Vancouver Declares September “Eat Local Month”
SEPTEMBER 24, 2007 - The city of Vancouver, BC, recently declared September to be "Eat Local Month." Our team of Shirlene and Kelly have been working hard to make this proclamation a reality by bringing the Eat Local Challenge to Vancouverites for the month. What better tribute than a delicious-sounding story from one of our area farmers?
Here is my "100 mile" story,except it's a "50 mile" story. This year we hosted Farm Folk/CityFolk for a luncheon and tour of the orchard. I told them it would be a true 50-Mile Diet lunch with plates, cups, saucers and cutlery, not throw-away items.
I served, all grown on our own property, a lettuce blend and herb salad, my ownfresh radish dressing with my homemade yogurt, our own "happy hens" egg salad,veggie plate in season, our own well water, and apple sauce with roasted pork loinfrom Pitt Meadow Meats. The only non-local items were the coffee andtea; the bread from Cobs here in Mission was not local grain. We toured the orchard to show them how we grow now under "Haygrove" crop tunnels with strawberries on "tables",and multicropping with apples, cherries and peaches . . .
"Feeding the World" (sometimes feels like it whenthe back is aching).
-Sonja and Raymond Barker, owners of Silverhill Apple Orchard in Mission, BC
Local readers note that peaches and cherries are hard crops to find grown in the Lower Mainland, so give them your support!
