An Island Feast

Sometime after we landed here in the summer, I noticed something pretty swell. The food was amazing.

I mentioned this to my Nail Gal one day and got a completely blank look in response. She was, no doubt, mentally reviewing the very limited selection of restaurants in town, trying to figure out what on earth I was referring to. No, I wasn't referring to the restaurant food, I'm talking about the home cooking food.

Back in Manila I was pretty frustrated over the quality of produce (mangoes notwithstanding). It wasn't very fresh. The problem, I think, was distribution. Trucks and jeepneys carrying produce from farms to market in the city traveled quite a distance in the heat, in unairconditioned trucks and jeepneys, and it took quite a beating. It was often hard to find things, and you had to look carefully and what there was, often was a big disappointment. By the time it got to store shelves, it had already lost a lot, and went bad very quickly. Outdoor markets weren't much better, as it was so hot.

Here on Vancouver Island where I live now, FRESH is the name of the game.

Every Saturday morning in Qualicum Beach there is a great farmer's market in town. Local fruit and vegetable growers, as well as organic meat and poultry producers display and sell the freshest, most delicious stuff - some items picked that very morning. It's as much a social event as it is a market. There is a town square feel to the morning, as townspeople (and their dogs) wander around, meeting up with the neighbours and chatting. Musicians play. Every week there will be something different on display as the cycle of food production unfolds through the season. Varieties that I've never tasted before are available and it soon becomes apparent how much the flavour is compromised when the produce is bred for traveling long distances to market. I once bought cherry tomatoes that blew me away - a totally different flavour from the supermarket ones I'd had before - a completely different beast. Over time I've gotten to know some of the vendors and heard their stories. It's a new treat to actually know the people who grow your food. For sure, they select the very best for display and sale at their stands.

The meat and poultry - all organic and free range, is another eye opener. Here's a story about FRESH. One Saturday morning I was at the stall of one of the guys I buy meat from, waiting my turn, and listening to the conversation the couple beside me was having with the vendor. He brings his chicken and pork to market in a big freezer, and the male half of the couple was saying that he would prefer fresh, not frozen. The vendor replied, "Well on Wednesday we butcher the pigs, Thursday we make the sausages, and Friday we butcher the chickens. You are welcome to come out to the farm and pick up the fresh meat on those days, just give us a call".

A new definition of "fresh".

If you miss the Saturday market, during the week you can drive down the road five minutes to the farm shops some of the producers have and buy "picked that morning" produce. Also five minutes down the road is the French Creek marina, which is for the most part a working fishing boat marina where the daily catch is offloaded to the seafood building and packed into trucks to take it away for distribution to points across Canada and beyond. There, they have a small retail shop where we have bought salmon, halibut, scallops, oysters, clams, mussels, shrimps and other fish I haven't tried yet. Fresh out of the drink. Normally I don't eat raw oysters, but I made an exception and it was awesome.

Also nearby is The Little Qualicum Cheeseworks that makes fantastic cheeses. A little further down the road there are wineries and cideries and fruit farms. Sometimes someone has wild chanterelle mushrooms for sale at the market. In August and September the blackberries are everywhere along the roads and I kept containers in the car, to stop and pick berries under the sunshine (some even made it home to the kitchen). Here in the backyard The Pot House is not just limited to ornamentals. Growing in pots outside the back door we have arugula, kale, mesclun, rosemary, thyme, basil, cilantro and lettuce. Sean and Mark, the Brother Carpenters, are erecting the greenhouse right now so no doubt over the winter the edibles will share space with the fuchsias.

A few years ago a Vancouver couple decided to spend a year eating local, everything was produced within a 100 mile radius of their home. They wrote a book about it, The 100 Mile Diet, a good read. Well these past few months, it seems we've been eating The 10 Mile Diet.

I've never eaten so well before.