For the summer of 2015 I found myself living in
Vancouver, partly looking for a change in my own life and partly looking for
new experiences to build upon what I already learned. What amazed me the most
was how everything I discovered as a research assistant shaped the way I saw
Vancouver. Each time I turned a corner I saw something related to food security
and culture. By the end of my summer three things stuck out to me about
Vancouver’s foodscape:
1) Community and home gardens seemed to be everywhere
There
are community gardens scattered across Vancouver. According to the City of Vancouver there were
over 75 community gardens in Vancouver in 2013 (City of Vancouver, 2013). I was
surprised to see that a few of these gardens were in the midst of downtown’s
hustle and bustle on Davie Street and another on Hastings. In my neighbourhood,
the East Side, I regularly walked by six community gardens on my way to the
market or the skytrain station. ‘Unusable’ land- such as plots beside train tracks, underneath the
skytrain tracks, or on little slivers of land at sharp intersections- were used
to produce food. The dedication to growing local food was not only shown
through community gardens, but also by the immense popularity of home gardens.
Home gardens of varying sizes were everywhere, whether it be growing Swiss
chard and peppers in planters on their front step, or dedicating every inch of
their free lawn space to growing food.
2) There were resources easily accessible to learn about food
production
Before
going to Vancouver I heard about the Burnaby Village Museum. The museum’s main
attraction is its 1920s village.
However, the museum also has vegetable gardens, and runs several
food-related educational programs and workshops. Their main gardens are a
series of raised beds that contain mainstream vegetables such as varieties of
tomatoes, zucchini, radishes, mixed in with several ethnic vegetables including
bitter melon, winter melon, menthe, shiso, suyo long cucumbers, saag, mustard
greens, black gram, garlic chives, tromboncio squash, chayote, long beans, etc.
For each of the vegetables grown in the garden there is a plaque describing
where and how the vegetable is used.
This garden shows just how successfully ethnic vegetables can be grown in
Canada. Their workshops are on a variety of topics such as container gardening
(growing plants in small containers at home), low sugar jam making, pickling,
harvesting, winter gardening, seasonal eating, and more. These programs
encourage local food security through local production, seasonal eating, and
preserving foods. They teach people how to grow their own food and provide
hands on experiences.
Another
interesting resource I came across was University of British Columbia
(UBC’s) Botanical Garden and Centre for
Plant Research. The Gardens are a living museum of plants from around the
world- everything from local rainforests, to a garden dedicated to plants
historically used for medicinal purposes. There is also a food garden full of a
variety of fruits and vegetables including kiwis, grapes, gooseberries,
tomatoes, carrots, eggplant, swiss chard, etc. Again, this food garden is an
excellent resource to teach people about food production and the variety of
crops that can be grown in Canada.
Even
though these are the only educational resources I visited, I learned that
Vancouver has dozens of other resources to learn about local food and
agriculture. For instance, there is an
Urban Farming society that holds workshops and provides resources to the public.
There is also an organization called Farm Folk City Folk that has a website
that provides lists upon lists of farming resources, including contact
information/websites for urban farms, gardening and composting resources,
community gardens, and garden support. The resources available to the people of
Vancouver are astounding and the very fact that they exist shows how the people
of Vancouver value local food and food security.
3) There was a high availability and exchange of ethnic foods
Vancouver
is a city that celebrates diversity and culture, with cultural festivals
happening most weekends in the summer. With the vast array of ethnicities and
cultural expressions, it is clear why the foodscape of Vancouver is so diverse. There
is also an enormous cross-over
and exchange between ethnic groups through backyards,
restaurants, and grocery stores. For
example, the Burnaby Village Museum highlighted that there is an exchange of
seeds, recipes, and gardening tips between neighbours of different origins. There
are also ethnic restaurants everywhere in Vancouver- everything from Chinese,
Indian, Vietnamese, Caribbean, Malaysian, Jewish, etc.- that are filled with
people from all different backgrounds. Some restaurants embrace this cross-over
and exchange by featuring fusion foods, such as Chinese-Indian fusion food, or
fusions of various Middle Eastern and South Asian dishes. Even in grocery
stores, particularly independently run grocery stores, there is a large
selection of relatively well priced ethnic vegetables. However, the
availability of ethnic food is a function of the neighbourhood.
Vancouver is a fascinating city full of culture
and food. During my adventure in Vancouver I found community and home gardens
around every corner, stumbled upon numerous resources for local food
production, and witnessed exchanges between cultures. To say I found
experiences that built upon everything I have learned with the ECV Ontario
project would be an understatement. Now that my summer in Vancouver has long
since passed I’m left wondering how much I missed while I was there- What other
intersections between cultures and food exist? What are their food sovereignty
initiatives? Maybe someday I’ll find myself back in Vancouver trying to find
the answers to those questions.
Reference
City
of Vancouver. (2013, Dec 16). Join a community garden in your neighbourhood.
http://vancouver.ca/people-programs/community-gardens.aspx
Morgan Sage, ECVOntario, Guelph, Canada.
Morgan Sage, ECVOntario, Guelph, Canada.