Finally, it’s here! The second edition of Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands is now available at most bookstores across British Columbia and you can also order it online here.
For this new edition we’ve added Pacific Palate to the title, as this book really brings you the best tastes available in this region. I introduce you to the many talented and passionate people and companies throughout the region―all working to promote a growing food culture. Meet the local food artisans and learn about their history, discover favourite offerings, and get a sense of how well you can eat if you buy local.
Organized into six regions―Comox Valley, Cowichan Valley, Mid-Island, Greater Victoria, Saanich Peninsula, and the Gulf Islands―the book provides complete sourcing information and the stories behind some of the best produce, dairy, chocolate, honey, sauces, meats, seafoods, baked goods, and beverages to be found on the islands.
The book also includes Saturday Sojourns―tips for spending a toothsome and memorable day in each region. Open the door to the islands’ food network and discover high-quality food products made with love and care right here. With over 160 profiles, an intro to the language and labelling around local food, and six detailed maps to set you on the path, Pacific Palate is your guide to the best of the islands’ edible abundance.
If you happen to be in Victoria on Tuesday, August 8th, please join me for the official book launch at Russell Books in downtown Victoria.
I grew up in a family where my mother spent much of her day in the kitchen or in the garden (that’s her on the left with a 3.5 pound tomato from the garden).Spending the time harvesting vegetables like peas, corn, beans, lettuce, tomatoes and more in the garden meant lots of time spent processing them in the kitchen. And yet she always made the time to put a really decent meal on the table for our family of five. She knew how to cook, how to shop for what she didn’t have in the garden, and didn’t have a huge collection of cookbooks. She clipped recipes from newspapers and magazines and taped them into a big notebook. The ‘tips’ she gleaned from her readings were cut out and taped to the inside of the kitchen cabinet doors. I’m lucky that I frequently watched her cook and helped her with shopping and in the garden and picked up the basics of cooking almost by osmosis, because before I left home I never really cooked anything but still knew how most things worked in the kitchen.
Amanda Swinimer’s passion is kelp. Yes, that green stuff from the sea. Around 30 different kinds of kelp are found in the waters around Vancouver Island. It’s easy to get caught up in her passion if you listen to her talk about the medicinal and nutritional qualities of this seaweed she’s been harvesting on a commercial basis since the early 2000’s. Her sustainably-harvested products include dried winged kelp and bull kelp, rich in minerals and vitamins. Her dried product is available online and in many of the specialty shops described in this book.
Chefs also order seaweed from her to use on their menus. On an outing with Amanda to learn about seaweed off of Whiffin Spit near Sooke with chef Oliver Kienast of Wild Mountain Food & Drink, I was treated to seaweed tea, bread, spread, and even popcorn sprinkled with Dakini’s Kelp Flakes. Seaweed is loaded with umami, that mysterious fifth basic taste after sweet, salty, sour, and bitter that may be hard to describe other than saying, ‘tastes good’.
Amanda is a marine biologist and also a folk herbalist, which means she also makes medicinal salves out of seaweed. She told me she got turned onto seaweed while learning about wild crafting with herbs. “You should have seen my tiny one-bedroom apartment,” she laughs. “It was always laced wall-to-wall with long strings of seaweed hanging to dry.”
I was very excited to get a copy of Jennifer McLagan’s latest cookbook, 
