Edible Vancouver & Wine Country

10/22/2024

This one's from our September issue apple condiment recipes. It's really versatile, so go ahead and keep a jar of this in the fridge.

Apple butter
Makes 1 cup

Apple butter is super simple to make and you can slather it on a piece of pound cake or your morning toast for a quick apple pie-like dessert.

2 pounds apples, approximately 5 to 6 medium-sized apples, washed
½ cup sugar
½ cup apple cider (or juice or water)
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 cinnamon stick (or ½ teaspoon ground)

Remove the stems and cut the apples into eight pieces. You can leave the seeds and cores as they will be strained later.

Add the apples and cider to a pot. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes or until the apples have softened.

Add the cooked apples to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth. Strain back into a pot to remove the hard pieces and seeds, pressing on the pulp with a spoon or ladle to express all the liquid.

Add the lemon juice, cinnamon and 1/4 cup of sugar to the apple purée. Taste test to check its level of sweetness. Add more sugar if you like a sweeter butter, but remember that the purée is going to get sweeter as it cooks and reduces.

Cook over low heat, stirring often. The purée will start to caramelize the more it is cooked, so be careful not to let the bottom burn. Cook until it thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon, approximately 1 to 1½ hours. Transfer to a clean jar and store in the refrigerator for up to one month.

10/17/2024

There are a few tickets left for tomorrow's Hopcott Farms and Meats cranberry experience, featuring a tour and long-table lunch in the bog.

Lunch details: https://hopcottfarms.ca/events/longtable-lunch/

Tour details: https://hopcottfarms.ca/events/hopcott-cranberry-tours/

10/16/2024

Here's a recipe for a great autumn treat. Perfect for cool days after picking up some fresh apples.

Apple ring doughnuts

1 cup all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg
¾ cup light-flavoured beer
3 to 4 small apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼-inch rounds
3 cups oil, for frying
Powdered sugar and apple syrup to garnish

Mix all the dry ingredients together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Beat in the egg and beer to form a thick batter.

Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan. When the oil has reached 350 F, dip both sides of the apple rings into the batter, then carefully place into the hot oil. Cook each side for about 45 seconds or until golden brown and crispy.

Remove the rings from the oil and place onto a cooling rack with a towel underneath to catch any dripping oil. Once cool to the touch, garnish the doughnuts with powdered sugar or drizzle with apple syrup.

10/09/2024

Celebrate the harvest with a feast-worthy selection of BC wines.

These local treasures from Poplar Grove Winery, Lakeside Cellars, Hillside Winery, Gray Monk Estate Winery, Sandhill Wines and Chaberton Estate Winery will elevate your holiday meal, perfectly complementing get togethers with family and friends.

Cheers to a bountiful season!

10/08/2024

In a normal summer, Patrick Gayler, chef at Mission Hill Family Estate Winery, would bring a couple thousand pounds of stone fruit into his kitchen. But in mid-January, temperatures plummeted below minus 25 C, plunging the Okanagan and Similkameen valleys into a deep freeze for days and devastating vines and fruit trees alike. And this came on the heels of another brutal cold snap in December 2022.

The result has been catastrophic. There will be no local vintage for 2024. And there has been so little fruit to sell that the 88-year-old BC Tree Fruits cooperative announced in July that it would have to cease operations, leaving its 230 farming families scrambling to get their produce to market.

Read "The Farm Connection" by Joanne Sasvari, from the September issue, about how the changing climate continues to affect BC farming: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/the-farm-connection

10/02/2024

Read "Foraging as a Way of Life" by Linda Barnard, from our September issue:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/foraging-as-a-way-of-life

"I’ve never felt bold enough to stock my kitchen with foods that I had foraged. I worried about the risks. What would happen if I grabbed a basket and headed into the woods for supper? Blame the “poison berry” incident from my childhood, a leftover memory of having my stomach pumped as a preschooler after my mom discovered me nibbling berries from neighbour’s shrub. But meeting author, wildcrafter and forager Mikaela Cannon may help overcome my fears.

Her new book Foraging as a Way of Life: A Year-Round Field Guide to Wild Plants feels as though it’s written for hesitant foragers like me. It’s a year-round field guide for understanding, gathering and using foraged plants and mushrooms."

09/25/2024

You can find our September issue (and our other issues from the past few years) online here:

This interactive flipbook is created with FlippingBook, a service for streaming PDFs online. No download, no waiting. Open and start reading right away!

09/24/2024

We walk past the first few trees, their trunks the diameter of dinner plates. Looking closer at their gnarled bark, we see tufts of moss growing in the knots, cracks and crevices. The branches fan out into dense canopies overhead that cool the air and cover the grass and shrubs below in shade. Robins dash around and pick at the soil. When I close my eyes, this apple orchard sounds, feels and even smells like a forest. But there’s a problem: “We’re having a hard time holding onto it,” says owner Jennifer Deol of There & Back Again Farms. “It just doesn’t make any money.”

Amidst a changing apple industry, can one older orchard stay standing? Read "The Core of the Problem" by Michelle Vandermoor: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/the-core-of-the-problem

Photos by Matt Ferguson.

09/22/2024

What do you get when you combine inspiration from a family farm in India, exploration of culinary traditions through world travel, a permaculture teaching farm, the Vancouver restaurant scene, UBC Farm - Centre for Sustainable Food Systems’, Kwantlen Polytechnic University Farm Schools and regenerative growing practices based on Indigenous food ways?

You get everything that Simran Panatch, managing director of a new regenerative farm in Steveston, has been dreaming of for more than a decade. The agritourism destination offers an on-site farm market, educational workshops, community markets with vendors, farm tours, wholesale supplying for restaurants and florists, yoga classes and venue space for private events.

You get everything that Daniel Garfinkel, who manages the operation’s agriculture, has been working toward since childhood. And more.

You get community. You get radiance. And you get it all at Athiana Acres, a certified organic farm like no other. This 30-acre regenerative hub in Steveston is indeed “vividly bright and shining,” which is what radiance is all about.

Read "A Nature-Bound Love Story" by Michelle Superle: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/a-nature-bound-love-story

Photos by Nina LaFlamme.

09/19/2024

The clue to flavour that lies behind the name Elaichi patisserie is in its name. Elaichi is the Hindi word for cardamom and it was a friend who initially encouraged Vinaya Waghmode to explore Indian flavours in her classic French pastries. Through Elaichi’s menu, Waghmode reveals the history of her own life and cultural influences.

Read all about Elaichi Patisserie in "Adventures in Flavour" by Helena McMurdo Photography:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/adventures-in-flavour

09/13/2024

A cyclist has skidded to a stop in front of a three-sided shed in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood. The rider unloads two dozen eggs, apples, a loaf of bread and a litre of yogurt from a backpack into the refrigerator housed under the back-alley structure.

First established in Europe more than a decade ago, such fridges found a niche in Metro Vancouver at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. As many jobs took a pandemic hiatus and people stayed home, neighbourhood connections developed. “People started to get concerned about their neighbours’ ability to access food,” says Mona Grenier, a Vancouver Community Fridge Project (VCFP) volunteer.

VCFP’s network of five fridges is part of a larger grassroots movement of community fridges and pantries that have sprung up in back alleys, street corners and church parking lots across Metro Vancouver in response to ongoing food accessibility concerns.

Read the full article "Take What You Need; Leave What You Can" by Jennifer Cole: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/take-what-you-need-leave-what-you-can

Simon Fraser University Free Fridge, New Hope Church, FoodMesh, Food Stash Foundation

09/06/2024

Our Méli-Mélo column is an edible hodgepodge to help you stay on top of the hits and happenings in Vancouver and beyond.

https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/m-li-m-lo-september-2024

What will you find? Chambar Restaurant's milestone anniversary, beer and coffee at The Patch Brewery, Tayybeh: A Celebration of Syrian Cuisine, The Food Link app by United Way British Columbia, Amici Italian Wine Bar & Osteria, 'tis the season of pumpkin spice & sourdough heaven no matter how you like your bread.

08/31/2024

Our September issue is now available. You can find copies in the wild or get one delivered right to your door. You can find details here:

https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/about-us/subscriptions-and-single-copy-purchases

Cover photo of zinnias growing at Athiana Acres by Nina LaFlamme.

08/31/2024

We'll see you on the 15th!

08/21/2024

Summer’s Not Over Yet Giveaway with Noble Premium Bison and edible Vancouver & Wine Country

Noble Premium Bison and edible Vancouver & Wine Country are teaming up to bring you an irresistible giveaway! We're celebrating the art of outdoor cooking and the deliciousness of premium bison meat.

Bison is one of the most nutrient-dense animal proteins on the shelf, and because Noble Premium Bison raises their bison without hormones or antibiotics, you get everything you want and nothing you don’t. Head to www.noblepremiumbison.com and you’ll find tons of bison recipes.

Enter today! The lucky winner will receive two 3-packs of Noble Premium Bison Extra Lean Ground (available exclusively at Costco across Canada), a $250 Costco gift card, plus a few surprises. If you’ve never tried bison meat, this is a great way to start! And if you’re already a fan? Get your entry in and good luck!

Here’s how to enter:
- Like this post
- Be sure you are following Noble Premium Bison and edible Vancouver
- Tag 2 friends who would LOVE to win this too!

Contest closes August 30.



The Contest is open to all residents of Canada, 18 years of age or older, and has no affiliation with Instagram/Facebook. To be eligible, entries must be received on or before Aug 30, 2024 at 11:59 a.m. PST. Entrants will be notified by DM by 3 p.m. PST on Sept.3,2024. The chances of winning are based on the number of entries received and winner will be picked at random.

The prize must be accepted as awarded, is non-transferable and cannot be redeemed for cash. The awarded prize will be made available to the winner by the sponsor, Noble Premium Bison.

08/15/2024

A pink neon signs hangs in Kozak Ukraïnian Eatery & Mill on Victoria Drive with a traditional Ukrainian saying that translates roughly to “Bread is the head of everything.” It speaks to the centrality of bread in Ukrainian life. But it could also speak to the centrality of bread’s position in Kozak Homemade Ukraïnian Food’s group of restaurants, which began with baking.

Read "Holubtsi, Varenyky and Borsch" by Helena McMurdo Photography, from our July issue:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/holubtsi-varenyky-and-borsch

Photos by Helena McMurdo Photography.

08/04/2024

Flour plus water. Could anything be more basic? At the same time, could anything be more sublime? When I look back at my favourite meals over the last few years, they all seem to feature pasta.

Each was a triumph of simplicity, with the noodles acting as a toothsome vehicle for exceptional ingredients, just as they should. In fact, outside of joints like the Old Spaghetti Factory, pasta is becoming something of a luxury food — and that’s before it’s topped with caviar, truffles, Wagyu beef and the like. The question is, is it worth it?

Despite the dent in my wallet, I can’t help but agree. Here’s why.

Read "Pasta Perfect" by Joanne Sasvari, from our July issue:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/pasta-perfect

Osteria Elio Volpe

Photo by Ian Lanterman.

07/29/2024

The Krause Berry Farms & Estate Winery Cookbook offers a glimpse into life on a working destination farm and more than 100 tried-and-true recipes.

What began with a single acre of strawberries in the Township of Langley is now nearly 200 acres planted with mixed produce. It also includes a bustling marketplace with the bakery, an award-winning winery, an ice cream shop, a barley maze and even a waffle bar. The farm is a destination for locals and tourists alike. During the summer, they easily see more than 3,000 visitors during their busiest days.

Read the full article "Cherished Family Recipes" by Jo-Anne Lauzer as well as recipes for wine popsicles, pierogis and berry upside-down cake:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/cherrised-family-recipes

Published by Appetite by Random House. Photos by Heather Cameron.

07/29/2024

In case you missed our July issue, you can view the entire issue on our website:

You've found the home to our Digital Editions, which go back as far as February 2020 (our Spring 2020 issue was only release as a digital version). If you are looking for specific content before that time, email [email protected] with as much information you have. You can order print back is...

07/22/2024

You already know about “ugly produce,” but have you thought about “weird crops”? These outliers are kissing cousins to their ugly stall mates at your local farmers’ market — the items that look a little strange yet provide taste and nutrition that’s as good as (and sometimes better than) their more familiar counterparts.

Read "Weird and Wonderful Crops" by Michelle Superle, from our July issue, featuring Sweet Earth Farms, Mercado Fresh Farms & Barrowtown Elementary School :
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/weird-and-wonderful-crops

07/19/2024

Vermicomposting produces homespun organic fertilizer for the gardener, bringing fame to the often-maligned slimy worm.

Read "Wonders of Waste" by Jennifer Cole:

Vancouver gardener Melanie Semlacher blends her organic kitchen scraps into a slurry and freezes it in ice cube trays. The cubes are not flavour savers for future soups and stews; they’re feed for her worms. “I feed them a cube every couple of days,” she says. As the worms eat the slurry, it p...

07/15/2024

Méli-Mélo is an edible hodgepodge to help you stay on top of the hits and happenings in Vancouver andbeyond. Get the latest — from the this-just-opened, events, new bites and libations.

Our July column features petals and percolation at the Foxglove Floral Cafe, sip and explore with Beyond Bubbles Tours, craft brews at Cow Dog Brewing Company, Mexican eats at Toloache Mexican Kitchen and plenty of places to cool down with ice cream (Mr. Gold Afternoon Tea, Gelato And Event, Soft Peaks Ice Cream, Dolce Amore, Banter Ice Cream, Matteo's Gelato, Parlour Ice Cream & Vashti Rose Homemade Ice Cream

Read the full column here: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/things-do/m-li-m-li-july-2024

Words by Sydney Marchand.

Méli-Mélo is an edible hodgepodge to help you stay on top of the hits and happenings in Vancouver and beyond. Get the latest — from the this-just-opened, events, new bites and libations. Words by Sydney Marchand.

07/09/2024

Take a break from the heat this week and pick up a copy of our July issue and enjoy in the shade (or an air conditioned shop).

Here's what you'll find:

- Méli-Mélo features: petals and percolation at the Foxglove Floral Cafe, sip and explore with Beyond Bubbles Tours, craft brews at Cow Dog Brewing Company, Mexican eats at Toloache Mexican Kitchen and plenty of places to cool down with ice cream (Mr. Gold Afternoon Tea, Gelato And Event, Soft Peaks Ice Cream, Dolce Amore, Banter Ice Cream, Matteo's Gelato, Parlour Ice Cream & Vashti Rose Homemade Ice Cream

- "The Wonders of Waste": vermicomposting produces homespun organic fertilizer

- "The Herb of Many Names": versatile, minty and easy-growing perilla

- "Weird and Wonderful Crops" at Sweet Earth Farms, Mercado Fresh Farms & Barrowtown Elementary School

- " Holubtsi, Varenyky and Borsch": Ukrainian favourites at Kozak Ukraïnian Eatery

- "Cherished Family Recipes": a new cookbook from Krause Berry Farms & Estate Winery

- "Pasta Perfect": restaurants such as the new Osteria Elio Volpe pasta has gone from humble to haute thanks to fine ingredients and handcrafted expertise.

Get them while they last and don't forget you can always subscribe or order single copies:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/about-us/subscriptions-and-single-copy-purchases

07/02/2024

Have you looked at a restaurant menu lately? Even at mid-priced joints you’re looking at $25 for a burger, $30 for a plate of pasta, $50 or more for a steak (extra for the sides). On top of that there’s tax — PST, GST, liquor tax, “health tax” — and tip, which now seems to start at 20 percent. A glass of wine and a snack can easily set you back $100.

Yet, with few exceptions, restaurants aren’t exactly raking in the dough.

In fact, in February, Restaurants Canada reported that 62 percent of restaurants across this country are either losing money or barely breaking even. That’s a nine per cent increase from last July and up a shocking 52 per cent from before the pandemic, when it stood at 10 per cent. Last year was a record-breaking year for restaurant bankruptcies. This year isn’t looking much better.

Ask anyone who works in the restaurant business and they will tell you the same thing: The industry is in crisis. The question is, why? What can we do about it? Whose job is it to fix it? And maybe most importantly, why does it even matter?

Well, it’s complicated. But it’s also pretty simple.

Read "Money, Money, Money" by Joanne Sasvari: https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/money-money-money

Anh and Chi, Aramé Culinary, BC Restaurant & Foodservices Association, Chefs' Table Society of British Columbia, Restaurants Canada

06/22/2024

Rosie Daykin’s new vegetable-forward cookbook, The Side Gardener: Recipes & Notes from My Garden, celebrates the beauty and bounty of fresh produce grown in her modest side garden next to her rambunctious chickens.

Read our article from our May issue "Recipe for Success by Jo-Anne Lauzer and try a few recipes from the cookbook: Beet, blackberry and buckwheat salad, Wilted greens tart and Chocolate zucchini cake with cream cheese whip:
https://ediblevancouver.ediblecommunities.com/eat/recipe-success

Photos by Andrew Montgomery. Published by Appetite by Random House.