Shopping

In the Lower Mainland we are fortunate to be surrounded by rich agricultural land that produces food for our area as well as across Canada. Circle Farm Tours highlight some of the great food producers in the Fraser River area. The tours are self-guided and focus on a small region such as Abbotsford, Langley, Mission.

This past weekend I checked out the Agassiz-Harrison Mills Circle Farm Tour and made a few stops.

While vending Midnight Kitchen cookie dough at Granville Island over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to get to know many talented local food producers. I am in love with the chocolates made by ChocolaTas! The chocolates are stunningly beautiful and equally delectable. Check them out this weekend until Sunday.

[ROLAND's NOTE]: This looks great! Costs look reasonable for this kind of oil ($17.99 for 500ml to $120 for 5 litres). Rebecca or Rachel: It would be great if we could check your oil out over on this side of the bridge (we missed the West Van Market showing today). Any plans to be at one of the Farmers Markets or Granville Island?

A reader emailed us asking for suggestions where to purchase items such as plantain, breadfruit, spices, etc. for Caribbean recipes. And we came up blank. Can anybody suggest some Caribbean shops?

Barb and the other members of Slow Food Vancouver had an amazing tour of the Oyama Sausage (Granville Island, 604 327 7407) factory tonight.

Barb will blog more later, but here are some photos to whet your appetite.

Coco et Olive Fine Foods (3476 Broadway West, 604 736-7080) has a great fig tapenade for $3.99 for a hundred grams. Just a hint of fig and a wonderful texture (watch out because there a few very small pit fragments left). Recommended!

Today, we tried the large stollen ($12.95) from Andy's Bakery (935 Commercial, 604 251-5657) . Moist and flavourful. Mmmmm highly recommended!

Since the East Van Farmers Market ended, we've been thinking about signing up with SPUD to have organic produce delivered. I've been finding it just too easy to pick up conventional produce rather than going out of my way to buy organic. I finally got around to signing up and ordering and today we received our first order. I'm throroughly impressed!