How Community Shares the Honey Harvest

by Arlene Kroeker, photo by Philip Solman

At the southwest corner of Richmond, on one of the oldest farms on the island, I meet Brian Campbell, Master Beekeeper (I refer to him as the King of Bees). Brian practices apiculture, or beekeeping, the human management of the honey bee, and the Steves farm (yes, hence the name Steveston) is home to four stacks of his hives. This is just one of several Richmond backyards that house Brian’s honey producers.

Make Your Own Mozzarella

by AnnMarie MacKinnon • photo by Kevin Clark

It has recently come to my attention that Vancouver’s East Side is completely devoid of water buffalo. For most people, an urban neighbourhood lacking a sufficient number of ruminants would likely go unnoticed. It might even be welcomed. That is, until they get it into their heads that the one thing standing between them and the freshest insalata caprese (sliced garden-warm tomatoes and pungent hand-torn basil anointed with olive oil and a silky balsamic vinegar) is a ball of homemade mozzarella di bufala. Precisely the predicament in which I found myself.

Peace, Happiness, and Garlic in Agassiz

by Debbra Mikaelsen, photo: Carole Topalian

Homer Simpson will not be attending the Edible Vancouver Garlic Festival at Limbert Mountain Farm. Apparently, he doesn’t like garlic.*

And anyway, he isn’t invited. But you are.

by Jeff Nield • Photo By Jenn Pentland

In southwestern BC we live in a perceived state of plenty. We have the most viable year-round growing conditions in Canada, and our landscape is in a perpetual state of lush green. To the west we hug the coast of the abundant Salish Sea, and are surrounded by mountains covered with innumerable rivers and streams to the east and north. And anyone who has lived through a Vancouver winter knows it can rain constantly for weeks at a time. All that water must make us plentiful in the stuff, right? Well, not exactly.

The editorial team doesn’t let me out very often. It seems the publisher’s job is to do the boring businessy stuff and clean the office. Who knew?

But I am the resident beer-monster, so when Edible Vancouver sponsored Vancouver Craft Beer Week in May, I grabbed a rare opportunity and headed straight to The Alibi Room, as that place has craft beer up the wazoo.

“We are not amused.” I wonder if the stern and famously unamused Queen Victoria would be amused to see her youthful princess self peering out from the label of Canada’s first premium gin (and modern tribute to all things proper and refined)? After all, her troops in the sticky heat of India all but invented the wildly popular gin and tonic as a refreshing way to get their daily dose of malaria-fighting quinine.