This newly revised guide will make your shopping easier and more delicious.
Here at YAM, we know how important it is to support our local food growers, makers and producers, especially given that we live on an island and a bad storm can empty grocery store shelves practically overnight. But it isn’t always so easy to find those great products — or even to know they exist.
That’s why we’re so thrilled to see a newly revised and updated version of Pacific Palate: Food Artisans of Vancouver Island and the Gulf Islands hitting bookstores in April (published by TouchWood Editions).
Food journalist Don Genova has followed up his successful 2014 volume with one that has expanded from fewer than 100 entries to more than 160, organized this time by region rather than product. “It’s a better guidebook that way, so if you go to a region, you can just look up the chapter,” he says. Each of the six regional chapters (Greater Victoria, Comox Valley, mid-Island, Cowichan Valley, Saanich Peninsula and the Gulf Islands) also ends with what he’s calling a “Saturday Sojourn” to help you plan your shopping spree.
True, not every Island producer made it into the book. “It’s my curation of things,” he says. There are no restaurants, either, unless they also make and sell food products. There are, however, specialty shops like Market Garden, The Chocolate Project and some Middle Eastern markets. “Damascus Food Market has that nice little story where local immigrants make the baked goods and [owner Mohamad Salem Ajaj] sells them in his shop.”
Some of Genova’s favourite discoveries include Leechtown Blacksmith near Sooke, The Cure Hot Sauce Co. in Courtenay and, on Salt Spring Island, a whole wealth of producers, including Woodshed Provisions and South End Sausage. “They are friggin’ amazing,” he says.
We can’t wait to dig in.