Editor’s Note: The Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge officially kicks off tomorrow morning! If you have your passport and haven’t registered, get on it! You have to be registered to be eligible for prizes and you get access to lots of local eating info when you do so. Click HERE for the registration page.
Speaking of cool local eating info, check out our new Valley Roots Family-Friendly Guide to Local Food below. See you at the parade:
Good morning and Happy Canada Day! Three years ago today we crossed the border back into Canada, all of our belongings in tow, to start our lives over again getting back to basics – family, simplicity and community.
Like any crew who relocates a well-established life, we’ve had some serious challenges. It was the Comox Valley and its sense of spirit, though, that got us through.
I remember sitting down to dinner those first few months and thinking “Holy…tomatoes taste like…well, tomatoes.” Strawberries made my head spin. Even the pork chops on the grill had a flavor that I can’t ever recall pork tasting like, but somehow my innate food sensibility knew that’s what chops ought to be.
My mother-in-law introduced us to the local farms, her secret spots to score the best of the best. I thought she was magic (and she is, no doubt). Really, though, she simply understood the magic of the Comox Valley in the form of food.
These three years later, Ken and I started wondering about food security issues. There’s so much discussion around the health of food, securing land, eating local and understanding the crisis that the Canadian food system is currently in. We both felt completely overwhelmed by the magnitude of it all.
Food should be simple, right?
It’s about community.
It’s about family.
It’s about the stories and relationships that are built through knowing where your food comes from.
That’s how the VALLEY ROOTS Family-friendly Guide to Local Food came to be. You can download it below and get started learning about eating local in the Comox Valley, Family-style, one story at a time.
Enjoy your holiday!
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