Harrowsmith – September 2019

102

Field Notes From a

Canadian Locavore

Jane Reid’s love affair with

her B.C. backyard.

I

t was flavour that first made

me a local food fan—long

before the word locavore

became an official entry in the

New Oxford American Dictionary

in 2007. My family moved to

British Columbia in the 1970s,

leaving remote abodes in Ontario

and Quebec that were far from

agriculture of any kind. Finding

ourselves planted in the middle

of the fertile Fraser Valley,

surrounded by farms, was a

change indeed. The payoff for

wafting eau de manure was fruits

and vegetables that were freshly

picked, recently dug and just

snipped. The taste of the bounty

was an extraordinary revelation.

Since those first convincing

taste tests, I’ve found that there

are more reasons than ever to

be a locavore: to maintain our

food security (can southern

California and Mexico remain

produce powerhouses with

climate change?); to reduce

transportation (and carbon

footprints); and to support our

local farmers economically (and

keep dollars in our communities),

to name a few.

Sometimes, though, it can be

tough to be a locavore. Produce

sections are bursting with fruits

and vegetables 12 months a year,

sourced from every corner of the

world. How can we reconnect

with our farmland, our farmers,

and the plants they grow to feed

us? Trying even one or two of

the following strategies can

help us find harvests grown

close to home.

1

Know what is in season.

Gardeners and farmers have

inside knowledge, but for