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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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T
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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.
A
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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.
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