Table Champetre translates to country table, and being that this local food experience is held in a field, with food from the area farmers prepared by one of the Comox Valley’s newest Chefs, there’s no doubt the title is quite appropriate.

The event will take place at Tannadice Farm in Courtenay, BC on July 26th, with food prepared by Chef Ronald St. Pierre of the Valley’s very popular Locals Restaurant. Tickets are on sale now, so if you plan on being in the Comox Valley at this time, or considering a Summer Island excursion, this might just be the perfect dinner event.

I photographed some of Chef Ronald’s creations this week as part of a larger project (exciting details to come soon!) and I don’t think I’ve ever met a chef with a more outward sense of humor. During the shoot, he literally brought out a 4′ long painted ceramic fish and, holding it up towards me, asked “Shall we put this in the background of the gazpacho?” His humour, combined with his culinary skills and the local food scene in the Comox Valley will surely make this event a success.

This Photo Friday’s shots: from the Chefs Table Society who provided delicious local food at the Michael Pollan event at UBC Farm. Fitting for the season we’re in, and with what’s on the horizon for me.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Cheers,

Jackie

It took roughly 4 weeks to grow.

It was gone in roughly seven minutes.

I feel like I was meant to do this, and I can’t imagine my life without it.

My first harvest from my first garden: lettuce!

I’ve been writing about the development of my first vegetable garden, and I have found it impossible to keep up. Things have been growing back there at an alarming rate, and I feel like I am merely a bystander. I have completely avoided any chemicals, fertilizers, and other nasty things in both the soil and the growing process which I’m very happy about. I feel good that when we harvest, the food we’ll be putting into our bodies isn’t contaminated by anything.

But that brings me to the point of this post…I had my first harvest! It was just lettuce, not terribly exciting in the world of vegetables, but totally exciting in the world of growing my own food. And I decided to make wraps. Again, not terribly exciting in the world of food, but I was hungry and needed to finish off some goat cheese that was in the fridge.

Up next: zucchinis are doubling in size in what seems like a daily basis, carrots are sprouting, and sunflowers have been planted. Considering growing potatoes in a bucket.

In May I wrote about the food event Defending Our Backyard, put on by the Island Chefs Collaborative at Fort Rodd Hill, and I wanted to share just a few shots from the event.

There was great food, amazing initiatives and groups, and of course very tasty local beer and wine (yes, my mother and I tracked down a glass to share and sampled a bit at the tail end of the event, once my work was done).

Enjoy!

Wheat from Makaria Farm in the Cowichan Valley

The folks from Ragley Organic Farm

It’s that time of year again; early bird tickets to the Lowe Mainland Feast of Fields are now on sale online here. Get ‘em while they’re hot!

Feast of Fields is the major annual fundraiser for Farm Folk/City Folk, a local Vancouver non-profit society that works with farm & city to cultivate a local, sustainable food system. They develop and operate projects that provide access to & protection of foodlands; that support local, small scale growers and producers; and that educate, communicate and celebrate with local food communities.

Now, more than ever, food security and local food efforts are rapidly growing in importance, and this is a great event held at UBC Farm to enjoy some great local food, wine and beer and relax on the farm.

I’ll be photographing the event for the 3rd year in a row, and my advice to you would be to forget your childhood rules of eating dinner before dessert, and head straight for the gelato to beat the massive line up!

See you there!

As a food photographer who shares in the belief of the importance of local food and supporting our farmers that grow it, there are few things more totally awesome than being welcome to shoot a few food and local farming people enjoy a fabulous lunch in a farmers garden of all places.

This is what I had the opportunity to photograph, prior to Michael Pollan’s talk and book signing on his latest book, In Defense of Food. Having written about his books in previous blog posts, and since then seeing his name pop up in documentaries and casual conversations with friends, it’s clear that people identify with what he’s saying. To quote Michael and the premise behind In Defense of Food:

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”

The day was beautiful, the food was delicious and nutritious, and the company was inspiring. Thank you Barbara Jo and Carol for welcoming me and for organizing the event; and to Mark & Samara for hosting everyone at UBC Farm, and to Vikram & Meeru Vij for filling our stomachs with such tasty Indian cuisine (and for that chick pea & mung bean recipe that I have yet to perfect, but will continue to try!). And thank you of course to Michael Pollan for being part of this movement towards more local, more nutritious, food.

Mid week last week (yes, I will admit my blog postings are not quite keeping up with my real life occurrences) was a solid day of participating in the local food scene, and further opening my eyes to even more of the issues that face our food security, our health, and our agriculture. It was truly inspiring in every sense of the word.

First, a fellow food blogger and I visited the season opener of the Main Street Farmers Market. A seriously central location (Main and Terminal, in front of the Greyhound station), and certainly no lack of vendors with local produce and crafts; I was impressed. We both intended to simply check it out, but that all ended as soon as we saw cake; fluffy, delicious cake. We ate cake, bought produce and Mammoth Sunflower plants, and had to drop everything off at our respective houses before heading to the next spot. Oh, and we went reusable bag-less. Dumb. Thank you Vancity for helping us out with this, made carrying all that produce home much easier.

Next we stopped in at Chill Winston for a quick bite of Ahi Tuna Salad, Ginger Tofu Rice bowl, and a glass of Joie Noble Blend. Yum! We had hoped for a seat on the patio, but apparently on a sunny mid-week at 5.30pm everyone else had the same idea.

The final stop of the evening was at the UBC Robson Square Campus to see a film screening of the documentary FRESH. Literally straight out of Michael Pollan’s talk about his book In Defense of Food this past weekend at UBC Farm (photos from that coming tomorrow), we heard from Pollan along with others including farmers/promoters of local, non-antibiotic/hormone/pesticide farming Will Allen, Joel Salatin, George Naylor and Diana Endicott in this documentary by ana Sofia joanes. Sending a message about our food system, it’s production methods it’s premise drove home the important that we have to, and can make a difference by, voting with our forks for local food and the farmers who grow it. A great line from the film that has stuck with me since seeing it is “Food is at the foundation, but it’s really about life.”  Well said Mr. Allen.

The market season is kicking off at UBC Farm this Saturday June 13th, and I’m not just talking about produce for sale, though I’m looking forward to picking up some locally grown strawberries! There will be lots of entertainment and activities to do, a pancake breakfast, and it’s also the official launch of the Vancouver 100-Mile diet Foodshed Map.

UBC Farm Produce this weekend will include arugula, lettuce heads, eggs (these always go fast), garlic scapes, herbs, rhubarb, radishes, ruby streaks, salad mix and strawberries.

Here’s is the schedule of events for the day:

• UBC Farm Saturday Market   9:00am to 1:00pm

• 100-Mile Pancake Breakfast    9:00am to 11:00am (or until they run out, get’em early!) with Chef Ian Lai

• Speakers: Mark Bomford and Kelly Kuryk   9:30am to 9:45am

• UBC Farm Tours    10:00am – 10:30am

• Beehive Tours   11:00am – 12:00pm

• Music – Upbeat acoustic roots: Betz  9:00-11:00; Old-time string band: Shout! White Dragon  11:00am-1:00pm

• Ongoing Tool sharpening with Henk Suys from Lee Valley ($5/tool), bike maintenance provided by the UBC Bike Co-op (by donation), children’s activities.

And if you haven’t taken a wander past the market, past the greenhouse, and the next greenhouse, and hang a left through the clay archway you’ll find the Children’s Garden. It’s pretty awesome to see what they’ve plated over there, and there’s a picnic table to sit and enjoy a picnic lunch with the garden as your backdrop. Beautiful!

UBC Farm address: 6182 South Campus Road; here is a map.

See you there!

I would like you all to meet Naz Ilcin, my trusted, fearless, hard-working assistant.  And my dog loves her too, which is a nice perk. I like to think of Naz as my ‘mini-me’; we’ve both broken our elbows doing stupid things (me-tripping in the snow; her-slipping on hardwood floor), we both have food sensitivities (me-dairy, wheat; her-spicy foods), and we both love to shoot food.

A bit about Naz:
At work I try to be professional, attentive and as hard working as I can be. When I first start working with a photographer I like to study their every move, I learn their likes and dislikes, how they work and especially, what they expect of me. I believe it’s important to know these things about each other to really make the partnership work. Outside of work I’m a pretty silly person, I like to spend lots of time with friends, go out for dinner or a movie, or just hang out at a pub and shoot some pool.

Is there a certain food or dish that reminds you of home?
Crepes. When I go back home to Turkey to visit family, my cousins and I would get up early and make crepes for the whole family, we would eat it with feta cheese and my grandmother’s home made strawberry or sour cherry jam.

What is the ideal Naz meal?
A big bowl of spaghetti with light tomato sauce, few herbs and diced tomato. Spaghetti is my comfort food!

What are you having for dinner tonight?
Chicken cooked in honey garlic sauce with a side of pasta.

Is there one food that you can’t stand to eat?
Other than shrimp/prawns and fish I’m not a very big fan of seafood, mussels being my least favorite.

Do you have a preference: dining out or eating in?
I really like to cook, so most of the time I prefer eating in.