Edible SEA TO SKY acknowledges that we work, play, eat and grow on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation), the St'át'imc Nation and the Líl'wat Nation. We are grateful for their stewardship of the land on which the culinary practices we celebrate take place.
THIS PAGE: Aguas Frescas at the Pink Tuna Café Photo: Vairdy Frail
Edible Sea to Sky Summer 2024
PUBLISHER
Terra Gaddes
EDITOR
Naomi Tomky
ART DIRECTOR
Vairdy Frail
COPY EDITOR
Susan Fitzgerald
DESIGNER
Vairdy Frail
WEB DESIGN
Assist-her
SOCIAL MEDIA / NEWSLETTER
Morgan Smith
CONTACT
hello@edibleseatosky.com
SUBSCRIBE
Subscriptions are $32 for four issues and can be purchased online at edibleseatosky.com
Edible Sea to Sky is published quarterly and distributed throughout the region from Lions Bay to Lillooet.
Every effort is made to avoid errors, misspellings, and omissions. If, however, an error comes to your attention, please accept our sincere apologies and notify us. Thank you.
Like gardens do, restaurants, communities and magazines all require a lot of work and attention. In our first issue of Edible Sea to Sky, we focused on the new growth of spring. Now we turn to the care and intention necessary to open a restaurant, build a business and create a community.
In our second issue, we invite the entire Sea to Sky region to join us at the metaphorical table for a colourful summer feast that shows the expansiveness of the area and how a variety of foodways — from Lillooet-grown peppers to Squamish-made hot sauce — are heating up this season. Drink in the story of an entrepreneur who first brought the bright colours and bold flavours of Mexico to local markets with an aguas frescas stand and now serves tastes of his home country from within the four walls of his café — one of which is vibrantly pink.
Then we meet at the blackberry bushes to paint our mouths purple and learn why these invasive plants are a thorn in the side of local flora.
One of this issue’s feature pieces hits on another prickly topic, taking a sharp turn from the all-too-overused trope that sharing a meal is a panacea for fractured communities. Tending to reconciliation sometimes requires getting uncomfortable, and writer Lisa Richardson brings us the story of how Pemberton’s Signal Hill Elementary School is playing with fire to make that healing happen.
It can be tempting to let the smoke of a campfire or pit cook blur history, but this issue shows that it takes hard work, a group of people and a long timeline to build anything — a restaurant, a community and even a magazine. We at Edible Sea to Sky thank you for being a part of our journey from its early days, supporting us by reading the articles, subscribing to the magazine and sharing the stories with friends and family.
Thank you, Naomi
Tomky
Christine Montgomery Stylist & Pastry Chef
Fruit Forward
Pink Tuna Café brings Mexican food and drink to Squamish
BY CAROLYN B. HELLER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VAIRDY FRAIL
As a child in rural Mexico, Oscar Castro’s father collected prickly pears from the local cactus to keep from going hungry. Now, the vibrant magenta fruit’s Spanish name graces Castro’s Pink Tuna Café, which opened in Squamish’s Valleycliffe neighbourhood last November.
Raised in Mexico City, Castro worked on cruise ships for several years before coming to Whistler 17 years ago for a job with the Four Seasons Resort. His father’s scrappy survival instinct inspired him to adapt to the unfamiliar landscape. Unlike so many people who come to Whistler for the skiing and snowboarding, Castro had seen snow only once before.
He tried snowboarding and fell, he estimates, about two thousand times. He switched to skiing and eventually worked as a ski instructor. He met his wife, Barbora Vaníčková, who’s from the Czech Republic, when both were employed at the Four Seasons. But even as he settled into mountain life, something was lacking.
TASTES OF HOME
“You’re Mexican. You always miss your food,” he says. That longing motivated him to launch Sea to Sky Aguas Frescas with two friends in Whistler in 2018. They began producing aguas frescas, traditional Mexican nonalcoholic fruit beverages, and selling them at the Whistler Farmers’ Market and at farmers markets and festivals from Pemberton to Vancouver.
Castro’s favourite flavours come out in summer, including soursop, or guanábana, which they pair with strawberry. He imbues the drinks with flavours of home, like the staple piña colada, made from pineapple, coconut, lemongrass and a touch of honey. He produces both mango and strawberry mojitos, horchata (a blend of rice milk, cinnamon and vanilla) and a strawberry-based pink drink that — inspired by last year’s Greta Gerwig film — he now calls “Barbie colada.”
Castro explains that their initial plan had been to open a restaurant. When they couldn’t secure sufficient funding, they launched at the markets instead. Still, as the stand grew and his opening partners moved on, Castro and Vaníčková revisited the original idea. They conceived their Squamish café as a fixed location where they could offer the aguas frescas and coffee. But as soon as they opened, customers began asking about food.
“You’re Mexican. You always miss your food.”
Vaníčková, Castro and their daughter are all smiles while enjoying aguas frescas at their restaurant, Pink Tuna Café, in Squamish.
FROM SIPS TO SALSAS
Again, Castro looked home for inspiration. His extended family is from Oaxaca, in southern Mexico, which influenced his palate and drew him to the region’s earthier flavours. “[My grandmother] was the head chef of the whole family,” he explains. “She passed it on to my mom and to an auntie who used to live with us.” His aunt taught him to make salsas in a molcajete, a stone tool resembling a mortar and pestle.
Castro and Vaníčková quickly expanded the café into a Mexican restaurant, featuring tacos filled with roasted pork adobo, carnitas (confitstyle pork) and smoky beef barbacoa. Vegetarian and vegan tacos include a roasted poblano pepper version with corn, onions and mushrooms, and chorizo con papas, containing soy sausage with potatoes. The tortilla soup starts from a vegan roasted-tomato base and is topped with a dollop of guacamole, and for dairy- and meat-eaters, it comes with cheese and crunchy pork rinds.
As Castro works towards adding ceviche and prawn cocktails to the menu, he is investigating local sources for fish and shellfish. He plans to buy pork from a Squamish-area ranch and use Pemberton-grown produce, including tomatoes, tomatillos, potatoes, onions and beets. “It’s got me really excited to offer local produce,” he says. “We have such abundant resources.”
Now he gets to share the flavours of his heritage, showcased by those resources, with diners at the Pink Tuna, and with the next generation of his own family: his and Vaníčková’s three-year-old daughter. “It’s beautiful to see how she’s eating the salsas, the tacos — how she’s discovering everything.”
e
CAROLYN B. HELLER | WRITER
Based in Vancouver, Carolyn writes about food and drink, cultural experiences and offbeat adventures from her travels to more than 50 countries on all seven continents. She’s authored three Canada guidebooks, and her articles have appeared in Travel + Leisure, Lonely Planet, Fodor’s Travel, Going and many other publications.
VAIRDY FRAIL | PHOTOGRAPHER
Vairdy is a commercial and editorial photographer based in beautiful Squamish. She specializes in food and lifestyle photography and is committed to supporting brands and businesses that are making waves in their industry. Her friends describe her as adventurous, loyal and energetic, a requirement for keeping up with her husband and twin boys as they explore mountains and coastlines at home and abroad. To see more of her work you can find her online at vairdy.com and on instagram @vairdy_photography.
Tacos poblanos and al pastor with pitaya (red dragon fruit) agua fresca, at the Pink Tuna Café.
Horchata, a blend of rice, milk, vanilla, cinnamon and other spices, is a year-round staple in Castro’s lineup.
Now Open: Stong’s Market in Squamish
THE SEA TO SKY REGION’S NEW GROCER PRIORITIZES
LOCAL FOOD, LOCAL PEOPLE
Produced in partnership with Stong’s Market
When B.C.-owned Stong’s Market opened its newest grocery store on Cleveland Avenue in downtown Squamish, it quickly found that shoppers shared the company’s priorities: the people and culture of the Sea to Sky.
The store’s range of products is designed with the active, outdoor Squamish lifestyle in mind. It includes products like fresh salads, sandwiches and pizzas in the Edibles Deli to grab on the way to the trails and a huge selection of made-instore hot meals to pick up on the way back.
“Squamish is very local-centric, like us,” says Devon Crane, the store’s operations manager. “People don’t want national brands.” As a local market without complicated corporate structure, Stong’s can bring in products from small local vendors quickly and easily. “Someone from the Saturday Squamish Farmers’ Market can stop by and introduce themselves one week, and by the next Saturday, we carry their product in the store,” says Crane. That’s exactly how products such as pickles from Mandi’s Mickles and mushroom jerky from Whistler Harvest have ended up on Stong’s shelves.
Supporting Squamish
One of the core tenets of Stong’s is getting involved in the community, focusing on local brands like Whistler’s Forecast Coffee and the Hong Kong-style baked goods from Unique Slow Rise Bakery. The store works closely with the Squamish Food Bank and supports Howe Sound Minor Ball and the Squamish Youth Soccer Association.
Activating Downtown
Stong’s aims both to be a destination in downtown Squamish and to help make downtown Squamish an even more enticing destination for the community and visitors. Flower displays from the company’s renowned Stems in-house floral team spill out onto the street, along with colourful harvest-fresh produce.
“We’re trying to make the downtown core active,” says Crane.
Spreading the Sea to Sky Magic
Stong’s Squamish store supports local entrepreneurs entering the retail market. When a product sells well, like Whistler’s Wilder Cookies, Stong’s can help them expand by bringing them into the company’s other two stores, in Vancouver and North Van. By sourcing products from local vendors, Stong’s Market supports small businesses and local farmers who, in turn, reinvest in our community.
Invasion of the Berry Snatchers
Newly arrived from Alberta, I discovered a hidden gold mine behind a gas station in Squamish. “Jackpot!” I yelled to my husband upon finding the tangle of blackberry vines. “Free food!”
We greedily picked the sweet, juicy gems, filling our faces and whatever bags we found in the car. The bushes stretched on and on, with many of the berries just out of reach. In under an hour, I’d scratched my forearms to shreds and stained my shirt, and sweat dripped into my eyes. We made plans to return to our secret patch with ice cream buckets and discussed the
The best way to deal with the region’s sweetest invasive species is to pick, gobble, and cook with them
BY KATHERINE FAWCETT RECIPES BY KIRSTEN QUEALEY PHOTOGRAPHY BY VAIRDY FRAIL STYLING BY CHRISTINE MONTGOMERY
Sky Invasive Species Council lists the Himalayan blackberry as a species to eradicate in Whistler and Pemberton and to strategically control in Squamish. The SSISC works with the Whistler Naturalists and local governments to reduce further invasion by controlling seed spread and removing bushes before they can flourish.
The Himalayan blackberry owes its widespread dominance to horticulturist Luther Burbank, who introduced the plant in the late 1800s. Until then, raspberries, salmonberries and smaller, trailing native blackberries prevailed.
“Blackberry bushes run rampant ...in the Sea to Sky region, bursting with fruit during the summer’s heat.”
plausibility of living on blackberries all summer — and freezing enough so we could feast through the winter as well.
We soon learned that, in this blissful paradise, the gas station patch wasn’t unique. Blackberry bushes run rampant in vacant lots and alleyways, along sunny trails and on roadsides in the Sea to Sky region, bursting with fruit during the summer’s heat. Residents, visitors, birds and bears alike pluck from nature’s buffet — and vitamin shop: Blackberries are high in fibre, low in calories and packed with antioxidants, vitamins and minerals.
The delicious bounty makes it difficult to imagine a B.C. summer without blackberries, but the prickly producer of plenty is actually an invasive species, not native to the area. Many communities now go to great lengths to restrict or eradicate the Himalayan blackberries before their brambles devour fertile spaces at the cost of native species. The Sea to
Spreading the invasive species was far from his worst idea: While he developed the spineless cactus, the Shasta daisy and the Russet Burbank potato, Burbank was active in the American eugenics movement, many members of which argued that only certain races be let into the United States, and was a member of the American Breeders’ Association’s Committee on Eugenics.
But don’t hold that against the berries. Despite their checkered past, they’re here to stay, at least around Squamish. Which is why I still don my gloves each summer and head out beyond the gas station, lips purple with juice, snacking on berries as I pick enough to get me through until next year’s crop.
e
KATHERINE FAWCETT | WRITER
Katherine is a Squamish-based author and host of the Tap In Creativity Retreat for Writers. Her latest books of fiction are The Swan Suit and The Little Washer of Sorrows. Her personal berry-picking rule is “One for the me, one for the bucket.”
BLACKBERRY FIZZ MOCKTAIL
Serves 1
¼ cup blackberries, fresh or frozen and slightly defrosted, divided
Set 3 blackberries aside for garnish. Place remaining berries, lime juice and blackberry simple syrup in a cocktail shaker or small dish and muddle together until juices are released.
Roll mint leaves between fingers to release their scent.
In a cocktail glass, add ice cubes and then pour in the muddled berry mixture. Top with mint leaves, then sparkling water. Garnish with the 3 blackberries and lime slice.
BLACKBERRY SIMPLE SYRUP
Makes just over 1 cup
2 cups blackberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup water
In a large saucepan over medium-high heat, combine blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and water and bring to a boil.
Mash berries with a potato masher or the back of a wooden spoon, then stir until all the sugar dissolves, about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.
Pour mixture through a very fine sieve, mashing berries to release all juices. Discard pulp. Store syrup in an airtight glass jar in the refrigerator for up to 3 weeks.
PICKING TIPS
• Wear long sleeves, long pants and gloves for protection against thorns.
• Don’t pick berries lower than knee-high.
That’s the dog-pee zone.
• Only pick shiny, dark berries that come off easily.
• Use a stepladder, large stick or clippers to reach higher branches or draw them down to you.
• Bring a wide bucket to avoid squishing the delicate berries under a large load.
• To freeze your berries, rinse them, pat them dry and spread them on a baking sheet. Pop them in the freezer for a few hours and then transfer them to freezer bags or containers.
BLACKBERRY DUTCH BABY
Serves 4
Time: 30 minutes
5 tablespoons butter, divided
2/3 cup whole milk
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs, room temperature
2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup blackberries, fresh or frozen and slightly defrosted
Garnishes (optional)
2 tablespoons icing sugar
½ to 1 cup whipped cream
20 fresh blackberries
Blackberry syrup (recipe below, make in advance)
Place an oven rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 450°F.
Melt 2 tablespoons of butter and add to a blender with milk, flour, eggs, 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, vanilla extract and salt. Blend until smooth, about 1 minute, then set aside while preparing the pan.
Place remaining 3 tablespoons of butter into a 9- or 10-inch cast-iron skillet. Place skillet into preheated oven until butter is melted and bubbling and skillet is hot. While pan is in the oven, toss blackberries in the remaining tablespoon of granulated sugar. Carefully remove the hot pan from oven. Pour sugarcoated berries into the skillet, then pour batter over berries. Do not stir. Quickly return pan to the oven and bake for about 15 minutes, until pancake is puffed and golden.
Remove skillet from oven; the pancake will fall. If using, dust with icing sugar. Cut and serve immediately. If using, top with whipped cream, blackberries and blackberry syrup.
BLACKBERRY SYRUP
Makes about 1 cup
Time: 40 minutes
3½ cups blackberries, fresh or frozen
1 cup granulated sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons water
In a large heavy-bottomed pot with a lid over medium-high heat, combine blackberries, sugar, lemon juice and water. Stir frequently, mashing berries with a potato masher or the back of a spoon, until mixture reaches a gentle boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 30 minutes, stirring every 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes.
Place a fine-mesh sieve over a medium bowl and strain the mixture, mashing berries in the sieve to release their juices. Scrape underside of sieve to remove any stuck syrup. Discard pulp. Serve the syrup warm or refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Syrup will thicken as it cools.
GRILLED BLACKBERRY BALSAMIC CHICKEN
Serves 4
Time: 50 minutes plus 4 hours to marinate
For marinade
1½ cups blackberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted, mashed
¾ cup olive oil
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon dried rosemary
½ teaspoon dried thyme
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon hot sauce, such as sriracha (or small pinch cayenne pepper)
4 chicken breasts (approximately 900 grams total)
For glaze
1 tablespoon cornstarch
½ cup cold water
1 cup blackberries, fresh or frozen
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
For marinade
In a large zip-top plastic bag, combine blackberries, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, granulated sugar, granulated garlic, pepper, salt, paprika, rosemary, thyme, onion powder, hot sauce and chicken. Massage it all together so chicken is completely coated in marinade. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours and up to 18 hours, turning every few hours.
For glaze
Stir cornstarch into water and set aside.
In a small saucepan over medium heat, combine blackberries, sugar and balsamic vinegar, stirring to mash the berries. Once berry mixture starts to simmer, stir in cornstarch mixture and continue stirring until berry mixture thickens, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to low and stir occasionally to keep warm while cooking the chicken.
To cook the chicken on a grill
Preheat grill to 400°F.
Remove chicken from marinade and pat gently with a paper towel. Discard marinade. Place chicken on grill and close the lid, allowing it to cook for 6 to 8 minutes. Flip and cook for another 6 to 8 minutes. Cooking time will vary depending on the size of chicken breast. Use a meat thermometer to determine when it is finished cooking; the internal temperature needs to reach 165°F.
Remove chicken from grill and cover it immediately with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 8 minutes. Serve chicken with warm glaze spooned over the top.
To cook the chicken in the oven
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Remove chicken from marinade and pat gently with a paper towel. Discard marinade. Place chicken on a lightly oiled rack on a baking tray and place on top rack of oven for about 35 minutes. Use a meat thermometer to determine when it is finished cooking; the internal temperature needs to reach 165°F.
Remove chicken from oven and cover it immediately with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 8 minutes. Serve chicken with warm glaze spooned over the top.
KIRSTEN QUEALEY | WRITER
Kirsten grew up loving to experiment in the kitchen. Her fondest memories include time spent cooking, laughing and connecting with family and friends in the kitchen. She’s now sharing her joy of cooking by creating a cookbook of family favourites to send off with her kids as they fly from the nest.
CHRISTINE MONTGOMERY | FOOD STYLIST
Christine is a pastry chef, food stylist, artist and mom of two (and wife of one). After her culinary training and work throughout Vancouver, Christine started a bakery in West Vancouver with her mom, where they operated for eight years. Christine is now enjoying another side of food through food styling for print and film advertising in and around Vancouver. Working with local ingredients and exploring the beauty of food is a constant inspiration for Christine. Find out more or contact Christine at Fig Food Styling, figfoodstyling.ca.
Tending Reconciliation
A fire for learning
BY LISA RICHARDSON
Líl’wat Knowledge Keeper Lakál’t Tanina Williams sat close to the fire in the Signal Hill Elementary School sandpit as the moon rose behind the mountain. The hardwood in the pit would take several hours to burn down to the coals needed for the next day’s harvest feast. A Hail Mary request on Facebook for battery-powered spotlights had failed, so only the dance of flames and a few small camping lamps lit the all-night vigil.
The Signal Hill pit cook turns the ideals and work of reconciliation into a tangible event, connecting each of the school’s 425 students with the land on which they live and with an age-old technique for cooking large amounts of food. The outdoor ceremony gathers the entire community together — students, staff, parents — under the eye of Ts’zil (Mount Currie) to eat vegetables grown by the students and salmon slow-cooked in an underground pit fire.
Lakál’t and her support team prepared the fire, turning the twosquare-metre pit into an earthen pressure cooker. Later, they loaded in foil trays of covered potatoes, carrots and squash, topped with a layer of bushes. They sealed the pit with a canvas tarp and a layer of sand, then lit another fire on top.
Stoking flames in firepits might seem like a risky move for an elementary school, but it demonstrates the change underway as Signal Hill aims to learn from Líl’wat principles and values. The school operates on unceded Líl’wat territory and serves a mixed community of students. But Líl’wat worldviews don’t easily fit into non-Indigenous spaces. Lakál’t has devoted her life to carving out space for her culture and creating ways for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to learn alongside each other.
Salmon cooking over a pit at Signal Hill Elementary School. Photo: Claire Hayes
At 8:30 a.m., when the kids started to arrive at school, Lakál’t drove herself and the Firekeeper home, leaving the next stage of the pit cook in the hands of the school’s principal, the parent volunteers and her Indigenous colleagues starting their day. Her health kept her from staying throughout the process, but this year, she knew she could count on the team. “We’d made all the mistakes before.”
“Everyone needs to sit around a fire.”
SLOW BURN
“Everyone needs to sit around a fire,” the Cultural Chief for the Líl’wat Nation, K ukwpi7 Gélpcal Joseph, said after the previous year’s event. “The safety, the comfort you feel — there’s so much that comes out in people.” On the next professional development day, Signal Hill principal Krista Brynjolfson ushered her staff out of classrooms to unfold camp chairs and spend the day fireside.
As an Indigenous support worker for the school district, Lakál’t provides cultural support for the school’s Indigenous students as they navigate the mainstream education system. She has introduced weaving, plank drums and making ribbon skirts to the school. One day, she hopes to get students to make a traditional Líl’wat dugout cedar canoe. Lakál’t half-jokes that the pit cook was her plan to ease the school into letting kids work with fire, a necessary element in canoe-making.
Ambitious schoolwide projects and the recentring of traditional skills require Lakál’t to play a long game and grow as she goes. They require effort to source fragments of the language and unearth details of practices devastated by colonial policies. “Our Elders and Knowledge Keepers are stretched thin,” she says. “For me to do anything, I need to take workshops, listen to stories, do research.”
Residential schools disconnected three and four generations of families from their cultures, part of a long-running genocidal Canadian policy that quashed Indigenous languages and displaced ways of knowing and being. Capacity-building, as Lakál’t calls it, takes time. Colonization didn’t happen overnight. Decolonization and cultural revitalization won’t either.
To bring ideas to life, Lakál’t needs allies and supporters willing to roll up their sleeves and learn alongside her. “Once I feel confident in what I’ve heard, I need to trust the knowledge I’ve gathered and then do it,” she says. “It means I’m often learning alongside the kids and the teachers. It’s fun, because we’re all on an equal footing, learning as we go.”
LAST YEAR’S LEFTOVERS
As a pastry chef, acclaimed wedding cake artist and former restaurateur, parent volunteer Lisa Vertefeuille had cooked in plenty of high-pressure
situations, but never in an earth pit — until she volunteered for last year’s event. Eager for a new food adventure, she dug in alongside Lakál’t and the crew.
Deep in the logistics of baking vegetables in the ground, sleep deprived and up against the ticking clock of the school day, they took some wrong turns. Wanting the kids to see the process unfold, they waited until school started to load the vegetables into the pit. Against the advice of Lakál’t, the crew built the salmon-smoking fire away from the pit, instead of on top of it, where it could add heat from above to the
“Colonization didn’t happen overnight. Decolonization and cultural revitalization won’t either.”
pit oven. The resulting half-cooked vegetables had to be speed-shuttled from the field into kitchen ovens to finish cooking.
Vertefeuille often builds a schedule and action list as people are talking, a habit formed during years of running kitchens. “I’ve already thought about the logistics of how something is going to work.” With 500 people to feed, it was hard to reconcile her deadlines with Lakál’t’s advice: “Sometimes it’s not going to work out the way you want,” the Knowledge Keeper had said. “Sometimes timelines are not going to be met.”
Firekeeper Norman Wallace stokes the fire in preparation for the pit cook. Photo: Krista Brynjolfson
in 2015, people in Canada have grappled with how to respond to the revelations of unmarked graves and the legacy of the residential school system. Indigenous people have been grappling with the impacts for much longer. Schools such as Signal Hill are realizing their new imperative: to be spaces for healing instead of harm.
When Vertefeuille’s daughters first told her they were learning the Ucwalmícwts language, she didn’t understand the value. “When are they going to use that?” she wondered.
Then she heard Líl’wat Elders share their first-hand experiences of surviving residential school, and something massive shifted inside her. “I can’t believe how I used to feel. I had all these biases growing up,” she says. Hearing those testimonies, she understood that language was an entryway into culture. She hopes her children do not grow up with those misconceptions, but to prevent that, she must work to undo her own.
When the pit cook crew debriefed after the first schoolwide ceremony last year, Lakál’t prefaced her feedback with five words: “I say this with love.” Then she told her non-Indigenous teammates plainly that they were wrong to veto guidance from her and the Firekeeper. They had not respected the leadership the Lil’wat7ul provided.
Indigenous ways and Indigenous people are second-rate. “We know this stuff. It’s in our genes,” she says. “We’ve all done pit cooks in our ancestry, but because non-Indigenous people are a lot further disconnected from their ancestry, they struggle with trusting that it will work.”
This year, they knew better.
STANDING ON CEREMONY
As the bus driver and a groundskeeper at Signal Hill, Barry Dan does the kind of behind-the-scenes work that few students know about. He spent the day of the pit cook by the fire, chatting and visiting with Líl’wat leaders when things were calm, jumping up to help when needed. The sand bubbled and burped like liquid when Dan shovelled away the top layer. At recess, students gravitated to the fire like supercharged magnets. He kept a gentle watch. “Any ceremony is good for the kids,” he says. “It’s good for anybody that wants to learn.”
Dan was drawn towards ceremony as a teenager, and to a handful of men in his community who held the culture. Always the youngest, he sometimes wondered what he was doing with the men he called “Uncle” as a show of respect, instead of hanging out with other teenagers.
“At recess, students gravitated to the fire like supercharged magnets.”
He hadn’t grown up with a strong sense of his Indigenous culture. His family members were skilled with horses, he says. “We were like cowboys. I never thought of myself as Native or Indian.” He’d often hear his neighbours singing. “They were the culture ones.”
After the feast had been unearthed, the pit was covered with sand, and a central fire roared on top. Dan shared words with the students, staff and families who slowly massed around the firepit — people from the wide-ranging ancestries that make up present-day Pemberton: St’at’imc, Mexican, German, British, Australian, Japanese and more. He invited
them all to take a moment before eating to acknowledge the ancestors, to acknowledge all the beings that came before.
“Be thankful for whatever you have in front of you, for all the food that you get,” he said. “From all the groups: the four-footed ones, the winged ones, the insect ones, the reptiles, the rooted ones. We get all our food from everything. They give of themselves willingly. No questions asked. For us to live.”
He made an offering to the fire. The salmon that had been splayed on a stick and smoked over the fire on top of the pit was passed around. Dan’s sister, Leah, explained that the Líl’wat custom is for people to take a small piece of this first ceremonial salmon. The plate moved through the crowd of students, small fingers pinching little pieces of salmon flesh.
If even one of the people present heard his words, understood the message or took the lesson home, Dan considers his job done. “Now I’ve passed it on to someone. One of them out of the five hundred. If none of them got it, then the opportunity comes again, I’ll say it again and maybe they’ll get it the second time.”
Barry Dan serves salmon to the Signal Hill community (opposite). Dan stands proudly, ready to share salmon and culture.
Photos: Claire Hayes
WHEN LESSONS LAND
Last year, the crew raced to get the kitchen ovens hot, dig out the half-raw vegetables and finish cooking them. This year, they built a right-sized pit with concrete blocks. The earth became a furnace, cooking the fish and vegetables just as intended. The harvest directly from this land fed everyone.
Despite their missteps, nobody considers the first pit cook a failure. The ambitious prototype for a schoolwide harvest celebration opened up opportunities for the school, including the use of the fire as a gathering space — the principal decided to keep it on as a permanent fixture.
No single person can tackle the work of reconciliation and relationship-building. Lakál’t needs allies willing to step up and step out of their comfort zones, willing to be corrected when they make mistakes and grow their relationship to place and the people of the place. The reward — experiencing Indigenous ways of knowing and being — radically nourishes all involved.
Vertefeuille came to the project as the garden coordinator. “I was really yearning for some way to be involved in my community and be of service.” She expected to use her professional expertise to guide kids through lasagna gardening, building mason beehives and
“Colonization has damaged us all.”
making wildflower seed bombs. In the pit cook, she found the opportunity to expand her thinking, her knowledge and her community.
“When Indigenous people work together, we work hard, but ultimately it’s about connection,” Lakál’t explains. Everyone was Indigenous once. “It heals our genes to say, ‘Oh, I remember this.’ We all need healing. Because colonization has damaged us all.”
Back in the kitchen, checking cleanup tasks off her list, Vertefeuille heard the drumming continue under the bluebird sky. She remembered Lakál’t’s words: “Sometimes, you just need to chill out.” Being in community and sharing the experience mattered as much as the outcome. Sixteen hours after she started her shift in the smoky darkness, Vertefeuille pulled off her apron and returned to the fire.
e
Líl’wat Nation Cultural Chief Kukwpi7 Gélpcal Joseph drums alongside Leah Dan during the ceremony (opposite, top).
Photo: Cam Strudwick
Pit-cooked salmon feeds a community, physically and metaphorically (opposite, bottom). Photo: Claire Hayes
Líl’wat Nation Cultural Chief Kukwpi7 Gélpcal Joseph sits with Barry and Leah Dan at the Signal Hill Elementary ceremonial pit cook. Photo: Claire Hayes
LISA RICHARDSON | WRITER
When Lisa first moved to Pemberton from the Australian suburbs, she thought radishes grow in bunches, because that’s how they come in the store. Meeting local farmers was one way that living on the unceded land of the Líl’wat Nation has helped re-educate her, making her a passionate advocate for local food, seasonal rhythms and reconciliation. She is a co-founder of Pemberton’s agritourism event the Slow Food Cycle Sunday and a prolific freelance writer. Her writing has been translated into multiple languages, has appeared in a wide range of lifestyle publications and has earned her the title of “Pemberton’s Favourite Writer” since 2007. Find more at lisarichardsonbylines.com.
grazewilder.ca | @grazewilder
oven-ready, frozen meals delivered to your door in Squamish, North + West Vancouver
Saturdays between April 6 and December 14
In the �� of Downtown Squamish 37996 Cleveland Ave @squamishfarmersmarket
PEMBERTON FARMERS' MARKET
Sundays, May 19 - October 13 11 AM - 4 PM Upper Village Stroll, Whistler
whistlerfarmersmarket.org | @whistlerfarmersmarket + Saturdays on long weekends
BY SUE SENGER
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VAIRDY FRAIL
TTNJ Hot Sauces Turn Up the Heat A Squamish couple’s side hustle becomes a spicy star
Pegah Pourkarimi and Ben Moffitt set out to follow the open road with their travel blog, To The Next Journey — nicknamed TTNJ. But that road ended up leading them just up the highway from Pourkarimi’s hometown of Vancouver, and to their hot sauce company, which kept the nickname.
TTNJ still means “to the next journey,” but now it’s more about the trip that led them from travel blogging to catering in Australia and on to the Lucky Kid Kitchen commissary in Squamish, where they now make their hot sauce using ingredients from local regenerative farms. Pourkarimi and Moffitt set their products apart from the many hot sauces on the market through their use of high-quality, fresh produce and all-natural ingredients — and by staying true to the TTNJ brand, showing how a hot sauce can be part of a lifestyle brand.
The hot sauce idea came from the six and a half years they spent running a Persian catering company in Moffitt’s home country of Australia. Their original habanero hot sauce was part of the street-food lineup of condiments they made and offered to customers. But they never bottled or sold it.
After their twin sons were born, they decided to move closer to family, choosing Squamish for its proximity to outdoor adventures. They turned the travel blog into an outdoor- and camping-gear business, hoping to continue turning their passion for travel into a job. They made a few bottles of their hot sauce on the side, to bring in a little money while they got established.
They quickly realized the difficulty of scaling the gear business. They struggled to fill orders and lacked the capacity to make a profit. Meanwhile, the hot sauce kept selling.
But they knew they couldn’t run a business with just one product, so they started to explore ingredients and options for new flavours. That search led them to local farmers markets and an ideal audience to test flavours as they expanded from the habanero hot sauce into a full collection. TTNJ became the brand, and all-natural hot sauces its focus.
“I think people were initially surprised that we were trying to source local foods while being a small manufacturer,” says Pourkarimi. “So much of developing a product is about trying to cut costs to make it feasible.”
But they saw the idea of a local, natural product as something that could make them stand out in a crowded market. The challenge became
“You cannot replace the flavour that gets imparted when a fruit or vegetable gets to ripen on the vine.”
finding local growers capable of producing the quantities of pepper and other ingredients they needed.
“It is so much about the flavour,” says Pourkarimi. “You cannot replace the flavour that gets imparted when a fruit or vegetable gets to ripen on the vine.”
That’s where a regenerative farm in Lillooet came into the picture. They met the Seed to Culture folks at the farmers market and saw how they maximize the long summers of Lillooet — which has some of the hottest temperatures in Canada — to produce thousands of pounds of peppers, tomatoes and more each year.
But TTNJ found out how much harder it gets to make farm-fresh hot sauces using local suppliers outside of the main growing season. Instead of getting trapped by the limited availability of ingredients, TTNJ flipped the script and created limited-release bottles that take advantage of seasonal bumper crops nearby and from other regions to make unique flavours.
“Instead of getting trapped by the limited availability of ingredients, TTNJ flipped the script.”
The Farm Behind the Flavour: SEED TO CULTURE
“Seed to Culture grows tomatoes that actually taste like tomatoes used to forty years ago, the kind I remember from childhood,” says Pourkarimi. “The aroma of those tomatoes fills the room when we are making hot sauce.”
That flavour comes from how partners Christoph Miles and Jill Miners care for the soil in Seed to Culture’s fields. Using organic and regenerative practices, the pair grows vegetables, herbs and spices that pop with flavour and colour.
Miles and Miners take particular pride in growing items less common in the region, such as ginger. Harnessing the heat of Lillooet’s summer and the pristine waters flowing down the mountains, they use the long growing season to fill their tables at farmers markets, sell to producers like TTNJ and create their own value-added fermented products.
“No one was doing fermented products at the farmers markets back in 2017, when we started,” says Miners. Her love of fermentation fit well with Miles’s passion for farming, and they began producing sauerkraut, pickles, kombucha and more, using their own harvest.
Seed to Culture products are available from their kitchen in The HUB Building in Lillooet and at farmers markets in Lillooet, Whistler, Squamish and Vancouver.
Learn more at seedtoculture.ca
Pourkarimi, Moffitt and Jill Miners from Seed to Culture, with whom TTNJ partners to source fresh, locally grown ingredients for its hot sauces.
TTNJ unveiled Burnt Orange, its first limited-release hot sauce, in early 2023. Taking advantage of oranges’ winter harvest season, the new sauce drove sales and piqued interest heading into colder months. Later that year, the limited-release Carrot Hot Sauce jumped on a bumper crop of carrots and ginger from Seed to Culture. It featured local habanero and ghost peppers to help drive up the heat, becoming the hottest sauce TTNJ produces. “Breweries do this all the time. Why not food companies?” Pourkarimi asks.
Her question hints at what TTNJ does differently than most bottled hot sauce companies. Like many of the Sea to Sky breweries, TTNJ found a way to incorporate their passion for outdoor adventure into a product with few direct ties to that world. TTNJ’s Instagram account (@tothenextjourney) features artsy and aspirational black-and-white photographs of life in the Sea to Sky. It’s peppered with tents and mountains, interspersed with pops of colour from polished marketing posts. While TTNJ looks a bit different than the travel blog, catering company and gear business Pourkarimi and Moffitt set out to create previously, it proves they succeeded at the original goal: creating a business out of their passion for food, the open road and the outdoors.
e
Find the full listing of TTNJ hot sauces at ttnj.ca.
SUE SENGER | WRITER
Sue is a landscape ecologist by trade (PhD, Biology; MSc, Plant Science), with a passion for homegrown food and smallscale farming. She’s spent her career translating science into understandable components and actionable steps that support good decision-making on the land. Join her newsletter, The Naturalized Human, on Substack (suesenger.substack.com) for a focus on the mind-body-food connection, or visit Rose Hill Farm online (www.rosehillfarm.ca) for more hands-on farming features.
Kitchen Unnecessary
Feasting in the forest with campfire cuisine
BY ERIN HIGGINBOTTOM
PHOTOGRAPHY BY VAIRDY FRAIL
Like so many people before me, I meandered up Highway 99 to take in the breathtaking views over Howe Sound and settled in for a lifetime of extraordinary sunsets. But living in an outdoor adventure playground still isn’t quite close enough to the experiences I crave, so each summer I pack up the family for weekends of camping in the mesmerizing mountains.
I grew up bodysurfing in rapids, jumping off cliffs and spending endless summer evenings singing and laughing around the campfire, all fuelled by a near-infinite supply of my favourite snack, gorp. The original trail mix, a combination of granola, oats, raisins and peanuts, sustained my summer paddling trips around the Northern Ontario wilderness when I was a child and stands out as part of what made the adventures so special.
The distinctive dishes eaten in the outdoors forever hold a comfortable place in my heart. Far from the ease of a home kitchen, staple ingredients become the most gratifying meals: fireroasted sausages, fresh-caught fish and s’mores. Food cooked by the campfire is uniquely satisfying, engaging all five senses. The smell of burning firewood, the feeling of fresh mountain air in the
CHARCUTER-SKI
The highlight of Sandy Ward’s backcountry hiking and camping trips are the “charcuterski” lunch boxes she makes for the groups she guides through Indigenous Women Outdoors. Led by Indigenous women, the organization aims to break down barriers and grant greater access to outdoor sport programming for Indigenous women. Ward is the co-leader of the backcountry mentorship team.
When heading up to places such as Miller Bench in the Pemberton Valley, Ward packs a selection of gourmet meats and cheeses she finds at local markets, along with fresh fruits and crackers, into practical bento boxes. The unique treats often include bison pemmican strips from Mitsoh, Indigenous family-owned business near Edmonton.
“Food cooked by the campfire is uniquely satisfying, engaging all five senses.”
lungs and full immersion into the sights and sounds of friends and family laughing and chatting all around are just the ingredients needed to enhance the taste and create an unforgettable meal.
The Sea to Sky’s choose-your-own-adventure landscape provides a majestic backdrop for a meal and sets the table for an indelible menu. Wanting to gather new inspiration for this year’s excursions, I checked in with local outdoorspeople about what they serve when spending the night outside.
e
TACO BAR
Shawna Lang ’s camping trips tend to involve multiple families and big groups of friends and require careful planning to keep everyone fed. The director of destination marketing and member engagement for Tourism Squamish likes to pre-cook spicy ground beef for an all-you-can-eat taco bar. Everyone gets to build their own tacos using toppings such as shredded cheese, diced tomatoes, black beans and hot sauce. Then they can wrap their meal up and take it on the trail or down to the beach, where they can dine on a log. Lang’s favourite provincial park is Porteau Cove. “It’s a great place for stargazing, water wildlife and beachcombing.”
GRILLED SALMON
At their Britannia Beach burger and coffee shop, Outbound Station, Jordyn Ferreira and Jeffrey Edward power adventure-seekers for paddles on Howe Sound and hikes up the rock face of the Chief. With its grilled onions and smoked cheddar cheese, the Big Joe burger, named after Squamish legend Joe Eppele, captures the essence of camping in the Sea to Sky and cooking over an open fire.
When not flipping burgers, Ferreira and Edward like to go off-season camping in the Squamish Valley or up the Mamquam River Forest Service Road. When dinner rolls around, they cook a recipe adapted from Edward’s mom, Alice, to whom he attributes his creative cooking skills.
Photo: Philipp Hein
Photo: Ben Girardi
Photo: Claire Halley
ALICE‘S CAMPFIRE
SALMON
Serves 4
Time: 20 minutes
¼ cup butter
¼ cup maple syrup
1/8 cup soy sauce
2 cloves garlic, grated
1-pound salmon fillet
In a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat, stir together butter, maple syrup, soy sauce and garlic until the butter melts, the ingredients are well-blended and the sauce has thickened slightly, about 3 minutes.
Heat the grill to medium-hot and place the salmon on it, skin side down. Brush the sauce onto the salmon, then repeat every 2 minutes as it cooks. Let it cook until the white protein melts up through the salmon or the fillet reaches an internal temperature of 125°F, about 10 minutes.
LET A LOCAL BUSINESS DO THE WORK
Stay Wild Natural Health Food Store and Juice Bar staywildnaturalhealth.com
Load up on natural and organic snacks for your backpack at this Pemberton shop. Look for their housemade trail mix, fruit chips made from upcycled ugly fruit by Squamish’s Chiwis Snacks and pemmican strips from the Indigenous-owned Mitsoh.
French’eese Whistler frencheesewhistler.com
Backcountry cheese fondue brings the bistro to the wilderness. Customized for two to eight people, this package comes with everything needed for the meal, including pre-grated cheese, sliced baguette, wine and liquor, plus the necessary equipment and utensils. For something a little lighter, cheese boxes such as the Mountain/Lake Box come with a baguette, charcuterie and a small selection of French cheese.
Squamish’s community grocer, Peak Provisions, curates ingredients from its boutique market into custom Peak Packs. These vacuum-sealed charcuterie boards and RUX coolers contain artisan sandwiches, Oyama Sausage meats, pickled vegetables, European cheeses and Peak Provisions’ signature truffled popcorn.
ERIN HIGGINBOTTOM | WRITER
A fun-loving foodie and wine aficionado who formerly called Squamish home, Erin believes every meal is an adventure and every glass a discovery. At the top of her to-do list this summer is gourmet campfire cooking under the stars in this beautiful province.
