Chilliwack Agricultural Tour.

On September 26th the Chilliwack Agricultural Commission invited Slow Food Vancouver to attend the 8th annual Chilliwack Agricultural Tour. The weather was stunning and it was a privilege to get a close-up look at four farming operations as well the greenhouse at Sardis Secondary School.

The first stop was Dutch Heritage Greenhouse which grows chrysanthemums year round. The plants are propagated and grown in an expansive greenhouse where autumn light conditions are simulated 12 months a year. Once the chrysanthemums are grown and harvested, the flowers are bundled and sent to the Burnaby flower auction. From there, the flowers make their way to local florists and grocery stores.
While many of us are buying local food, we may not think we can buy locally grown flowers. Check for the Dutch Heritage logo printed on the cellophane flower wrapping.

The next stop was Rosevale Farms, a family operated dairy. We were first taken into the spotless milking area. Second-generation owner Jeremy Wiebe explained that his 130 cows are milked twice a day, and thanks to a sophisticated computer system, the amount of milk produced by each cow is carefully monitored. Mr. Wiebe emphasized the importance of keeping the cows happy, well-fed and well-hydrated to maximize milk production.

According to Mr. Wiebe, BC’s approximately 575 dairy farms generate $600 million per year; employ approximately 4,000 people directly with an addition 9,000 jobs in related industries. Dairy farms account for about 15% of agricultural jobs in BC, and contribute approximately $100 million in taxes.

Berlo Farms was our next destination. The farm, which began by growing bulb flowers such as tulips, is now propagating seeds for vegetable crops including Brussels sprouts, broccoli, white cabbage, peppers and zucchini. We were given a demonstration a sowing machine which compacts soil into a frame, inserts seeds and gives them an initial spray of water to begin the germination process. The seedlings are then tended in the Berlo Farms greenhouse until they are mature enough to be sold to farmers who then plant them in their fields.

Berlo Farms also dedicates 30 acres to growing landscape trees.

The tour continued to Fantasy Farms, a family-owned business which is expanding into agri-tourism. Their haunted house was getting ready to host Halloween crowds. Tour participants were ferried to the pumpkin patch full of bright orange pumpkins waiting to be taken home. Fantasy Farms welcomes school groups and families to their pumpkin patch, while teens and adults can get a fright in the Haunted House. Plans are being made for future Christmas and Easter productions.

While at Fantasy Farms, tour participants were served a healthy and tasty meal prepared by Cookie’s Grill Catering. During lunch the Mayor of Chilliwack Sharon Getz and Minister of Agriculture and Lands Honourable Steve Thomson addressed the group. They stressed the importance of farming not only to the Chilliwack area, but also to BC’s economy. 

Last on the tour was a stop at Sardis Senior Secondary School, where the newly renovated greenhouse was already brimming with healthy tomato, cucumber and pepper plants. Students presented information about work they are doing—formulating a balanced fertilizer, operating the new, efficient irrigation system, and trimming the plants for maximum crop production. The students also displayed information about bug warfare: dealing with bad bugs by using good bugs.

This year’s agri-tour was an opportunity to meet Chilliwack producers and to understand some of the challenges they face as well as the benefits they add to our local economy.

—Josie Padro
Images: Chilliwack Agricultural Commission

Home Grown hits the high school circuit

SlowFoodie Josie Padro reports on Windemere High School’s award-winning garden initiative

Windermere High School Organic Garden Students are Digging Fresh Home-Grown Produce

by Josie Padro

In early March, row upon row of fledging basil plants took root in small pots at Vancouver’s Windermere High School.  It was natural light from the south-facing window that helped the plants mature. It was also the school’s new acquisition, a grow light, which bathed the seedlings in continuous light. While the sunny location and high-intensity light helped the basil flourish, it was energy harnessed from Windermere students that has made the garden project grow.

Concerned about the impact of food production and food choice on the environment, students wanted to make a local difference by starting an organic garden at their school. With the help of Slow Food Vancouver, Vancouver Coastal Health, Evergreen and EYA (Environmental Youth Alliance), they went to work persuading school officials to let them pilot a food garden at their high school. The result is a productive garden located in the school’s sunny court yard that contributes fresh produce to the school cafeteria.

Now in its second year the Windermere Organic Garden is well on its way with 12 raised beds the students built with help from their woodworking teacher. A dedicated team of boys has taken on the compost, regularly tending the five bins. Under the guidance of EYA staff, the students added a colony of mild-mannered mason bees to help pollinate the flowers and increase yield; and this March they won $3000 in the BC Green Games that will go toward building supplies for a greenhouse.  Thanks to all the friends of Slow Food who voted for them and helped them to win!  They also received a $500 gift from Slow Food Vancouver early in the year to help built the extra raised beds.

 

The organic garden project has created a student community at Windermere, bridging all grade levels. It’s become such a favourite among students that, often, 40 to 50 teens will show up for an after-school workshop. Not only are they learning lessons about how to grow their own food, but they are also gaining practical lessons in chemistry, woodworking, team building, environmental stewardship and social responsibility.
Hopes for this year’s garden are running high. The basil plants have been planted outside. Also thriving are several types of lettuce, herbs, carrots, zucchini, squash, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and garlic. The garden will provide fresh, economical and environmentally friendly ingredients for the school cafeteria. It will also continue to provide a constant source of learning for the student’s fertile minds.

Food for thought/thoughts on food

So let’s get started.  First question: are we paying too much for our food?  The Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation thinks we do. Or at least some of us are paying too much. According to their numbers, 47% of Canadians are foregoing some of the basics such as fresh fruit and vegetables, dairy products, and meat and fish at least some of the time because of cost.  A recently-released study showed a wide discrepancy in grocery costs nationwide. Whole wheat pasta, for example, ranged from a low of $2.00 in Barrie, Ontario to a whopping $11 in Dawson, Yukon.  Meanwhile, prices for such staples as potato chips, soda pop, and packaged cookies were about the same everywhere.  What gives?

And yet, food guru Michael Pollan argues that North Americans are paying way too little for food.  It’s a hard sell – after all, who really wants to fork over more money to the supermarket giants, who already seem to be doing quite nicely on our dime, thanks. But, argues Pollan and others, food prices are kept artificially low by government subsidies to Big Agriculture, with its heavy reliance on monocultures such as corn and soya production,  and don’t reflect the true costs of producing high-quality, diversified food stuffs.  On the surface at least, this sounds like the elitist complaints of someone who spends too much time at Whole Foods, comparing prices for organic arugula and too little time feeding the family every night from the less esoteric options at Costco. But Pollan points out that, without these massive subsidies, responsible for such modern miracles of nutritional alchemy as high fructose corn syrup, Coca Cola, for one example, would become much more expensive, hence less desirable as belly filler, thus freeing up both valuable money and appetite for other, better options. 

So how much is too much? Surely no one should have to pay nearly six times the going price for a pound of pasta, just because of geography. But just as surely in a sensible world a litre of nutritionally valueless Coke would cost more than a litre of milk.   

The Intrepid Appetite

You have to understand that I am not normally an adventurous eater. As a small child, I was taught to fear garlic. Salt, pepper, and rarely, a sliver of dried bay leaf floating in a watery stew were the seasonings that normally graced our family table.  It was not until my early 20s that I truly learned to enjoy food, to appreciate that it came in a variety of surprising tastes and textures.

So the appetite in this blog’s title is not mine. It belongs to my husband, a fearless consumer of nearly all things edible, and some that are not. He is also a consummate tinkerer around the kitchen, and a genuinely accomplished cook. For the seven years I’ve known him, he has been a vegetarian (or, more accurately, a pescatarian, that is, he eats fish and seafood, but nothing with fur or feathers. For him, it’s an ethical choice, and one that I respect but don’t share).  A retired pilot, he has never found a technical manual he couldn’t love, or a tool he could resist.  From a silky vichyssoise to a down-home mac and cheese, he is on a perpetual quest for the perfect recipe. He is my culinary hero.

With this blog I hope to share some of our adventures and discoveries with food, as well as the occasional recipe. We’ll fuel some lively discussion about the provenance and ethics of what we eat, and live and dine vicariously through the culinary journeys of others.  I’m not sure where we’ll go, what we’ll talk about, or who will be joining us. I am sure, however, that there is no end to the conversation.  Food is more than the stuff that sates our hunger, or the recipes that clutter up our bookshelves and hard drives. Food is social as well as cultural.  What we eat has political and economic implications.  Our choices are driven by ethics, aesthetics, and sometimes indifference.