Farm Archives - Foodology

In Event

Joy of Feeding 2013: 16 cooks. 16 different ethnic backgrounds.

July 9, 2013

The 3rd Annual Joy of Feeding was held at UBC Farm on Sunday June 30th. The event celebrates the creation of simple, home cooked meals from various heritages around the world. In Vancouver, we are blessed with so many diverse food options but there are still some cuisines that you can not find in any restaurant.

Whats unique about this event is that it does not feature restaurants, but it features household cooks that share their dish from their country. The countries represented were – Malaysia, Columbia, Caribbean, Fiji, Russia, Sudan, Ukraine, Basque, Canada, Turkey, Mexico, Scotland, Lebanon, and Serbia.

The tickets were $50 each, but there was a Vancity member perk offer where you could get a 2 for 1 deal. My coworker snagged me 2 tickets, so I was a happy camper.

It was beautiful day without a cloud in the sky. It was during the same week as the supposed “heat wave” that hit Vancouver. It was very hot, but tons of people gathered at UBC Farms to chow down on some amazing food. There was also lemonade, water and Vij’s Chai to go with the food.

At every single booth, there were lines up but they went pretty quickly. The cooks prepared well ahead of time to deal with long line ups.

Alfredo Perdomo served up Caribbean Jerk Chicken.

A lot of the cooks were very open about sharing their love of food with the people attending the event.

Yana Lobacheva shared her Meat Dolma from her Azerbaijan and Ukraine background.

Elena Serrano served Tortilla de Patatas from her Basque background.

There was a lot of food and I wasn’t disappointed at all. You could probably eat till you have food coma or get flustered by the heat.

There were some really cool cooking techniques used too. An old oil barrel converted into a pizza oven.

Smoked Salmon was made in a smoker by Angelina Frote and her little helpers.

It was very hot, so staying at the event for over an hour was a little bit difficult if you were not in the shade. I definitely needed a hat, but unfortunately I don’t own hats.

There was even some Mariachi dancers. Anyone can join in the fun, but its encouraged that everyone participates in the fun.

Everyone was giving a cookbook with all the recipes of dishes that were featured at the event. You can go home and recreate the dishes and instil the importance of cooking at home. Whether its cooking with local ingredients with your family or putting on a dinner party for friends. My favorite item from the event was the Tarte de Sucre by Genevieve & Patrick Robert.

Definitely keep this event on your radar for next year if you are interested in the celebration of whole foods, culture and cooking!

Website: http://joyoffeeding.com/

In Bakery

Krause Berry Farms: Blueberry Picking, Lunch, + More

September 6, 2012

Every Summer, my friends and I would go berry picking somewhere within driving distance of Vancouver. Last year we went to Driediger Farms , but this year I chose Krause Berry Farms a few blocks down. It is about 40 mins drive from the city.

Krause Berry Farms is family operated and offers visitors to participate in “U-Pick”, where you can go into the fields to pick blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries. All you do is pay the weight of what you picked. It’s a great activity with friends or family.

If you are feeling lazy, you can purchase berries from their market.

Besides picking berries and purchasing produce, they also have a small playground, a petting farm, and carriage rides.

We headed into the blueberry patches and saw rows upon rows of bountiful blueberries. You have to pay attention to what you pick because there are berries that aren’t ripe yet.

If it’s a sunny day, remember to bring a hat or wear sunscreen. My friend brought me a small red straw hat to wear. It was really random, but at least I was shielded by the sun.

I got really excited when I see really big plump blueberries like these. We probably spent about an hour or so in the fields. Some people may take longer depending on how much care they put into picking the berries.

At times, you can hear people screaming in the blueberry patches. It’s because they are startled by the spiders and insects. It’s nature, so what can you expect? You will come across bugs in the fields but they won’t hurt you…at least I don’t think they will. The insects just look ugly.

There are also really big flying bugs too. Don’t let this detour you from picking blueberries. It’s part of the whole experience!

We picked about a whole bucket. If you do fill the whole bucket, it’s about 6 lbs and will cost around $10. Not bad of a price!

The Porch is the area where you can grab some food after picking your berries. They have a selection of different pies, donuts, pizza, roasted corn, drinks, ice cream and other yummy treats.

It’s usually a nice sunny day, so it’s really awesome to eat out on the patio. There are lots of seats and not too cold during blueberry picking season.

Raspberry Smoothie ($3.50) was really good and made out of the raspberries picked fresh from their fields.

Blueberry Smoothie ($3.50) was yummy as well. The downside about drinking this smoothie is that some of the blueberries might be stuck in your teeth. When you finish this drink, remember to check your teeth.

10″ Baked Corn Pizza ($14.95) is divided up into 4 slices. Ordering the whole pizza is great for a group of people. It contains a lot of corn, tomato sauce, cheese, green onions, peppers, and artichokes.

Slice of Corn Pizza ($3.99) you can alternatively order a slice instead of the whole pizza.

The pizza is packed full of corn and is very yummy. I just didn’t like the crust of the pizza. It didn’t seem very fresh.

Farm Fries ($3.95) were golden brown to perfection, but lacked in taste. It needed a bit more salt and needed to be a bit more crispy.

Roasted Corn wasn’t on the menu, but you can still order it. It is rubbed with a bit of butter and tastes yummy!

Slice of berry custard pie ($4.50) was loaded with tons of berries, but I wasn’t in love with the pie. I loved the look, but I found the combination of the custard and the glaze to be a bit too sweet.

Scoop of Raspberry Ice Cream ($2.50) was delicious in the hot weather.

Inside the market is a lot of produce, products and a bakery.

If you are too lazy to pick berries, you can purchase then from the counter. It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s still delicious and fresh.

Everyone fall in love with the custard berry pie. It’s $15.99 and you can be staring at this forever!

Overall, picking the berries and having lunch at Krause Berry Farms is pretty awesome. Some of the food from The Porch is a bit hit and miss, but you can’t go wrong with a refreshing smoothie. I really enjoyed the U-Pick portion of this adventure. I always pick a whole bucket so I can freeze them for later months to make milk shakes.

Words of Wisdom:

Check website for up to date prices and what berries are in season
Lots of activities
One of the more popular berry farms to go picking

Address:
6179 248 Street
Langley, BC

Website:
http://www.krauseberryfarms.com/

Phone:
(604) 856-5757

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In Farm

Driediger Farms: Always Best To Pick Your Own Berries For Cheap

August 12, 2011

For the longest time I really believed there was no berry picking near Vancouver until I started Googling for berry farms. Turns out there are a few in Langley. I grabbed ConsultingGirl and Monster to join me in the berry picking festivities.

I was really excited because it was something I have never done before. We drove for 40 minutes and google maps sent us to the wrong place. You are in the right place if you see a red building with a few picnic benches.

Since I brought my own bucket I didn’t have to purchase a bucket. If you are here without a bucket, you can purchase one from them.

The bucket costs $1.50 and it is similar to the ice cream tubs.

In order to get to the Blueberry patch, we needed to cross the road and pass by the strawberry patch.

Since strawberries aren’t in season, we couldn’t pick any of them. Strawberries are my favorite of all the berries. 🙁 They still do grow strawberries, but they are off-limits for the U-pick option. You can also purchase it from them, but they didn’t look very good.

Since it might take you a bit of time to find the right patch, remember to read the signs. You know you have arrived when you see the open sign.

The blueberry bushes are the ones that are higher. There are many many rows for you to pick, but you really won’t need to go down to more than one row.

The blueberries look really good and certain bushes are full of them. Some are not as plentiful, but you should be able to have good luck filling up your bucket.

After a while, it gets pretty hot in the field, so remember to wear sunscreen. You will find yourself really digging through the bushes to find a branch that has a large amount of ripe berries. It’s really fun!

There were also a few people sitting on the ground picking the berries that are closer to the ground. Most people pick from the top and move on.

We all slowly filled up our buckets, so it really didn’t take too much time. If you take a lot of care picking your berries, you will obviously take a longer time.

Their raspberry patch is also open. This is located closer to the parking lot where you arrived at, so you need to cross the road back to your original location. The raspberry bushes are way higher and is probably taller than you.

I didn’t have as much fun picking the raspberries because I found it a bit difficult trying to find the cleaner ripe berries. I tried to avoid the ones that did not come off the branch easily.

The berries looked super amazing and delicious. I probably ate a few in the fields without washing…but that should be fine. Just make sure there are no bugs in it.

After you are done, bring it to the red house to get it weighed. If you fill up the ice cream tub near the top, it will cost you about $6 – $7. It’s not bad at all since it’s only $1.50 per pound. You get a great deal and you picked it all yourself.

If you are planning to bring your own bucket, make sure to weigh it prior so you aren’t paying for the weight of the bucket itself.

After this experience, I found it hard to pay regular price at stores. Even if you don’t finish it all, you can freeze them in the future to make smoothies.

Since the 3 of us had so many blueberries, we decided to make blueberry pies! We just found a regular blueberry pie recipe on Allrecipies.com . We decided to do 2 pies, one with the full top and another with the crisscross top.