Food for thought weekend

Firstly, thank you so much to everyone for their warm and encouraging response to my Broken Brocade sweater. It's very kind and generous of you all. Gina and Diane, I'm especially tickled by your comments. I do think about submitting patterns but you ought to see the pile of paper scraps with ticks and scribbles that make up my so-called patterns. You'd need a team of accountants, engineers and maybe a therapist to figure that mess out :p

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Congratulations to John Bishop of Bishop's restaurant fame in Vancouver for winning Vancouver Magazine's first Green Giant award. John has been at the cutting edge of forging relationships between farmers and restaurants in Vancouver. For those that are interested in some luscious local food porn, check out his new book: Fresh: Seasonal Recipes Made with Local Foods.

In my college days I would scrimp and save, brown bagging lunches and stretching out leftovers so I could splurge once in a while on a meal at one of Vancouver's fine restaurants. I'd rather spend money on eating out once every couple of months and have really amazing food than to go out each week for 'meh' food. Bishops was one of those places that I would save up for. Every once in a while, I'd be able to convince a fellow budding foodiphile to join me but more often than not, I would be dining alone. I would simply saunter through the meal, enjoying every morsel of food, every drop of sauce in my own company. It would be at restaurants of Bishop's caliber where a lone female diner like moi would be given the room and time to enjoy a meal without being made to feel like a pariah. The food would inspire me for weeks of experimenting in the kitchen and learning all I could about cooking and local food.

Looking back, those local and seasonal salad days were an amazing foundation for my 100 mile diet journey :)

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For those in the Capital Region, there's an important food and water event running from today through the weekend. Here's the announcement that I received from the Slow Food movement folks.

If you have an interest in food policy within the CRD, please try to attend the following conference which will take place on Saturday, April 28. In addition to Sinclair Philip’s brief presentation on some positions taken by Slow Food regionally, nationally or internationally, there will be a number of other members from Slow Food Vancouver Island who will be taking part in the discussion.

This is an all day event. The discussion on food and water issues will take place from 11:15 to 1:00 pm. Please come and make your own recommendations. Slow Food would really like to see all those with an interest in influencing CRD and regional municipal policies attend.

COMMON VISION, COMMON ACTION: Shaping Municipal Policy in the CRD
Saturday, April 28, 2007
10am-3pm
University of Victoria
David Strong Building

Featured Speakers:
Sonya Chandler, City of Victoria Councillor
Zeb King, District of Central Saanich Councillor
Jane Sterk, Township of Esquimalt Councillor
Linda Geggie, Lifecycles and CRFAIR
Todd Litman, Victoria Transport Research Institute
Dr. Sinclair Philip, Sooke Harbour House and Slow Food Canada
Jane Worton, Community-Based Researcher

Workshops & Plenary Discussions

Land Use and Transportation
Food Security and Water
Social Policy and Democratic Governance

Join us for this one-day conference to begin developing a common vision for the Capital Regional District, as a framework for common action. Environmental issues like climate change and social issues like homelessness can be tackled by citizens and elected officials. Let's work together!

Bring a bag lunch. Childcare and transit passes available.

Organised by the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG)

Supported by CUPE Island WaterWatch, IslandTransformations.Org, the Council of Canadians, Kairos, Wise DemocracyVictoria, the University of Victoria School of Social Work, and the Values-Based Business Network.

Agenda
10-10:40	Introduction and opening remarks by municipal politicians
10:40-11:10	Plenary discussion
11:10-11:25	Break
11:25-1:00	Workshops – presentations by speakers, then facilitated discussion on issues
1:00-1:30	Lunch/info tables
1:30-2:15	Closing Plenary – 5 minutes each to report back from workshops (speakers only) then plenary
2:15-3:00	Action meetings

Our Daily Bread

A discussion of our industrialised food system to follow this visually stunning and thought provoking film.

Featured Speakers:

April 26th & 27th
Robin Tunnicliffe, Local Organic Farmer
Richard Bocking, Filmmaker, Author, and Agricultural Economist

April 27th only
Abra Brynne, BC Food Systems Network
Derek Masselink, Agricultural Planner & Agroecologist

April 26th and 27th, 7 pm.
Human and Social Development Bldg Room A240, Uvic

Tickets: $5-10 sliding scale. Available at VIPIRG or at the door.

Presented by CRFAIR, VIPIRG, FoodRoots Distributors Co-operative, and Lifecycles

To register or for more informmation on either event, contact VIPIRG at 250.721.8629 or vipirg@vipirg.ca