Tiffin Picnic - Photo by Kathleen Daunhauer

Cindy & Todd Ryan created Sally Bun (two doors down from Plenty) and recently sold it in order to devote time to their son’s foundation, The Dirty Wall Project.  Their son, Kane, has headed up a remarkable project that builds schools and hosts medical clinics in India. The DWP is currently developing a sports field and garden in the Saki Naka slum area of Mumbai. The anniversary dinner will help raise funds for this project and others. We are pleased to provide an auction item for the dinner.  So please attend and bid for a collection of great Plenty goods.

Cindy recently spent time in slum homes to watch and learn how to cook amazing, simple, Indian food.  DWP will be publishing a cookbook of the recipes to raise funds.  Watch for it at Plenty.

The 3rd Volume of PechaKucha Night Victoria will focus on yummy food…slow food, organic farms, community food groups, local food entrepreneurs, local drink entrepreneurs, local food stylists, local food photographers, urban food foresters, local chefs, local food enthusiasts, food designers…what a great way to celebrate the summer in Victoria!

August 12, 2010 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm at Victoria Event Centre, 1415 Broad Street  $10/$8students

PechaKucha Night was devised in Tokyo in February 2003 as an event for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.  It has turned into a massive celebration, with events happening in hundreds of cities around the world, inspiring creatives worldwide. Drawing its name from the Japanese term for the sound of “chit chat”, it rests on a presentation format that is based on a simple idea: 20 images x 20 seconds. It’s a format that makes presentations concise, and keeps things moving at a rapid pace.

PechaKucha Night started as a simple idea for a one-off event, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham of Klein Dytham architecture as the first event held at their creative kitchen SuperDeluxe in Tokyo, in February 2003. Since then it has grown into an international movement.

OPEN CINEMA and Food Roots are collaborating on a special screening event of “FRESH: new thinking about what we’re eating”.

On Wednesday, September 22nd, OPEN CINEMA Season Eight launches with the Victoria premiere of “FRESH: new thinking about what we’re eating” followed by open forum discussion.  The event starts at 7pm, the discussion will start around 8.30pm and the evening will wrap-up by 10pm.

Food Roots is also hosting a Canning Workshop: Time to Preserve the Harvest.  It takes place on Wednesday, August 18th form 6:30 - 9:30 pm at the Fairfield-Gonzales Community Centre Kitchen (1335 Thurlow, east end of Sir James Douglas School).  Register by Tuesday, August 17th by sending your name, email address and phone number to Lee Fuge, leefuge[at]pacificcoast[dot]net or call 250-385-7974 and leave the requested information.

Photo courtesy of Robi Smith at Blue Lantern Studio

Erica and I opened Plenty’s doors almost four years ago, on August 8th, 2006!  Since its opening Plenty has developed a wonderful, loyal, and supportive following - thank-you to each of you for finding us and telling your friends, family, strangers, colleagues(…) about Plenty.   I said this last year for our third anniversary and I’ll repeat it as it remains as true as ever: it’s your enthusiasm and support that weaves us into the community and keeps Plenty going.  For anyone who is reading this but hasn’t been into the store yet please have a look at some of the friendly things people have been saying and then visit us to see for yourself.

• getfreshguide.com: connecting eaters with growers, producers, suppliers and supporters of fresh, local foods.

Plenty is a small shop with a big heart and a treasure trove of culinary delights. Plan a trip with an empty basket and stomach and let your desire lead you to try new things – this is slow shopping at it’s finest. Enjoy!

Elizabeth and Caprina’s article and photos of Plenty are absolutely wonderful.  Click here to see the full post.  The Get Fresh Guide that they’ve created is beautiful and a tribute to local growers and small scale producers.  The Get Fresh blog is absolutely inspiring - please have a look at it and join in on the Local Food Challenge.

• Wanderlust and Words: Long conversations beside blooming irises - joys of life on the road. (Basho)

Visit Plenty if you have a curious mind, if you respect creativity, if you value community above consumption, or if you believe that food is art and art is food.

Thanks to Penny McKinlay for visiting Plenty on her culinary tour of Southern BC and also for her other wonderful profiles of members of the local food community.  Click here to read more of Penny’s post about Plenty.  She also sat in on one of our Table Talk sessions:

Trevor Walker, owner of Plenty Epicurean Pantry, coordinates Table Talk, a monthly discussion series about food and sustainability. I was fortunate enough to be able to join the group on July 7 as nine of us enjoyed a warm summer evening in the garden behind the store. As we feasted on organic chocolate chip cookies, lemon loaf and local strawberries, we discussed the serious, sometimes frightening topic of developing a just food system.

Click here to read more of Penny’s post about Table Talk.

• ScrimporSplurge.ca: a daily blog that provides unbiased, insider tips to help residents and visitors enjoy the best of Victoria, British Columbia, and beyond . . . for less!

Plenty Epicurean Pantry (1034 Fort St.): Everything about this gourmet foodie shop makes me want to splurge, splurge, splurge. The card selection is small but truly unique, mainly created by local artists. I willingly parted with $7 for an exquisitely original card-and-envelope set fashioned from the dreamily illustrated pages of a recycled children’s book.

Thanks to Anita Willis for featuring us in her professional blog.

At the top of this page is a photo of some of my favourite cards in the store at the moment.  These wonderful collages are from Robi Smith at Blue Lantern Studio.  Robi is currently displaying her work at the Filberg fine art and craft festival in Comox, BC.

• Yelp.ca: to connect people with great local businesses

…the spices are organic or fresh and are very reasonably priced. I paid less for my fennel seeds and got more than I would have gotten at Thrifty’s.

Thanks to Eric B. for reviewing Plenty.

With all of these posts it’s wonderful to see the store through someone else’s eyes.  Plenty may always feel like a work in progress to Erica and I so it’s nice to receive affirmation from time to time that the store that we have hoped to create is indeed coming into it’s own.  Thank-you to all the wonderful customers that keep us going - and to our fantastic staff: Bobbie, Kathleen, Linda Jane, Masha, & Rebecca!

Images courtesy of Nkuku

Their products are inspired by the traditional skills of artisans throughout Africa and India. The name ‘Nkuku’ was borrowed from a village in Zambia. They combine contemporary designs with age-old techniques, natural materials and sustainable methods of production to ensure each product is truly exceptional.

Come in to see spectacular hand-painted tiffins and other great items from Nkuku such as bowls, lanterns, pitchers, mugs, and salad servers.

Hand Painted Tiffin

Victoria Public Market 1891-1959, Victoria Archives

The City of Victoria is currently inviting feedback on the Draft Downtown Core Area Plan. There was a Community Forum held at the Conference Centre on Friday and it continues Saturday from 10 am - 4 pm where the city is seeking feedback on the downtown plan and the Official Community Plan.

The Draft Downtown Core Area Plan mentions the prospect of a permanent public market for the city (on page 80) under the heading “Urban Animation”.  It discusses the development of outdoor cafe and dining areas and continues:

9.4.22 Review and update the City’s policy on public markets to:

• Determine guidelines and standards for maintaining and expanding

existing markets and for establishing new markets.

• Identify the conditions and thresholds that must be met to trigger the development of a central public market within the 30-year term of this Plan.

Public markets provide much more than ‘urban animation’ but I am pleased to see that a public market is at least contemplated. I’m greatly discouraged though by the timeframe given.  A permanent public market is needed within 5 years - not within 30.  If you agree please contact the city to say so: ocp@victoria.ca, or attend the Saturday forum, or one of their future downtown planning events to say so in person.

Examples of successful permanent enclosed public markets are easy to find both in North America and abroad. For instance, the Saint John (NB) City Market has been operating for over 130 years and currently serves a population (122,678) similar in size to Victoria.  It’s time that Victoria rebuilds its public market.

Ross Crockford has a wonderful article on his blog Unknown Victoria about the Victoria Public Market that once existed next to City Hall (replaced by the parking structure that sits on the other side of Centennial Square).

John Teague, the architect who created the 1878-built City Hall, also designed the market. It was a grand, two-storey structure of brick and granite, with a 70-metre-long facade of arches facing onto Cormorant Street (today’s Pandora Avenue). Inside, the main hall had room for 60 stalls and a bandstand, and was surrounded by a second-level gallery, all illuminated by a peaked glass roof. With a gala Christmas party, the Victoria Public Market officially opened its doors in December of 1891.

Ross’ article chronicles the mixed success of public markets in Victoria’s history but he concludes that it may be time (he wrote the article in 2008 - still the time) for a new permanent public market given the increase in residential development downtown and the prospect of imported food becoming more expensive.

Victoria has a strong and growing local food culture that could sustain a permanent market.  It could also help in our efforts to attract the coveted cultural tourists who look for authentic experiences that express the culture of the places where they visit.  They also tend to stay longer and spend more when they visit, as compared to other types of travellers.  What better way to learn about a new city then to visit its market, to explore regional foods, and sit down to eat with the locals.

We have perhaps the best growing conditions in Canada and I read recently that our climate can accommodate one of the widest ranges of plant life anywhere (from cherries and apples to figs and even olives - at least one grower on the Peninsula has been successful with several citrus varieties and he is experimenting with avocado!)  We should show off the amazing produce available on the Peninsula, around Sooke, and from the Cowichan Valley.  Of course, a Public Market also makes the city a more appealing place to live in.  Significantly, it may help to attract residents to the city, including the much lauded ‘Creative Class‘ described by Richard Florida:

This “creative class” is found in a variety of fields, from engineering to theater, biotech to education, architecture to small business. Their choices have already had a huge economic impact. In the future, they will determine how the workplace is organized, what companies will prosper or go bankrupt, and even which cities will thrive or wither.

I recently read an article in the Globe and Mail about the growth of street food vendors in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, BC.  One of the many arguments for accommodating street vendors is that the economy benefits through the provision of opportunities for micro-enterprises.

I think the same is true for public markets which can provide an opportunity for people to rent a market stall and get into business for much less than if they had to start from a retail storefront.  Victoria retail rents are high (a 2009 Market Report by Colliers indicated that despite an increase in retail vacancies in Victoria rents continued to rise) and pose a significant barrier to opening and sustaining new businesses.  I don’t know how they compare to other cities in Canada but I suspect they may be among the highest.  To be able to develop a product or business and get started at a weekly market, then move to a stall in permanent daily public market, and then perhaps to a storefront of one’s own would be a nice progression.  In addition to supporting local agriculture, markets can be business incubators and contribute to a lively retail and civic environment (and yes even ‘Urban Animation’).

Research conducted at the University of Northern British Columbia has indicated that BC’s farmers’ markets have a significant economic impact on the province, over and above their value to community-building and local food production:

British Columbians spend $65.3 million directly at farmers’ markets and an additional $53.2 million at neighbouring businesses on market days.

Join us this Friday, June 25th Noon to 2 pm for a fantastic tasting of sorbeto and shortbread!

Lifecycles Fruit Tree Project will be sampling their new plum sorbeto and The Cookie Crate will be sampling a selection of their wonderful sweet shortbreads.

We carry two other types of gelato and sorbeto from the Fruit Tree Project and Salt Spring Island Gelato:

Fruit Tree Apple Pie Gelato – Locally harvested apples combined with a special spice mixture create the next best thing to mom’s apple pie.

Fruit Tree Pear Sorbeto – Locally grown and harvested pears. Refreshing and full of flavour.

Profits from the sale of these flavours are split between the Fruit Tree Project and Salt Spring Gelato.  Click here to read an earlier posting about the Fruit Tree Project.

LifeCycles Fruit Tree Project appreciates the opportunity to partner with local, social-minded companies like Salt Spring Island Gelato.  This partnership allows us to expand our membership, advocate for local food systems and economies, and raise funds in a sustainable and ethical fashion. The Fruit Tree Project redistributes over 25,000 lbs of food a year, food that would otherwise go to waste.

Jo-Ann Palmer and Pebbles Walker make wonderful shortbread cookies just up Island at The Cookie Crate in Black Creek, BC.  The savory line includes blue cheese and walnut, white cheddar and herb, and our curry and currant. The sweet line consists of original, lemon and almond.

Window display by Rebecca, photo by Trevor

Have you made plans for International Picnic Day yet?  It’s on Friday, June 18th - so prepare to converge on Beacon Hill Park or another grassy patch with friends and family for some bites to eat under the evening sun and stars.

Tara Austen Weaver has a wonderful blog called Tea and Cookies where she vividly describes a picnic.  Here is part of her posting (visit her blog for beautiful descriptions, photos, and recipes):

But more than the food—which was outstanding—were the people. Friends old and new, some met that very day. A conversation that dipped and wove its way through stories and laughter and strong opinions. The sharing of thoughts and hopes and experience, and even outrage sometimes, as the sun arched across an impossibly blue sky and headed for the horizon.

It reminded me of a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson that I’ve always loved:

I wish that life should not be cheap, but sacred.  I wish the days to be as centuries, loaded, fragrant.

And here is a link to another of her great posts about the pleasure of picnics.

Flowers from Cotyledon Farm - photo courtesy of Mary-Lou Leidl

Summer has arrived with fresh cut flower deliveries starting again!  Fresh cut flowers are delivered every Thursday at noon and sell out by Sunday.  Brian Stretch of Cotyledon Farm on Mount Newton Cross Road grows these fantastic non-spray flowers.  Brian’s niece Heather operates a certified organic blueberry and vegetable farm on a section of his property as part of Saanich Organics and he grows about an acre of beautiful flowers and perennials.