Building a made-in-B.C. meal
It’s easier than ever to create a local feast
For Nicholas Scapillati, who grew up in a sprawling Italian-Irish-Canadian family in Ontario, food — and especially Thanksgiving — has always been homegrown.
“Everybody in my family had a garden, canned and preserved, fished or hunted,” he says. “We were just really into food.”
He finds the boom of interest in local food really exciting: “It’s a very positive thing that we can change the way we eat, protect the environment and come together as a community, all through food.”
Scapillati, who now lives in Vancouver with his wife, Kas Shield, is executive director of Farm Folk City Folk, a local food non-profit. Scapillati and Shield do a West Coast Thanksgiving, rotating from house to house among family members every year, and they try to keep it made-in-B.C.
Scapillati believes one of the most important ways we can create meaning is through food.
“We’re always looking for more meaning in our lives, and ways to connect with each other,” he says. “Thanksgiving gives us an opportunity to slow down and come together over food.
“There is so much to choose from right now. To put together something that is local, sustainable and truly British Columbian at the same time is easier than it’s ever been.”
Here’s how he and Shields plan to celebrate this year, a dream of a meal that tells a story about how and what we grow in B.C.
“Thanksgiving is about turkey. We can get fresh turkeys that are raised sustainably, juicy and not too expensive.”
For a sustainable stuffing, he’ll use the Terra Breads heritage levain, made from grain grown from Cedar Isle Farm in Agassiz.
“Lots of butter from Avalon,” he adds. He also likes to take the stuffing to “the next level” with some sausage sourced from Urban Digs, a local farm that raises “big, happy pigs.”
Vegetables will come from one of the Vancouver farmers’ markets. He’ll pick up brussels sprouts on the branch, beets, sunflower sprouts, Pemberton or Valley potatoes. Lots of fresh herbs. “Everyone should be growing their own herbs in the city,” he says. “Or just walk around Vancouver; there are huge rosemary bushes everywhere. Ask your neighbour.”
He’ll do a salmon, which he sources from CSF-model (Community Supported Fishery) fishery Skipper Otto. He likes to roast the salmon drizzled with B.C. maple syrup.
He recommends a honeysweetened white from Meadow Vista winery to fortify the gravy, and a bottle of Summerhill Brut bubbly, or some local cider.
The meal can be rounded off with local farmhouse cheese, and peaches.
“We make an annual trip to Similkameen and we get hundreds of pounds of peaches and we can a whole bunch for our family,” he says. (Shield cans fresh fruit and vegetables for about eight families in addition to her own.)
They top the peaches with some local Earnest ice cream and apple crumble.
“There’s a new variety in B.C. called the Salish apple that’s sweet and crunchy, kind of like a Honeycrisp and a McIntosh. It’s crisp and effervescent, but the skin is thin and a really amazing red.”