What's in this Issue!

• Welcome to Eat BC! News
• Eat BC! Video
• Register
• Find it Fresh
• Food Miles!
• Viewfield Farms
• BC Blueberries
• Neptune Food Service
• The New Potato from BCfresh
• Yellow Point Cranberries
• Get Local
• Attention Chefs

Welcome to the first edition of Eat BC! News

On behalf of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association and the BC Agriculture Council, I welcome you to the first edition of Eat BC! News. With your readership and participation, we hope that Eat BC! News will soon become a valuable tool for you and all stakeholders of BC’s agri-food industry.

Eat BC! is a pilot initiative of the British Columbia Restaurant and Foodservices Association (BCRFA) and the BC Agriculture Council (BCAC), with funding support provided by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, the BC Investment Agriculture Foundation and many industry sponsors.

Together, we are connecting local chefs, growers, distributors and retailers and encouraging British Columbians to choose fresh, local and tasty BC foods and beverages in every season and region. Everybody is welcome to participate in Eat BC! and we encourage you to read on or contact our office to find out how to get involved!

Choose British Columbia and Eat BC!

Jaclyn Laic
Eat BC!

BC Blueberries – Good Supply Getting Even Better
Story Submission – BC Blueberry Council

British Columbia’s climate – mild winters, long, dry summers with cool, breezy nights – is ideal for growing sweet, juicy blueberries. So ideal, in fact, BC produces 90% of the high bush blueberries grown in Canada! More than 600 blueberry growers and packers are represented by the British Columbia Blueberry Council (BCBC), an organization that works together to market their blueberries and to promote the well-being of the entire industry.

The industry continues to grow! The first bushes were planted in Richmond more than eighty years ago and today, there are 14,000 acres planted with 4,000 acres of new plantings that will reach maturity in the next few years.

In 2007, BC blueberry growers produced a record 73 million pounds and they predict another record-breaking crop in 2008.

Regardless of how you use blueberries – supplying your customers in the market or creating inspired recipes – there are plenty of BC-grown blueberries to fill your needs.

Producer Story – Meet David & Lisa Taylor of Viewfield Farms, Vancouver Island
Story Submission – BC Dairy Foundation

David and Lisa Taylor of Viewfield Farms are strong believers in the family farm – and it shows. In these times where dairy farms are getting bigger, the Taylors prove that a farm’s size does not affect its ability to aim for the highest standards of excellence.

The Taylors, along with David’s father and brother, operate a 330 animal Holstein herd on 180 acres of land just north of Courtenay. This is where they breed quality cows and produce quality milk. They have recently been fully certified as a Canadian Quality Milk (CQM) farm. The CQM program is an on-farm food safety program designed to help producers prevent, monitor and reduce food safety risks on their farms. They are also part of a dairy herd improvement program in which each cow’s milk is tested every month. In the last three years, the Taylors have won the top milk quality for their district. Last year, they won top milk quality for Vancouver Island. Two of their cows have won provincial awards for milk production, while one cow won an all-Canadian award for milk production this past year.

David and his wife attribute the successes to hard work and pride in their jobs. The Taylors were named finalists for the BC/Yukon Outstanding Young Farmers Award. This award recognizes the achievements of young farmers. They were also named finalists for this award in 2005. The Taylors aspire to become Master Breeders, an honour given to select breeders every year by Holstein Canada. Dave takes the dairy business seriously and his busy life includes being a board member of BC Dairy Foundation, overseeing the various education, promotions and marketing programs run by the organization.

For more information, please contact Steve Tan at 604.294.3775 or e-mail stan@bcdf.ca.

The New Potato from BCfresh
Story Submission – BC fresh

Grown in the fertile fields in the Fraser Valley, the New Potato is a harbinger that summer is just around the corner. Flavourful, delicate, and tender, this potato is only available for a short time each year. Its superb taste and texture, combined with skinless convenience and small nugget size, ensures the New Potato a spot as one of the potato “favourites” throughout Lower Mainland kitchens. This locally grown potato is the first potato to reach local supermarkets and food service distributors each year. If you have never tried one hurry out and taste the difference.

The New Potato Features:

• • The New Potato is picked early before they have reached maturity and size.
• • This is the first locally grown potato of the season.
• • The New Potato is only around for a short time so try one soon or you will miss out! (First week in June until early July – very limited supply).

The the New Potato is the most flavourful potato of the season:

• • New Potato needs very little preparation, no peeling is necessary, just a light rinse.
• • Convenient short cooking time.
• • Highly nutritious.
• • The New Potatoes are excellent when steamed, boiled or pan-fired and are exceptional served cooked and cold in salads.

BCfresh

• • BCfresh is made up of 32 local farm families throughout the lower mainland going back four to five generations.
• • 100% owned and operated by BC growers.
• • Major supplier of root vegetables to the lower mainland, providing over 65,000 tons of root crops per annum.

Now in stores, the New Potato is the first and most flavourful potato of the season.  Fast and easy to prepare due to a lack of skin and the small convenient size, the New Potato is a healthy choice for your family.

Neptune Food Service Welcomes Trish Hudson, Category Manager – Marketing & BC Products!
Story Submission – Neptune Food Service

Fresh. Local. Sustainable. Delicious. These are just a few reasons why Neptune Food Service is pleased to announce its BC Fresh Products initiative, spearheaded by the newly hired Trish Hudson, Category Manager – Marketing & BC Products.

“Being ‘Best at Fresh’ is what Neptune Food Service is known for, but now we hope to stand out in the marketplace even more by promoting local, sustainable products” says Hudson of her new role. Hudson’s 15 years of experience in the food service industry will aid Neptune Food Service in exceeding the expectations of BC chefs, who want to support their communities by supporting local growers and producers. Combined with Neptune Food Service’s current support of the Ocean Wise program, the BC Products initiative will enable BC restaurants and food service establishments to provide their customers with delicious menu items, created from fresh, local products. Neptune already carries many outstanding BC products, such as goat cheeses from Happy Days Goat Dairy in Salmon Arm, as well as artisan cheeses from Little Qualicum Cheeseworks in Parksville and Salt Spring Island Cheese Company.

With more than 3,000 customers and 1000 staff throughout the province, Neptune is one of the largest food distribution firms in British Columbia, and an important part of the Gordon Food Service (GFS) family. GFS is the largest family-run food distribution company in North America and has been operating for over 100 years.

For more information and fresh BC products, please contact Neptune Food Service at 604.540.3766.

Producer Story – Yellow Point Cranberries, Ladysmith BC

We are all familiar with the red cranberries that we see sitting next to the turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas, but have you tried a white cranberry? You may ask, why pick an infamously tart berry before it has ripened? The reason? Cranberries, unlike most fruit, get more sour as they ripen. There is a fine point, where cranberries turn from green to white to red, and if you pick them when they are white, the fruit is a little sweeter and less acidic than when they are red; pick cranberries when they are green …and boy are they sour.

Does this milder tasting white cranberry have less of the miraculous powers of its more mature red cousin? Not really. White cranberries have almost all of the benefits of the red cranberry. White cranberries have all of the same ingredients that help promote urinary tract health.

For more information about Yellow Point Cranberries white and red cranberry harvests, farm visits or to order cranberries, please contact Justine at justine@yellowpointcranberries.com or call 1.877.YPC.FARM.

Attention Chefs and Food Service Directors!

Are you using fresh or frozen blueberries in exciting new ways?  Have you created a showstopper blueberry dessert or found ways to menu blueberries beyond the dessert category? The BC Blueberry Council would like to know all about it.   We will try to get your signature recipe published in a local or national food service magazine – possibly with an interview. Please contact Marcy Erhard at marcy@lewis-neale.com or  877.420.8914 for more information.