in praise of pemberton

8/7/2019 In Praise of Pemberton

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n hours drive north of Whistler,

B.C., a shuttle bus plunks a half-

dozen out-of-towners along a

rural road across from the Pemberton

Community Centre. Our bikes have already

arrived in the bed of a pickup truck, now

parked across from the old schoolhouse in this

town lifted straight from John Steinbecks

novels. All that remains now is to sign in at

the Slow Food Cycle Sunday registration

table, then make a mad dash for the nearest

bank machine. No fee is required to explore

the necklace of farms that traces the Lillooet

River as it meanders through this lush valley

wedged between Mount Currie and Mount

Meager. But I need cash credit cards wont

cut it to cover the homemade baked goods

and local farmgate produce were all eager to

sample, purchase and stuff into our saddle-

bags on the 50-kilometre foodie pedal ahead.

Our phalynx of city slickers boards its

borrowed bikes and falls into formation with

a scattering of locals turning onto Pemberton

Meadows Road. It is barely mid-morning,

but already the scent of warming asphalt sig-

nals a hot day of cycling. The only respite

from the heat: a light breeze generated by the

movement of our wheels (incentive to keep

pedalling) and the shade offered by trees and

barns at roadside farms (as if we needed more

excuses to stop).

Pemberton residents Tony Feuz, wife

Yuka and the couples two youngsters cruise

up beside me on the inside. Five-year-old

Alisa is riding solo, two favoured stuffies

tucked into her bike basket; Alex, age two,

slumps in a baby seat behind his fathers

handlebars. But theyre not the only pint-

sized participants along for the ride. Tots on

two wheels weave all around us, easily keep-

ing pace with the grown-ups proving that,

despite towering mountains on all sides, this

country road meandering across the Pem-

berton Valley floor is as flat as Holland.

We breeze past an organic garlic stand;

fields that nurture strawberries, potatoes,

oats and carrots, depending on the season;

and a vast, plush-green guest ranch. A

cluster of riders on horseback provides a

momentary distraction, an oil-painting-like

vignette against a lush, rolling canvas. Barely

five kilometres in to this day-long trek, and

Im already vowing to bring my entire

extended family with me next August.Our first stop, appropriately, is Pemberton

Coffee Co. a cottage-based gourmet busi-

ness where the heady scent of just-roasted

(top middle) Toshi Kawano W E S T W O R L D >> S U M M E R 2 0 0 8 25

I n P r a i s e o f

PembertonWhere a community food-and-bike fest teaches locals

and city folk to pedal fast and eat slow

b y j e n n i f e r p a t t e r s o n

photography by dave steers

daytripper

A

Thanks to volcanic deposits, the

sediments left by flooding rivers and

care taken by pioneering farmers,

Pemberton farmland is considered some of

North Americas best producing organicwine-worthy grapes, strawberries and

the regions specialty: potatoes. (2008,

incidentally, marks the United Nations

International Year of the Potato.)


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beans drifts from the chimney. A hand-

painted wooden sign leaning against a hay

bale reads Bike Parking, inviting riders to

deposit their bikes on the front lawn. Strong,

hot coffee is served for a small donation. A

young man strums a guitar amid the buzz of

locals chatting. Children in bike helmets

climb the fence for better views of the don-key and goats next door. Above: only wisps

of clouds in an otherwise clear blue sky.

he Slow Food Cycle Sunday con-

cept originated in 2005 over a

cup of this same coffee, founder

Anna Helmer tells me. As pre-2010 Winter

Olympic developments started creeping up

the Whistler corridor, the thirtysomething

organic potato farmer feared losing the farm-

land she loved and, along with friend Lisa

Richardson, wanted to raise awareness aboutits value. If Lower Mainlanders realized how

important and precious it is, then it would be

a lot easier to convince them to keep it as

farmland, Helmer recalls thinking. So we

decided to launch an event that would take

folks up the valley. As an avid cyclist,

recently returned from a two-month cycling

trek across Thailand, Helmer also opted to

combine her two passions cycling and

farms with the Slow Food movement. My

dad said to us, It could be a Slow Food Cycle

Sunday, Helmer remembers. Before she

knew it, Richardson, a freelance writer, had

churned out press releases by the mitt-full.

It hasnt taken long for the event to catch

on, either. In just its second year 2006

participation rates more than doubled, from

400 to 1,000. That same summer, Tourism

Whistler weaved the slow-food cycle into a

press trip. Riders flocked to the valley from as

far afield as Australia, Brazil and the U.K. for

wine tastings, farm tours, a rafting trip and

gourmet fare prepared by Whistlers top

chefs, including Andrew Richardson of Araxi

and Hans Stierli of the Westins Aubergine

Grille. Even the 2007 events turnout of

1,400 was impressive given that it was an

unusually cool and rainy August day in both

the Lower Mainland and Whistler. What

the glass-half-empty types in Vancouver

and Whistler didnt know was that the

weather is always better in Pemberton and

on that particular day, the sun was shining.

In its first and second year, the Slow Food

Cycle route was detailed kilometre-by-kilo-metre on a hand-drawn map, with high-

lights such as the Farm Cinema at kilometre

10 and a river raft float back to town from

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the VanLoon Farm at kilometre 25. In 2007,

organizers added a 32-page almanac with

farming anecdotes and local lore about the

Pemberton Valley. Their philosophy: Pem-

bertons pedal pilgrims would live the jour-

ney, as they traced the Lillooet and glacier-

fed Ryan rivers past pastures of grazing cattle

and horses and stands of cottonwood trees.Unlike auto travel, riding a bike is about

the immediacy of ones surroundings, says

Helmer. Its the little things, she says, the

crickets by the roadside, the Hereford cows,

the hiss of wind in the trees, those giant hay

rolls in the fields, that bring the farmers and

the bicycle-riding public together on Slow

Food Cycle Sunday.

At the very least, todays event puts a pos-

itive spin on some pretty sobering statistics.

We are, in our increasingly urbanized world,

becoming evermore distant from our foodsources. There are children growing up not

knowing where their food comes from, their

only understanding beginning and ending

with the brightly packaged items purchased

at their local supermarket. Meanwhile, the

United Nations predicts that half the worlds

populace will live in cities by the end of 2008,

an estimate expected to swell to 70 per cent

by 2050. Like Helmer, many are alarmed by

the trend and are calling for ways to reunite

food producer and consumer. Last years

award-winning book The 100-Mile Dietis one

example in which co-author J.B. MacKinnon,

recounts his inaugural visit to an East Van-

couver farmers market: My fresh market

salad was different. It was human scale.

Greens from the Langley Organic Growers;

eggs from the Forstbauer family farm; garlic

scapes from a shy man named Albert. The

foods that overflowed our big glass bowl were

notonly the flavours of spring, but of this par-

ticular spring, this unique year with its hard

rain and rare glory of sun.

t kilometre 15 on the Slow Food

Cycle route, Don Millerd and

partner Bob Mitchell, owners of

Pemberton Meadows Beef Co., barbecue

burgers made from their grass-fed cattle for

the cycling masses. Millerd and Mitchells

On the menu at more than 20 Slow

Food Cycle roadside stands: Pemberton fries,

ice-cream sandwiches, samosas and natural-

beef burgers. Its an educational thing, anawareness thing, says potato farmer John

Beks. People are thrilled to come and

visit a farm, and we want to let them know

whats happening here and how its done.

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more natural and responsible alternative to

mass-market beef is one of the highlights of

todays ride. They love it, says Millerd.

They just throw their bikes down on the

grass and grab a burger, then demand, Where

can I buy this beef? Good marketing? Most

definitely. And its for a good cause: Millerd

and Mitchell will sell 430 burgers today anddonate 100 per cent of the profits to Pember-

ton Valley Search and Rescue.

A brief pedal down Pemberton Meadows

Road, at kilometre 17.9, is Shaw Creek Farms

and John Beks. The second-generation seed

potato farmer and his wife, Michelle,

planned on serving hot-buttered corn, but

cold weather has delayed the ripening of the

cobs. So Michelle and the couples two

daughters have whipped up 250 ice-cream

sandwiches on homemade chocolate-chip

cookies. The buzz on the road: Theyre sell-ing ice-cream sandwiches there! Meanwhile,

Bekss neighbours tuck carrots, beets and peas

into bulging panniers, as Claudine Sellers

from Whistlers Own Bakeshop dispenses her

signature pumpkin doughnuts, cakes, and

lemon squares from the barn where the

farms potato crop is stored each winter.

As for whats in the works for 2008,

Helmer isntafraid to dream big. Shed like to

convince BC Rail to offer a low-budget

commuter train to bring Slow Food cyclists

into the valley.* Me, Im already deliciously

satisfied. Ive chatted with locals over my

handlebars, scribbled notes about cows and

cottonwood trees, felt the hot August sun on

my cheeks. And Ive joined one farming

communitys movement to bring about

change: meeting the farmers behind the

food now weighing down my saddlebags

and pedalling to its Pemberton Valley source

one farm at a time.

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ACTIVE INGREDIENTS

Pemberton 2008 SlowFood Cycle Sunday event is scheduled for

August 17. Registration on-site. (slowfood

[email protected]; slowfoodcyclesunday.com)

Bring your own bike or rent at The Bike Co.,

in Whistler (604-938-9511) or Pemberton

(604-894-6625); bikecowhistler.com SERVING

TEMPERATURE: Moderate CONTEMPLATE &

SERVE Slow Food Cycle Sunday Almanac, ed.

Lisa Richardson (New West Press, 2007;

$3.50); The 100-Mile Diet: A Year of Local

Eatingby Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon

(Random House, 2007; $19.95). J.P.*As this issue of Westworldgoes to press, Slow Food

Cycle Sunday organizers are still hoping to make this

train connection a reality.

in praise of pemberton

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