Please come and join contributors Eve Joseph, Rhona McAdam, Sheila Norgate, Cynthia Woodman Kerkham and Patricia Young in celebrating this anthology of prose and poetry, which celebrates mothers of the 1950s. At Planet Earth Poetry this Friday, 7:30pm.
Before April goes out like a lamb, let me share some cow’s milk cheeses with you – much enjoyed at the Cheese & Blues event that Hilary’s Cheese presented in Cowichan Bay last week. Pictured to the left is the king of British cheese, Colston Bassett Stilton, which goes down well with port generally but which paired acceptably with the blackberry dessert wine on offer that evening.
Don Genova was the honorary cheesemaster, forging his way through cloth-wrapped cheddars (Keen’s and Avonlea) and hefty wheels of Shropshire Blue alongside Hilary and Patty. The cheeses – except for the PEI cheddar – had been imported from my spiritual home-from-home, Neals Yard Dairy in Covent Garden, London.
Sunday evening I joined a poet’s dozen (i.e. I lost count) and read a poem from the 
magnificent new anthology, Force Field – 77 Women Poets of BC, introduced by publisher-poet Mona Fertig, and hosted by contributor Yvonne Blomer. The place was packed, the readers disciplined and the audience appreciative. We drizzled off through the rain to a delightful after-party where we solved a few of the world’s problems before retiring.
Last night was the long-awaited Food Talks event at the Belfry, where this year’s local 
Food Champs were invited to speak their piece before the winner was named. Some superb nominees both present and unable to be there included: Maryanne Carmack – for the Victoria Downtown Public Market Society (Victoria’s public market opens July 2013); Haliburton farmer Derek Powell – for his involvement in Victoria’s Food Swap Program; Miranda Lane – who works with people with multiple challenges at the Community Kitchens Network; Kim Cummins – for the Camosun FarmBox Program which organizes markets and food boxes at local college campuses; Naomi Lyons – for Stone Soup‘s community building and micro-lending fundraising; Dwane Maclsaac – for the Island Chef Collaborative‘s micro-finance initiative; Elizabeth Upton – on behalf of Meadowbrook Farmily (4 local Victoria families that farm together); Jeanette Sheehy – for LifeCycles‘ many projects, but particularly the Growing Schools project; the Salt Spring Agriculture Alliance – for the community abattoir; and the Sooke Food CHI for their work on the Sunriver Community Gardens and Sooke farm bike tour.
And the winner was… Miranda Lane, Community Kitchens Network, with Kim Cummins, Camosun FarmBox a close second. She is shown below with CRFAIR coordinator Linda Geggie, evening MC chef Heidi Fink, and Kim Cummins. Other pics L-R: chef Heidi with chef Dwane MacIsaac, Naomi Lyons, Derek Powell, Kim Cummins, Elizabeth Upton.
Last Wednesday Slow Food Vancouver Island hosted a celebration of “merroir” as we supped on seafood at The Superior.
Events got off to a briny start with a good hour of oyster shucking by Slow Foodies Kyle Hunker and Cory Pelan. No oyster lingered on the plate for more th
an a sea-second before being quaffed with or without the accompanying Gravenstein apple mignonette.
After this, we settled in for a preview of the pleasures to come by chef Oliver Kienast, who had organized a meal ample in local, seasonal, sustainable and Ark of Taste foods. First up were darling little fish-balls made from salt cured lingcod and served with a salad that included miner’s lettuce and other seasonal greens. Then there was halibut, garnished with crab and rhubarb and accompanied by an emmer and wild rice risotto-ish dish and oleracea (brassica) shoots. After a pause, a platter of Fry’s Red Fife wheat bread arrived with a dish of butter, swiftly followed by clams with Whole Beast chorizo and cranberry beans, fermented fennel, sea lettuce and a seafood broth. The sweet cicely biscuits were a suitable finish, after which the silent auction items – including such desirable items as Vancouver Island Salt, a signed copy of Seasonings: Flavours of the Southern Gulf Islands by Andrea & David Spalding, and a stay at Sooke Harbour House – were distributed and we dispersed, slowly and foodily.
All blissfully quiet at my end of the Gorge these days, now that Craigflower Bridge has been closed for rebuilding and traffic re-routed. I was gratified to learn that not only were there viable 
oyster beds in the Gorge, but the planners had taken steps to relocate and preserve them so that the construction does not do away with this rare species (for the next eight months or so). These are our native Olympia oysters, not the Pacific upstarts introduced from Japan that now dominate the West Coast’s shoreline and oyster farming operations. I happened to pass what I assume to be the relocation action as it was unfolding and snapped them at it.
Meanwhile, I’ve been spreading myself thin in recent weeks, trying to keep up with different social media (Twitter, Facebook and most recently Pinterest), working on some of my own writing, and going nose to grindstone with my holistic nutrition studies. We’re deep into preventive nutrition this month, studying up on nutritional approaches to digestive, blood sugar, cardiovascular and arthritic conditions. Quite a ride.
On Friday I returned from Nanaimo via Salt Spring Island where the community abattoir was officially launched with an open house in the drizzly rain. I’d visited earlier this year but was interested to have a look at the finished structure. There is more work to be done if larger animals (cattle) are to be slaughtered here, but it’s up and running for poultry, rabbit, goat and lamb. It’s going very well so far: an arrangement with a local farmer has meant all the offal and skins are being composted, which has taken one of the main economic headaches for an abattoir out of the picture, and has solid community support – no small achievement for this kind of business.
Saturday I took in a workshop on perennial fruit crops at ALM Farm in Sooke, in which farmer Jordan took us for a tour of the farm’s apple, pear, fig and plum trees, kiwi vines, strawberries, raspberries, rhubarb, Jerusalem artichokes, hazelnuts, gooseberries, herbs and asparagus before I had to whistle off to take my place behind my books, alongside the Haliburton farmers at the Reynolds School Eco-Fair
. It was a lively and well-attended event with speakers including Green Party leader Elizabeth May and Brandy Gallagher from O.U.R. Ecovillage, and lots of well-chosen information tables, including Pedal to Petal, LifeCycles, Growing Young Farmers, Organic Gardeners Pantry, BC Sustainable Energy Association and more. The Hali stand was peddling organic food boxes (CSA subscriptions), seeds, plants and good advice.
Last night’s talk by Vandana Shiva left a sold out auditorium at the University of Victoria humming with righteous energy.
She reported with eloquent passion on the state of food in the world today, leading with the unfortunate news of the “Monsanto protection act” which Obama signed only a couple of days ago, and which protects the biotech industry from any liability for the harm it may cause.
And biotech is causing great harm. It has not increased yields or fed more people or reduced the use of chemicals in agriculture. The yields are the same, for it is the nature of the seed, not the pesticide technology that governs yield; 90% of the GM soy and corn crops grown are not grown for human consumption, but for animal feed or fuel; and now that Roundup has created Roundup-resistant weeds, the biotech crops need to be doused in Agent Orange to keep the weeds down. The fact remains that the vast majority of people, globally, are being fed by small farms, and this remains the only hope for feeding the world in the future.
She acknowledged that we are living in tyrannical times, but said there was still much we 
can do. The small rebellions can be the most satisfying. When the British tried to place a monopoly on salt in India, Gandhi’s response was to wade into the ocean and show that nature provides what we need. Similarly, when multinationals inject genetic material into plants and claim ownership, they are playing god. Our individual response should be to save seeds, she says. Even something in a flowerpot on your balcony will do it.
And there was much more, of course. Watch for a video record of her talk which I’m told will be posted on UVic’s website next week.
