for-the-right-to-grow-food/). Suffice to say, thanks to the bureaucrats of the RDN, his farm was going to be (and, as of this post, still could be) taken from him on the basis of a single complaint from a bitter neighbour and favouritism by the Municipal Government.
Having this type of By-law is absurd because it basically takes away your ability to be self sufficient. Although Mr. Bekker is growing on a slightly larger scale than most, the idea of the by-law isn’t prohibiting the sale of crops, it’s prohibiting the actual growing of crops.
Ridiculous.
The global food situation is dire. Part of the solution is utilizing urban area and promoting urban farming. People are saying green roof technology is the way of the future, as well as being able to grow food for yourself and not relying on imports as heavily. Promotion of independent farmers and subsequent farmers markets are also a mainstay in political rhetoric.
So what the hell is the problem?
Unfortunately, other than the well documented incompetence of municipal, provincial, and federal government (experienced by anyone who’s passed a road work crew and hasn’t been able to figure out why they need so many people to dig a hole), I can’t figure it out.
These issues have stretched nation-wide and across the globe. There seem to be numerous accounts of this type of hypocrisy stating that by-laws won’t allow growing.
The odd counterpoint to this is the many urban co-op gardens that we’re finding in more and more major cities. A plot you register for and submit your name to, which will be put into a lottery and a small space will be awarded for X amount of time. You’re also allowed to grow on your balconies in apartments, in back yards all over suburbia (Move that into the front yard though and look out).
All of this seems like a good start. In North Vancouver the Mayor is actually at the forefront of changing city lawns into gardens. www.vancouversun.com/life/Mayor+wants+convert+North+Vancouver+lawns+into+gardens+fruits+vegetables/3816483/story.html
Perhaps it’s just the small town big thinkers that can’t catch up. Or perhaps it’s specific individuals that have nothing better to do then to complain.
Personally, I’m going to support Mr. Bekker and have already talked to him about what he may have for me in the upcoming months. His operation is still relatively small and he has a loyal following that would probably be pretty pissed if I waltzed in and scooped all the vegetables. So I sent an email out to a few other farmers I met over the summer and here we go. Progress.
I will post the names of the farms and farmers along with what they’re hoping to have and when as soon as I have all the info. In the meantime though, check out this website for farms near you. ( www.islandfarmfresh.com/farms.htm ) or maybe ( www.vancouverislandlocalfood.com/?p=767 )
Remember, this isn’t some massive conglomerate with endless supplies. These are a few good people growing some exceptional product. The important thing to remember is that these people are all around us trying to squeak out a living, trying to compete with the cheap gear from everywhere else. Look around and you’ll find them, they’re waiting at farmers markets ( www.bcfarmersmarket.org ) at road-side stands and always at their farms. And if you have a bit of extra time, try growing your own. It can’t hurt, just don’t tell anyone.
Friday, February 18, 2011
Sunday, February 6, 2011
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself" -Tolstoy
Recently I had a thought. "What the hell am I doing?" This past year I opened a deli, my first business. I've opened restaurants for other people but this was the first time on my dime. We opened with the intention of sourcing local, seasonal products and raw ingredients and using traditional, natural methods making a relatively wide array of charcuterie, soups, sauces and the like. Every month we would do a multi-course dinner focusing on what we have around us, partly as a creative outlet and partly as a lure to the potential customer.
For the most part we've done just that. We hold two dinners a month, all of our meats come from B.C. We try and make a point of knowing the farms we use, the people that run them, how the animals are treated, what they eat, the whole kit. We try to use local dairy and local produce and we try and support other local businesses with similar interests.
The operative word unfortunately is "try". When you're growing a new business or even just getting through day to day life, inevitably some things fall through the cracks. We don't always have time to source every single ingredient. We're used to having pretty much anything available to us at anytime. Most of us don't have time to search around for whats available locally, especially when we can go to one store and buy pants, vegetables, drugs, meat and a computer.
Personally that last sentence is so fantastically absurd, it actually upsets me a little. Have we become so lazy that we can over look any ethical or moral issue with the way these products found there way to this "one-stop-shop" solely on the basis of convenience?
Of course not. It's also cheap.
We can buy a crate of pants and a palate of vegetables and a barrel of drugs for a few hundred dollars. What savings! Sure I don't need that palate of vegetables, and ya, research shows that a good percentage of us throw away nearly half of the food we buy, but if I bought them when I needed them I'd go broke!
Now I'm sure we're all smart enough to see that if we're buying these quantities of product and throwing away half (of the perishable stuff anyway), the perceived savings have gone. This isn't the major issue though. if you look a little closer here, the problem is a lot bigger.
It effects our health, our communities, our countries and ultimately the planet. I will digress here because it would take a team of writers a long time to explain the situation with the current consumer habits and it's social and economic ramifications, so I will avoid that for the time being. I will however post links to various literature explaining everything from the health benefits of eating seasonally and locally, to the economic benefits, to something scientist are calling "the perpetual global food crisis"
I should also point out that I'm not trying to down-play the day to day lives or business practices of the good people around me. That's not the point. As I said at the start, "What the hell am I doing?'
The answer, I'm going to change.
I've set this blog up to document the transition of my business from kinda local to all local. Everything we learn will be posted here, from where and when products are available to who and how they're being produced all the way to what to do with them. In the end, I hope to be using totally local, ethical, seasonal and sustainable foods and resources to run my shop.
In this effort, I'd like to ask all who read this to offer any information, advice or experience that they can share, so that for some this can be a guide or at least an inspiration to do the same.
Welcome to the Local Food Theory.
For the most part we've done just that. We hold two dinners a month, all of our meats come from B.C. We try and make a point of knowing the farms we use, the people that run them, how the animals are treated, what they eat, the whole kit. We try to use local dairy and local produce and we try and support other local businesses with similar interests.
The operative word unfortunately is "try". When you're growing a new business or even just getting through day to day life, inevitably some things fall through the cracks. We don't always have time to source every single ingredient. We're used to having pretty much anything available to us at anytime. Most of us don't have time to search around for whats available locally, especially when we can go to one store and buy pants, vegetables, drugs, meat and a computer.
Personally that last sentence is so fantastically absurd, it actually upsets me a little. Have we become so lazy that we can over look any ethical or moral issue with the way these products found there way to this "one-stop-shop" solely on the basis of convenience?
Of course not. It's also cheap.
We can buy a crate of pants and a palate of vegetables and a barrel of drugs for a few hundred dollars. What savings! Sure I don't need that palate of vegetables, and ya, research shows that a good percentage of us throw away nearly half of the food we buy, but if I bought them when I needed them I'd go broke!
Now I'm sure we're all smart enough to see that if we're buying these quantities of product and throwing away half (of the perishable stuff anyway), the perceived savings have gone. This isn't the major issue though. if you look a little closer here, the problem is a lot bigger.
It effects our health, our communities, our countries and ultimately the planet. I will digress here because it would take a team of writers a long time to explain the situation with the current consumer habits and it's social and economic ramifications, so I will avoid that for the time being. I will however post links to various literature explaining everything from the health benefits of eating seasonally and locally, to the economic benefits, to something scientist are calling "the perpetual global food crisis"
I should also point out that I'm not trying to down-play the day to day lives or business practices of the good people around me. That's not the point. As I said at the start, "What the hell am I doing?'
The answer, I'm going to change.
I've set this blog up to document the transition of my business from kinda local to all local. Everything we learn will be posted here, from where and when products are available to who and how they're being produced all the way to what to do with them. In the end, I hope to be using totally local, ethical, seasonal and sustainable foods and resources to run my shop.
In this effort, I'd like to ask all who read this to offer any information, advice or experience that they can share, so that for some this can be a guide or at least an inspiration to do the same.
Welcome to the Local Food Theory.
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