Barnaby Karen - Eating local in the Fraser Valley: a food-lovers guide, featuring over 70 recipes from farmers, producers, and chefs

This book is for all the people who arent afraid to get their hands dirty. And to my parents, all of themMom and Dave, Dad and CillaI hit the family lottery with you and am grateful every day that you taught me to be grateful.

Contents

Foreword

If you follow whats happening in food, youll know the focus is usually on big cities, big chefs, and big events. Everyone is consumed with the bigness, the competitions, the best whatever-is-fashionable-this-month that also happens to be miles away from where they actually live. We have big and small screens that allow instant access to the world of food. On one hand, if its not on a screen, its not there. On the other hand, our screens have pointed out the disconnect between what we choose to put in our mouths and where it comes from. And if you really follow whats happening in food, youll know that change is happening: praise and focus are moving to the family-run farm, the cheesemakers, and the small meat shop that has been making sausages the same way for 50 years. Its almost like food is getting back to its roots. The farmers and producers are serving the community that surrounds them, the way they used toand the way it should be.

Short of actually growing food yourself, the next best thing is knowing the people who have pulled the carrot out of the ground, made the cheese from the animals you can see grazing in the field, or made the wine from the grapes growing right over there.

Angie Quaale has all this knowledge, and for as long as Ive known her, shes been an influencer and connector, a champion of all the good things that the Fraser Valley has to offer. I will admit that I snobbishly thought it was odd at first, until I realized that, yes, this is where most of our outstanding local food and beverages come from. I should have smacked myself, because I was the person who was thinking small while Angie was thinking big. You can feel and taste her enthusiasm by merely leafing through this book.

I know its unusual to describe a cookbook as a page turner. This book is so engaging that I was eager to see what was on the next page, and I was never disappointed. Did you know that there is a rice paddy that provides rice to an artisan sake maker, a farm that grows fresh goji berries, and an orchard that grows 60 varieties of apples? Or that there are multiple cheesemakers and wineries in this abundant valley?

Angie has opened the doors to a wonderful array of producers, beverage makers, and chefs in the Fraser Valley, and she provides recipes to help you make the best use of all the delicious ingredients and products they offer. The recipes are accessible, well written, and easy to follow. Do you want a champion burger recipe for your next BBQ? Its in here. Never-Fail Pastry, Dutch Sour Wit Caramel Sauce, and Fresh Cheese Curd Panzanella Salad should also be on your list of recipes to try. And for those who enjoy creative cocktails, there are outstanding ones in these pages.

If you love food, do yourself a big favor and plan a few day trips using this book as a guide. Stock up, find a nice spot to have a picnic, or go to one of the great restaurants that Angie praises. Take your children to a berry farm and show them that the berries come from plants and let them get all messy with ripe berries; take them to a dairy farm and show them that milk comes from cows, goats, and sheep and that it all can be made into butter and cheese.

Put away your screens for a day, feel the sun, smell the earth, and listen to the trees rustling in the breeze and the birds chirping. Experience the bigness, and settle into this wonderful world that Angie has opened up for you.

Karen Barnaby

Introduction

In southwestern BC, tucked between Vancouver and Hope and just north of the US border, is a gem of an area called the Fraser Valley. The geographical definition of the region is a little fluidyoull find that many locals have their own ideas about where the boundaries liebut my Fraser Valley includes the areas of (from west to east) Surrey, Langley, Abbotsford, and Chilliwack, with Mission, Pitt Meadows, and Maple Ridge to the north. Those are not the official boundaries, but that is my definition for the purposes of this book.

The Fraser Valley is an incredibly beautiful, diverse, and constantly changing regionand its popular too. Its one of the most rapidly growing regions in Canada, with about 3 million people currently calling it home. Yet despite the number of residents, theres a sense of freedom and space. That might be due to the combination of rural and urban areas that exist happily side by side. All I know is that it works.