Into the Wild, Part 2: A Canadian Thanksgiving
Once again our friends at Vancouver-based Le MarchĂŠ St. George cafe invite us to take part (at least from a distance) in their yearly French-Canadian Thanksgiving adventure. This year, family, friends, and coworkers gathered at Janaki Larsen and Pascal Roy's remote property in Oroville (a town in eastern Washington state) to partake in a three-day outdoor camp celebration that included openfire cooking, foliage-adorned table settings, and nature-seeking activities.
Photography by Janaki Larsen and Issha Marie for Le MarchĂŠ St. George.
Above: The landscape of Janaki and Pascal's Oroville property is desert-like-hot and arid in the summer and extremely cold and dry in the winter.
Above: The Thanksgiving table is placed in the middle of a field with an open view.
Above: A mix-and-match assemblage of vintage folding chairs collected over the years.
Above: The makeshift long table benches are fashioned from reclaimed wooden planks placed on top of cinder blocks. The tablecloth is a laundered painter's canvas drop cloth.
Above: The table is set with ceramic plates and bowls by Janaki (she's also a ceramic artist). Wild greenery and branches gathered from the surrounding fields dress the table.
Above: “Since we were such a large group, everyone had to bring their own dishes. Most of us brought a plate or two made by Janaki, and at the end we had enough plates to set the table,� Marie says. The gold tumblers are from Atelier St. George.
Above: On the menu: char-roasted cauliflower and brussels sprouts, a warm fruit compote, and a roasted medley of root vegetables. “The dinner was heavily inspired by Francis Mallmann's methods of cooking over an open fire,� Janaki says.
Above: Roasted lamb and chicken, also part of the Thanksgiving dinner.
Above L: Roasted carrots and fingerling potatoes with herbs and onions. Above R: Warm fruit compote with apples and coronation grapes.
Above: Lola (Pascal and Janaki's daughter) and her friend Malachai playing outside an abandoned homestead.
Above: Lola holding one of the neighbor's new golden retriever pups.
Above: Marie brought some colored smoke sticks to play with for a personal project. “I wanted to share one of these sticks with the rest of the group who had cameras, so I set this off not too far from one of the abandoned homesteads. We had two minutes to photograph this against the incredible landscape before the pink smoke died down,� Marie says.
Above: The open fire pit surrounded by the orange and purple skies of Oroville.
Above: Family and friends of Le Marché St. George.
For more of Le Marché St. George:
Into the Wild: A Canadian Thanksgiving Thanksgiving, Canadian-Style at Le Marché St. George Peasant Chic: Atelier St. George in Vancouver