Editor’s Note: Locals – Food from the Heart of the Island is a Featured Restaurant in the Eat Real. Eat Local 30-Day Food Challenge. You can earn a stamp and cast your vote for the 2009 Yummy Awards at Locals as well as Bisque, The Great Escape and Anderton Bistro-Pub throughout the month.

If you haven’t registered for the food challenge yet, make sure you do in order to participate in everything and be in the running for the nearly $3,000 in prizes.

For the registration form, click HERE.

We kicked our first day of the food challenge off in style thanks to Ken’s mom turning 25 (Happy Birthday!). The crew wound up out for lunch at Locals – Food from the Heart of the Island in Courtenay and, as you can see, our Locavore friends joined us for a fantastic meal.

Chef Ronald St. Pierre and his wonderful wife Trish have made local food and the stories that go with it an integral part of everything they do and wow does it ever show.

One of my favourite parts of any meal at Locals is the dining room. On every wall there is a picture of dinner straight from the field, the stories of food producers. It feels like home when I see Sarah from Prontissima and Gerry from Pattison Farms hanging out there.

I look down at my salad (yum) and figure Gerry or the lovely crew from Hazelmere Farms had a hand in lunch.

Not to mention that the tiny person, who is currently very attached to the garden and wanting to know what kind of animal died (I kid you not, her exact words are always “What kind of animal died to make this?”) for dinner is very content at the Locals table snacking down on her trio of burgers that included Island Bison, lamb and local chicken.

She even ate most of the salad that came with it…until, of course, the Locavores started munching on it.:)

Ken had a smoked Island Bison sandwich, Montreal Style and a cup of carrot ginger soup that made him sing (amazing).

Meanwhile, grandma and I went for a bit lighter fare with Fresh Shrimp and Sticky Rice Rolls (Pattison greens, Nature Springs wasabi) that blew us both away. The combination of flavours. Whoa.

Topped off with side ceasar salads (thanks Pattison Farms and Natural Pastures Cheese Co.) and a glass of Hornby Island wine and I can say my afternoon was complete.

It was a great way to usher in a month of local food.

We had sandwiches from amazing Tannadice ham, fresh island tomatoes and LaBoulange Bread for dinner and are feeling like local food is something that we could do forever (now to figure out how to say that in the dead of Winter).