VanCity Living

I have reached the Mecca folks! This week Angela and I hopped a ride down to the city and while she is off with her family I am couch hopping my friends places and exploring the greater Vancouver area. I'll be honest I was a little worried about being amongst my old friends, fast food and shopping but the local vibe is truly alive and well in the city. Instead of hitting whatever restaurant I happen upon I am investigating the alternative world of local eateries and uncovering new treasures at the many thrift stores the city has to offer.

I feel as if all I want to do is eat and I hardly think there are enough meals in the day to get to every local eatery in the city. So far I have died and gone to heaven finding my new favourite spot in the world-Forage. Their motto is the same as mine "the more local the better", serving fresh locally sourced food and drink with delicious results. Their menu is also surprisingly quite affordable which I hope will allow as many people as possible to experience how tasty local truly is. Even though I wanted to try everything I settled for the spiced honey cheese pan bread, warm kale salad and squash perogies shared with my partner in crime for the evening Franco, can you say yum! Even my cocktail was local making the entire evening a dream come true.

Thrift shopping in Prince George is...somewhat limited and it takes real effort to unearth the goods at our few stores we have. Especially since we decided to deduct Value Village from our portfolio as it is a for-profit thrift chain but unfortunately also the best thrift store in PG. Coming to the city I have gone a little nuts, I had to get another suit case nuts and have shopped everywhere from White Rock to Ladner to Main St Vancouver. Also Consignment, have you ever heard of anything more wonderful! I took thrift shopping to a whole new level shopping designers, check out my new shoes!!! I never thought I would find something so beautiful and used too! 

I have 2 days left here in the city before heading up to Hope for Christmas, any suggestions? 

Happy holidays,

Melanie

"The greatest luxury is being free" - Manolo Blanhik 

stuDYING!

No I haven't fallen off the edge of the earth....yet! The last week of class's are here for the fall semester and this means a lot of cramming and late nights. This week I have found myself ordering a lot of take out from the Thirsty Moose Pub and stocking up on baked good from the University Farmers Market and the tasty delights at Degree's Coffee supplied by Home Sweet Home (Maple Yumbar is amazing!) At least I have lovely local options to get me through this week, wish me luck!

XX Melanie 

"Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself." - John Dewey

Fowl Play

My personalized care package from Home Sweet Home

It occurred to me that Thanksgiving in Canada signifies the impending finish line we are approaching to the end of the harvest season. This harvest time has meant the most to be because of the significance of seasonal food in my diet and has built a heightened awareness to what is available in my region. Though I am celebrating locally, it was still nice to connect with friends and family across the country to remind me how wonderful life really is and to be truly thankful.

To celebrate thanksgiving my mother, who faithfully reads my blog, decided to follow one of the links I left to my local grocers and ordered me a feast! I was so surprised when I got there to find a giant bag full of the best of the best things that I could not even have dreamed of. I now have 4 flavours of miso gravy....4! Thanks again Mom!

My landlord decided to park a trailer on the site of my garden a few weeks ago, ruining the rest of my own vegetables for the year.  In response I'm looking for a new place to live. Hearing this a professor at school took it upon himself to restock my cupboards from his personal garden with so many fresh veggies! I got this giant cabbage you can see in the photo (soon to be sauerkraut), rutabaga, potatoes, carrots, onions and cucumbers and the site of them almost brought me to tears of joy. It never ceases to amaze me how wonderful people are and that so much good came out of a bad situation.

Cabbage and Rutabaga from a friends garden

For my thanksgiving I spent the evening with friends at a shotgun dinner where everyone brought a homemade dish. I brought mashed potatoes and an apple stuffed buttercup squash, all local and from right here in PG. Though my dish's were local, some of the other ingredients on my plate were somewhat questionable and I am pretty sure I ate cheese from the other side of the country. I realize that not everyone thinks about food to the same degree as I do but hopefully these pages can inspire at least some thought towards it. I am so thankful for friends and family and the amazing community I am apart of that has made living local mean so much more to me. I hope I can give back as much love and appreciation as I have felt in these last weeks and make every moment count.

In good food,

Melanie


"The thankful receiver bears a plentiful harvest." -William Blake