Dish

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

| A17

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a feast for the senses

Chef Jane Copeland bakes up a new venture see page 19 ALSO INSIDE:

PHOTO PAUL MCGRATH

Community-supported agriculture page 18 Friends start veganinspired food truck page 20

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

d i s h

Considering community agriculture CHRIS DAGENAIS Contributing writer

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Maybe.

I would argue, then, that it also takes a village to feed a child. And to feed that child’s parents and extended family. In this age of urban sprawl, the days of self-sustaining agriculture are long gone for most families. The so-called global village has sought to meet the demands of the world market through centralized, macro-scale farming and rearing.

Community-supported agriculture is a fairly new movement that includes growing produce in urban lots, developing shared gardens, and using vegetables grown in private gardens. PHOTOS PAUL MCGRATH

new community of responsibly minded and enthusiastic gardeners.

North Shore News readers are likely already familiar with EGP’s charitable growing initiatives, like the management of Loutet Farm and its educational efforts with local elementary schools, which have been featured in these pages a number of times.

The oft-celebrated Loutet Farm is a thriving urban agricultural operation that fosters volunteerism, practical education and employment and is a great example of how under-utilized land can be transformed for public good.

While this approach has yielded economies of scale, it has also forced significant concessions in other areas, particularly environmental stewardship and ethical production. Some of these concessions have been brought about, in part, by relentless consumer demand for products that would simply not be regionally or seasonally available without global infrastructure. On the other hand, the consistent provision of these items (think pineapple in February, or meat seven times a week on the dinner plate), may well be shaping consumer demand. It’s the eternal chicken and egg sequence debate.

But perhaps flying a bit more under the radar is EGP’s shared garden initiative, in which members of the public at large may offer up their own personal green spaces (gardens, rooftops, and other privately owned plots) for consideration as public growing resources. You have likely seen EGP shared gardens at work at Lillooet, Bridgeman and Queen Mary parks, but the initiative also permits private plots to contribute, provided they meet criteria based on fertile soil, good sun exposure and the willingness of the owner to permit volunteers to tend to the produce.

While it may be difficult for each of us to independently cultivate the sustenance we require, it may nevertheless be possible to dramatically reduce our reliance on mass-produced, high-impact goods through localized co-operative methods.

I read with interest that the shared garden program has a waitlist, meaning that there is currently more available, arable green space than there is staff to tend it; it’s a wonderful problem to have, in the grand scheme. In the ongoing struggle to preserve a sense of community in rapidly developing neighbourhoods marked by large, anonymous condos, underground parking garages and big box chain outlets, it is heartening to learn that so many North Shore residents are keen to see their personal spaces employed to the benefit of others.

This is a central tenet of the community-supported agriculture (CSA) movement, which has been quietly developing behind the scenes in Vancouver and is now slowly beginning to become more mainstream. This includes outfits like Vancouver’s Sole Food Farms, which grows produce in vacant urban spaces (and finds ingenious uses for old shipping pallets). It makes me happy to see urban lots employed for socially forward-thinking, sustainable, community-building initiatives like this in a city beleaguered by the distinction of having some of the world’s most expensive real estate.

Right here on the North Shore, The Edible Garden Project (EGP), and their suite of progressive agricultural programs, is fostering a

Irrespective of whether or not your space can be employed for public growing right now, you can contribute to EGP by becoming a volunteer either privately or as part of an organization. Learn more at ediblegardenproject.com.

Chris Dagenais’ regular restaurant review column, The Dish, appears in the Wednesday issue of the North Shore News.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

| A19

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d i s h

Culinary chef pursues pastry

Two passions soon to be combined in new Lower Lonsdale eatery ROSALIND DUANE rduane@nsnews.com

Chef Jane Copeland admits she was a little late to the cooking game.

While many culinary students enter the trade after high school, Copeland (seen in the photo at left) instead got a degree in geography and history.

After travelling for a bit, she returned home and decided she wanted to pursue a career in something completely different. At 25, Copeland attended culinary school, which she says is kind of old to start in the industry.

“But I have managed to make up for the lost time,” she notes.

Her education in cooking started much earlier, though.

“I grew up in a family that made everything.

My mom and my grandmother made everything at home. So I guess I was always surrounded by that type of environment,” she says, adding she doesn’t regret her choice to change her career path. “I honestly can’t imagine doing anything else.”

PHOTO SUPPLIED

After graduating from culinary school, Copeland worked at various restaurants across the country then worked overseas for two years before returning to Canada. She moved to the North Shore last year, and is currently in the process of re-designing the former

norm that men cook and women bake,” she says, adding she always loved to cook. While she was working in Spain, however, she was moved to the eatery’s pastry kitchen and fell in love with it. “For me it’s very tactile and hands-on,” she says of her interest in baking.

Moodyville’s Café space at Lonsdale Avenue and First Street into her first solo venture: Lift Breakfast Bakery. She hopes it will be open in a couple of months, just in time for the holiday season. The unique space is located in a heritage building that maintains some original framing, but is largely a new building made to look old.

“When I look at this building I just think corner bakery, that’s what it says to me,” says Copeland.

The concept for the new eatery is a bakery and breakfast café that will feature all-day breakfast, as well as sandwiches and soups.

And on the weekends, it will be open in the early evening for charcuterie boards and cheese. It is also fully licensed. “It’s a learning process but it’s pretty exciting,” says Copeland of owning her first business.

She explains that baking can be almost too precise, which can be frustrating, especially since she comes from a cooking background, which is much more instinctual where she can fix things as she goes and develop recipes along the way.

Although baking is a lot more about precision, rustic baking, like breads and some pastries, also require instincts to know when elements, such as moisture levels, are affecting the finished products.

“It’s one of those things where two people can do it side by side and get totally different results,” she notes of baking.

After working for other people for almost 10 years, Copeland decided it was time to strike out on her own. “I guess you get to the point where you feel pretty confident with your food style and you really want to develop your own personal style,” she explains.

Bread is her specialty, but Copeland also enjoys baking laminated pastries, such as croissants and puff pastries.

Copeland has spent about half of her career working in the culinary field and half in baking, so her new venture combines both interests.

“I think a lot of the reason I decided to train in culinary was to kind of break that social

The name of Copeland’s planned eatery, Lift Breakfast Bakery, contains an ode to another baker’s term.

The word “lift” is used to describe the initial rise of dough in the oven when it first hits the heat and starts its initial spring.

“That’s a good sign,” she says.

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SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23, 2016

d i s h

Food features farm to festival ERIN MCPHEE emcphee@nsnews.com

For Devalina Waring and Chloe Devine it was now or never.

The longtime friends and Deep Cove residents met the summer prior to entering high school and became fast friends. They kept in touch throughout university, which took them to different Eastern Canadian cities, as well as in the years that followed as they each embarked on a series of separate travel adventures.

While their paths were diverse, for example at one point Devine was working in the kitchen of a yoga ashram in the Bahamas while Waring was in Denmark manning a food truck at the Roskilde Festival, they still maintained much in common, mainly their passion for health and cooking.

Reunited when they returned to the North Shore, the friends agreed that the timing felt right to act on an idea Waring had floated a few months prior: launching their own farm-to-festival vegan and organic food truck, Gaia Ma.

“We had so much inspiration from seeing all the different food systems and cuisines. … We came back and realized this is what we need to do,” says Waring.

bought a truck in March, painted it purple and gold, had a kitchen installed, and excitedly set off on their inaugural season, hitting up a series of nearby festivals, including Blessed Coast, West Coast Yoga Festival and the Luminosity Gathering.

Looking back on their busy first food truck season, Devine and Waring are overwhelmed at the positive response they received.

“I’m constantly humbled and surprised by the reactions we get to our food,” says Devine.

“We love being creative but it’s hard for us to let go of menu items because people have given us such great feedback on them.”

“I love the sense of community that our little purple and gold truck can create. I love meeting people. ‘How are you doing? You’re not just a customer, we’re friends.’ To me that’s super epic to go around to a bunch of different festivals and see your customers, your friends through and through. It’s a really special feeling to create a community around similar values,” adds Waring. “For us, it’s such a beautiful service to feed people, it’s something that connects everyone in the world.”

It didn’t take long for their take on vegan cuisine to catch on at some of the more mainstream events they were featured at, like the Pemberton Music Festival.

Gaia Ma, which loosely translates to “mother earth, mother universe,” is intended to fill a void the women feel exists in the local food truck scene, and is focused on providing a health-conscious alternative.

“It was a bit of a slow start and then by the weekend we just had a constant lineup and flow of people coming to see us,” says Waring.

Ready to put their vision to the test, they

Their eclectic, mainly raw, food menu was

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Chloe Devine and Devalina Waring recently finished their first season at the helm of a food truck. PHOTOS SUPPLIED

inspired by their travels. Offerings include: an Italian-inspired Raw Law-Zion-Ya, composed of marinated zucchini layered with cashew ricotta, sun-dried tomato sauce, pesto and fresh tomatillos; a Taste the Rainbow pad thai, containing purple cabbage, shredded carrots and zucchini, and topped with their homemade peanut sauce, bean sprouts and lime; and Wrap Me Up Baby, which consists of spiced chickpea falafel balls bundled in a collard leaf, topped with shredded veggies. All of their vegan cheeses and preservative-free sauces are made from scratch, in-house.

The one cooked dish on the Gaia Ma menu is Kitchari, derived from Waring’s two years spent in India and Devine’s experiences learning to cook from Ayurvedic chefs. “It’s an Ayurvedic Indian dish that’s really grounding and it’s a full protein, so for someone who does eat vegan, which I do, it’s a really great source of energy and nourishment,” says Devine.

Gaia Ma also offers a number of different breakfast options, smoothies and desserts.

Devine explains that they provide options for people with food sensitivities or diet restrictions because they have both struggled with different

health problems and digestive problems and have found that it’s not easy to go out and eat.

“I never want our truck to be somewhere that you feel uncomfortable asking to modify something,” says Devine.

While both women believe strongly in the positive impacts of veganism on the body, environment, economy, health and happiness, they’re quick to point out that their goal is not to suggest their customers become raw vegans or that they should eat 100 per cent organic.

Rather, they hope to use their food as a means of making people aware of the benefits and to consider what alternatives might exist.

“This truck has really become a vessel for us to help educate, to spread awareness and to spread love,” says Devine.

Ultimately, they hope to continue leading by example.

“There’s a lot of love that goes into it and I think the community really feels that, so I’m hoping it’s some kind of chain reaction. I hope it inspires other chefs to really look at their ingredients and where they come from and how it affects the world,” says Waring.

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