Slow Food Vancouver celebrates local food—and the people who produce it —with Terra Madre Day, December 10, at the Italian Cultural Centre

Meet the people who grow your veggies, find out about Community Supported Agriculture, and enjoy samples dished up by local chefs using home grown ingredients.

Learn about this year’s international Terra Madre conference, held in Torino, Italy from our knowledgeable delegates Mark Bomford, Heather Pritchard, Joanne McKinnon and many more.

Admission by donation. Find out more at slowfoodvancouver.com.

Co-sponsored by FarmFolkCityFolk and the Italian Cultural Centre.

Date:  December 10, 2010
Time: 6:30 to 9:30 pm
Location:  Italian Cultural Centre, 3075 Slocal Street (at Grandview Highway between Renfrew and Nanaimo)

3075 Slocan Street (at Grandview Highway between Renfrew and Nanaimo), 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm.

Here’s the info on Slow Foods Vancouver’s cycle tour of the Fraser Valley.  Friends of our rave about this bike tour, the whole family goes and it’s one of the highlights of their summer.

Slow Food Vancouver is happy to invite you to join us in Agassiz on Saturday, August 21st, and in Chilliwack on Sunday, August 22nd, for two leisurely, self-guided Slow Food Vancouver Cycle Tours.

These tours provide an educational and culinary experience exploring many farms, some that are open to the public on these days only.  Meet the farmers and learn about sustainable farming, your food and how it’s grown.

Net proceeds from the cycle tours support our delegates attending Terra Madre 2010, an event that teaches best farming practices and supports small-scale sustainable farming.

Global issues such as climate change make supporting our local food producers essential.  This is an event that is suitable for families of all ages.  Come for one tour, or spend the night and do both.

Register online at www.slowfoodvancouver.com or for questions please email cycletours@slowfoodvancouver.com.  We look forward to having you join us!

Open Feb. 11 – Mar. 21 2010

We generate a huge amount of trash during the holidays, all in the name of giving.

Metro Vancouver is encouraging us to cut down on our holiday trash.

Here are some suggestions:

• Give great gifts, but don’t buy garbage. When trying to decide between two gifts, choose the one with the least amount of packaging.
• Give the gift of time. Offer your services or expertise as a present. Make dinner, knit a sweater or plan a special day out.
• Give an experience. Dinner, tickets to the movies or a hockey game, or passes to the local skating rink.
• Give a gift that lasts. Pass on a family heirloom or start your own tradition.
• Give a group gift. Pool resources with a few people to give a high quality gift.
• Give a gift wrapped in newspaper. Reuse a ribbon to fancy it up.
• Give your garbage can a break! Visit www.metrovancouverrecycles.org for a comprehensive list of things that can be donated, reused or recycle.

If you’ve got some holiday waste tips, you can share them with others on the Metro Vancouver website.  Here are some waste tips already submitted.

Here’s the video they did to get the point across:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jC_LUpbZdOY

There’s been a lot of talk of waste management and zero waste in the region, as Metro Vancouver updates the Solid Waste Plan that guides how the region deals with its garbage. Although we have one of the highest diversion rates in the country – diverting 55% of the garbage we produce to recycling or composting – this is a far cry from the target of 70% by 2015 and 100% (Zero Waste) eventually…

Small and mid-sized businesses (SMEs) contribute significantly to the region’s overall trash burden, and yet waste diversion systems and services are not typically well-suited to the needs and realities of smaller businesses. SME businesses need to get creative and collaborate to reduce waste and the greenhouse gas emissions from waste decomposition. This event will focus on how businesses can collaborate to work towards the 5 R’s waste hierarchy of reduce, reuse, recycle, recover and manage residuals.

Join Us!

This event will introduce you to innovative ways to reduce, exchange and divert your business’ waste. A short panel will be followed by dialogue on how small businesses can collaborate to reduce waste and how LoCo can support them.

Louise Schwarz of Recycling Alternative (RA), will share the results of RA’s Zero Waste Pilot. The pilot has worked with a hotel, a restaurant and an office building since May 2009 to divert 100% of waste from our region’s landfills. RA has offered businesses the systems and training to divert recyclables, compostables and electronics from their waste streams. Come and hear the learning from this exciting project by RA, a leader in the waste management industry and in green business practices.

Toby Barrazzuol, Eclipse Awards and Chair of the Strathcona Business Improvement Association’s (SBIA) Sustainability Committee, presents the work of the SBIA’s Materials Exchange Network. The Network connects SBIA businesses to reuse materials, reduce waste, reduce costs, and recycle materials. Come and hear about their early successes and plans for expansion.

Appetizers will be provided. Cash bar.

Loco BC’s hosting this event on December 8th,  at the Granville Room, 957 Granville Street.

5:30 to 7:30 pm

You must register – and their last even sold out, so do it soon !

Register here

There’s a lot of really great, hard data here, packed into a concise presentation.  If you’re a small business owner,  you don’t always have access to this kind of research.

This presentation by Kierstin De West of Conscientious Innovation (Ci) contains tons of relevant, recent data about what consumers think about when they think about sustainability and ‘buying local’.

Kierstin is making her presentation available under a Creative Commons license, so you can use the material as long as you give them credit.

She presented some of her company’s recent research findings at  launch of LoCo BC.

Kierstin’s full presentation is here in three different forms:

Screencast, audio Podcast, and a PDF copy of her presentation.  Tip: You’ll find the data graphs a lot easier to read in the PDF .

If you want more details, or to get some custom research for your company, contact her at Conscientious Innovation.  They also have a number of follow up studies in the field right now.

Screencast: The cultural shift to sustainability and the importance of local

Podcast: Here’s the audio only podcast of Kiestin’s presentation:

Runs:  20:26
ISBN: 978-1-926758-05-3

If you’d rather get it on iTunes, here’s the direct link.

PDF: Here’s a copy of Kierstin’s presentation in PDF format

Video, Podcast and PDF are licensed under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada

Kierstin played a video by League of Gentlemen at the presentation. As it turns out, the wrong clip ran at the time, but through the magic of the internet,  you can see the one she meant to show here.  It is hilarious.

Amy Robinson presented an overview of LoCo BC, a new business network working to create a diverse, vibrant local economy by strengthening small and mid-sized businesses, connecting and having fun in the process.

As well as Amy’s presentation, Kierstin De West of Conscientious Innovation (Ci) presented info on her company’s latest research intelligence in the area of local and sustainability, and just why it’s such a hot-button right now.  And I was there to talk about digital media and how best to use it as part of business plan.  Kierstin’s presentation is here,  and I’ll post my presentations in a couple of days.

Since I was there as a guest speaker, I’ve put together a screen-cast of Amy’s  presentation here.

Further down the page you can just grab the audio version, or the PDF (or all three !)

Here’s the screencast of  Amy’s presentation, which will give you a good picture of what LoCo BC is all about, and you should email her after you’ve watched/listened to it  because I’m sure you’ll want to get involved…

Podcast: If you’d rather just listen to the podcast, it’s here:

Runs:  15:45
ISBN: 978-1-926758-04-6

If you’d rather get it on iTunes, here’s the direct link.

PDF: And here’s a copy of Amy’s presentation in PDF format.

Podcast and video licensed under Creative Commons license: Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada

An evening with author, photographer, farmer and founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture in California, Michael Ableman.

Michael Ableman will inspire us with stories and powerful photographic images of the sustainable agriculture models this award winning author, photographer and Salt Spring Island farmer has seen in his world travels. Michael will present examples of individuals who are using their community land, backyard gardens and urban farms to create socially and ecologically responsible ways of growing delicious fresh food.

Michael Ableman has written several books and lectures extensively on food, culture and sustainability worldwide. Michael founded the Centre for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens near San Francisco, a model for small scale urban agriculture.

Michael is currently farming at Foxgrove Farm on Saltspring Island where he has initiated the Centre for Arts, Ecology and Agriculture.

For more event information please go to www.ediblegardenproject.com

To learn more about Michael Ableman see www.foxglovefarmbc.ca & www.fieldsofplenty.com

Tickets:

All tickets $10

Tickets available through Centennial Theatre Box Office: 604 984 4484

Date: Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Time: 7:30 pm
Location: Centennial Theatre, 2300 Londsdale, North Vancouver

More info and tickets:   www.centennialtheatre.com
Presented by Vancouver Coastal Health, North Shore Neighbourhood House, and the Edible Garden Project.

Just wrapping up its 4th year, the the project encourages residents to share their bounty with people in need, as well as putting together a variety of urban agriculture and community garden projects.

This week, Heather and team opened the  Queen Mary Community Garden, located in the City of North Vancouver.  Those of you who aren’t from the North Shore may not be aware that there is both City of North Vancouver, and a District of North Vancouver.  Heather’s project involves both municipalities.

Earlier this summer, I spoke to Heather about the project and where things are going with urban agriculture on the North Shore. We met up at the Lower Lonsdale Community Garden…

Runs: 11:01

Podcast ISBN: 978-1-926758-03-9
photos and podcast © Robert Ouimet & Bigsnit Media 2009

I gotta say.

Taking fresh organic vegetables out of the garden in the morning, and by early afternoon seeing them transformed into beautiful jars of food we can eat months from now, is, well…

Super.Hot.

And knowing that they’ll taste ten times better than anything I’m going to find in the supermarket, is well…

Really.Really.Super.Hot.

All that’s involved is:

• a little simple chemistry with water, vinegar, sugar & salt.
• some spices and seeds (like mustard) for taste.

Way back, when I first tried making pickles and other canned goodies, I used to phone my grandma or my mom for advice.

Today, I just have to lean over the counter to the keyboard and Bing!,  within seconds I’ve got dozens of detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to make the very best [name your preserve] EVER!

It’s like having an entire old folks home full of grandmas at your disposal – even better since almost all come with reviews by people who’ve tried them.

The other thing is, this canning stuff doesn’t have to take over your life.  You can easily put up just a few jars without turning your life (and your kitchen) into a cannery.  Crank up the tunes, turn the burner up high, and go for it.

Today, for instance, I did 4 jars pickled beets, and 1 of picked jalapeno peppers.

Now that’s sexy.

Ok, maybe my excitement has a tiny bit to do with the fact that I’m still recovering from septicemia.

But still.  I haven’t been this excited since EB showed me her…

Well, never mind.