Raspberry - October 2016, Issue 5 by Raspberry

Issue 5 October 2016

magazine

Photo by Lisa Caroglanian Dorazio

Editors Anthony Biondi Katie Stobbart Nick Ubels

FRESH curators Alex Rake - Fiction Aymee Leake - Art

Business Dessa Bayrock - Ad sales Sasha Moedt - Events Jess Wind - Communications

Contributors

Dessa Bayrock Lisa Caroglanian Dorazio Sasha Moedt Joel Smart Jess Wind Kelly Wong

Raspberry publishes letters to the editor of 150 words or less. Letters should be sent via email to info@raspberrymag.ca. The editors reserve the right not to print a letter for any reason. If you have a tip for arts, culture, or community coverage, let us know.

Contents

A Fraser Valley feast finale at Fort Langley This year's Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival went out big with a busy showing on Glover Street in Fort Langley's downtown.

p.20

On the cover Behind the scenes at your local garden centre p.30

www.raspberrymag.ca

Contents Q&A with Cheap High p.8

Mission DIwali celebrations p.18

Curly Kale eatery p.24

With A Muse On My Shoulder p.58

Columns The Spice Train to Scoville p.28 Local Harvest: a review of books p.40 FRESH Fiction by Dessa Bayrock p.43 Emerge at the Reach p.47 FRESH Art by Rachel Kirkpatrick p.50 October FRESH Picks p.60

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The Red Press Society is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering the growth of the literary arts in the Fraser Valley; publishing works which stimulate local arts and culture, including Raspberry magazine; and promoting awareness and readership of contemporary Canadian literature.

Eating

Local Katie Stobbart Photo by: Liz West / flickr

hile we won’t go so far as to repeat old BC slogans declaring this province the “best place on Earth,” it’s important to acknowledge how privileged we are in the Fraser Valley. Our region is well known for its agricultural wealth and abundance of food. So much locally grown and raised food is available to us with little effort: healthy fruit and vegetables, free range eggs and ethically raised meat, fresh bread and other baked goods, and even rice as well as other grains. With u-pick orchards and local farm prices that are on par with or sometimes lower than what grocery stores charge, there’s really no excuse not to support local agriculture and local culinary artists, especially those who prioritize ingredients from the Fraser Valley, or at least the Lower Mainland. Choosing to eat local food is an excellent way to get in touch with our food sources and correct the disconnect that often occurs when food sourcing becomes almost purely transactional—that is, when we consider only the numbers on the price tag, and not the processes that bring the food to store shelves, and then to our tables. Ignorance of the real story—the characters, setting, and events of food production—carries high costs you can’t always read on a price tag. There’s the cost of gas and the resulting emissions from the importation of food into a region already rich in edible resources; the toll exacted on local farmers, their employees, and

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their sustainability when they struggle to compete with external markets and mass year-round growing south of the border; and the social consequences of a failure to understand the importance of local food production, and the sanctity of food. Certain discussions about the Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) come to mind as an ongoing example of the latter. Luckily, it does seem that people are becoming more aware of and passionate about local food. It is encouraging that the highest traffic on our website is often directed to articles about farmers’ markets, local restaurants, and other food-related topics. A good portion of this issue of Raspberry is a celebration of food and the agricultural abundance of the Fraser Valley: in the pages that follow you can read about how seasonal changes affect local nurseries and garden centres, coverage of the Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival, and a profile of Chilliwack’s Curly Kale Eatery. There’s even a salsa recipe from our resident spice expert, Joel Smart, on page 28. Food is a vital part of our lives, both physically and culturally. And as we make our way through autumn, many of whose traditional activities are tied to food and its production, let’s challenge ourselves to really think about where we find nourishment, and the hidden savings that don’t show up on the grocery bill.

Apocalypse Underground

Cheap High on their turbulent origins, creative evolution, and debut LP Nick Ubels Art (above) by Tiffany Royrock Photos from Facebook

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If you catch Mission’s Cheap High at one of their six fall shows, you’ll be struck by how well everything locks into place. Justin Goyer’s shimmering guitar lines float between his brother Derek’s bass parts while Carlos Mendonca’s unmistakable growl cuts in like a prowling lion. It helps that he ranges across the stage in the same manner, ready to strike at any moment. Holding it all together is the sturdy, almost punishing rhythm emanating from his brother Nic, slouched casually behind the kit. In spite of their seemingly tossed-off style, the band’s music, aesthetic, and stage presence are seriously considered, revised, and well developed. Forged from the ashes of TRI 5 and TLC, Cheap High quickly established themselves as a distinct presence in the Fraser Valley’s flourishing post-punk scene. Three years later, the band is preparing to release their debut full-length LP, Subterranean Suburbia. I stopped by their garage to drink Cariboo, listen to The Smiths, and dive deep into the history of Cheap High with Derek, Carlos, and Nic.

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What are the origins of Cheap High? Nic: It’s actually a good story. Derek and Justin, the guitar player, they used to play in TRI 5. They had a surf-y, Ty Segall-style sound. Super loud and upbeat. They played together and they lived together, the three of them. Their living room was a jam room and then there was this tiny corner of two couches and a TV. Derek: Me and my brother played in a band with our friend Anthony, and over time, it just got a little heated. We were in a band for two years and lived together. It was me, Justin, and Anthony and the house. Nic: They were so tight and had this super good bond, but it was too much, too soon or something. Derek: We practiced too much and then we just kind of fell apart slowly between certain issues. And then I became friends with Nic. Nic: I was playing with TLC [Tables Ladders & Chairs!]. Derek: So he was in a band that kind of was slowing down, not really playing shows. No one said that they weren’t a band anymore, but they hadn’t had any shows in a month or two. Carlos: Still haven’t said that. Derek: Me and Justin decided we kind of still felt like practicing all the time and we weren’t even talking with Anthony at the time. So Justin and I started hanging out with Nic on Tuesdays. We would go out to Mission and practice. There were ideas that Justin had that we didn’t feel like showing Anthony because we knew

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it was just too heated. Carlos: But you guys were practicing and it was almost behind the back of Anthony. It was, like, in cognito, nobody fucking knows. Nic: They were trying to be super low key so Anthony wouldn’t know. Derek: We wouldn’t bring our guitars or amps. Nic: Straight-up cheating. Derek: It was shady shit. I’m not impressed with myself. Nic: And then he showed up one day. Anthony got off work one day and just showed up with a six pack and he fucking was pissed. It was in this back room, you’ve got to walk through the back gate and come around and he was like, “So what, are we fucking done?! Are you serious?!” It was a full-on break up and I’m sitting there. Carlos: And I’m on the couch. Nic: And Carlos hadn’t even been playing with us at that point. We were practicing and Carlos was just at home. And the practice room was also where you could sit out and smoke. He had just started playing guitar and playing with Corey [Myers]. That’s the guy who records all our stuff. I play with him in Loans, he plays guitar, and Damn Fine Cop was the first band. Carlos: Anyway… Derek: Carlos lived with his parents so we’re practicing there every Tuesday and he’s just sitting there, practice after practice.

"We would practice in the thick of shirts tice in summer, the thick of summer, shirts off, Nic: He knows the songs now and he just sweating, and Carlos was wearing a just was writing little screenplays and shit off, fucking life jacket and sweating, a sailor’s hat. He’s like that so it’s like, dude, you’re sitting standing on the table, touching the roof. here, you’re writing, you’re pretty much and Carlos was at band practice as a vocalist without be- Derek: We knew he was our guy. We ing at band practice. We’re having beers wearing knew he was our guy. a fucking with him, we’re hanging out. Nic: And then, that winter, Derek bought and a Derek: And then we’re like, wait. Me life Justin a Jazzjacket Chorus, a Roland JC-120. and Justin are brothers. You motherfucksailor’s He’s ers are brothers. Carlos: And the soundhat. was set. Nic: This would just be perfect. Derek: All of sudden it was like listenstanding on the ing to more Cure, Flock of Seagulls, XTC, Carlos: They asked me and I was just table, and it was like an ultra touching ‘80s guitar amp like: yep. makes it sound like what I like. I bought it for him for Christmas and hid it in the roof." Derek: Never sang before. We didn’t my apartment. Four hundred and fifty even know if he could sing.

Nic: Those were such funny practices. It was such a hot summer. I think it was three years ago. It was so fuckin’ hot, man, it was just terrible. We would prac-

bucks. I gave it to him and the sound of our band is based on that guitar amp. If that blew up, if that fell off a trailer, we have to go to Craigslist and use one of those for the next show.

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What can you tell me about your label, Dipstick Records? Your LP is the first release. Who’s the one who’s doing that? Nic: Taylor Novak. I’ve known him for years, he’s a few years older than me. In high school I didn’t know him that well. Carlos: Older skate kid. Derek: The kind of guy who’s a great bass player but never plays in any bands. Derek: Shy dude. Nic: Went off to Vancouver Film School and there’s been this few years that people are doing this and that in life and checking in with him it’s like, holy shit, he went to Vancouver Film School, he works for the City, he wants to start his own record label. We were talking about the 12 inch route and he was like, “Yeah, I want to put it out” and we were like “Cool”. So we took a long time to record and then we were like, “Do you still want to do that?” We asked him five, six months later, “Was that serious?” Derek: Because everyone talks about putting out records. And it was like, yo, he’s asking us? Nic: We feel so fucking privileged because there’s so many bands we play around with that don’t have that shit happening. It’s like, it seems so weird, why us? I mean, I love our band, and I love the music we write, and I’m really proud of the record and everything we do, but I feel like there’s so many people like that.

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Carlos: If it wasn’t for Taylor, we would still be struggling to get this record out.

What was the process like for recording your LP? Carlos: Long. We started on my birthday of 2014, tracking drums November 20, 2014. Derek: As far as recording style goes, no click, barely any hearback on headphones, no bed track. Single-recorded, split-up. It’s pretty much recorded the stupidest way you can record. Corey wouldn’t do it that way now. Nic: Carlos didn’t have vocals written for a lot of the songs when we recorded. Carlos: Or I wasn’t proud of a lot of them. There’s not a single song I didn’t change lyrics on from the original.

What’s your creative process like? Nic: Justin, our guitar player who’s not here-Derek: He’s always been the riff daddy ever since he started playing guitar. Nic: He writes most of the guitar stuff and we just work away around that and Carlos writes the song ideas. Carlos: Writes for a long fucking time. Derek: He’ll show up with, “I’ve got these two or three new riffs. I got this order of them, but what do you guys think?” Totally open. And we’ll do it, be like, “oh, that does sound cool”. We all

"We feel so fucking privileged because there’s so many bands we play around with that don’t have that shit happening." put it together.

What’s the intent?

Nic: He’s open to tweaking, but he just comes up with riffs that would make sense for the band.

Nic: Yeah, they’re a super rad band, but where does that come from? Honestly, just in the context of a band name that gets put on posters and thrown around.

Derek: Carlos is all lyrical content. We don’t have like, one paragraph is Nic’s, one paragraph is Carlos’, the rest is Justin’s writing. It’s nothing like that. Some bands are like that. Carlos: I was surprised to hear that in Girl Band, the vocalist doesn’t actually write his own vocals. Nic: They’re called Girl Band and I don’t know if they’re being losers. It’s a bad band name regardless, because it’s like, are you being a dick? What’s the angle?

Carlos: And these are all guys. Nic: Yeah, it’s just like fuck, what is that? And their performance is so serious and very focused. There’s no fucking, oh aren’t we a couple goofs being Girl Band? It’s just this great band, powerhouse fucking band. They’d play with a band like Metz or something. But fuck, that band name sucks. Big time. I just, I hate it. And I have no defense for it if anyone asks. it’s just like: a shitty band name. Carlos: It’s like shitlord fuckerman.

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What is that? They could be the best band ever, but. Nic: Diarrhea Planet. It’s a band. What the fuck? I won’t listen to it. Derek: I can’t wear that shirt. Nic: I can’t even fucking Google “Diarrhea Planet” even if they’re the best band. Carlos: But what were we talking about?

Writing music. Carlos: Always tangents…

When you’re writing lyrics, because that seems like that’s completely your domain, what’s the journey like going from first draft to several drafts to the finished song?

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Carlos: The way the writing process works is there’s a big heap of paper. Where I write most of my lyrics is at work, because it’s depressing and monotonous, right? And reading the paper, I just get these tidbits in my head, and I’m like, oh that would be good for this, so I have this piece of paper with ten lines for separate songs with separate kind of ideas. Derek: When he’s practicing, he’s got all these things he has to lay out from all these different note pads. Carlos: There’s always an idea. Right when I hear a song, I have an idea of what I want it to be. So then I have the umbrella of what I want it to be with all these songs. I start writing stream of consciousness lyrics and then I start cut-and-pasting them with appropriate umbrellas they’re supposed to go under. Then, after that, it’s like what’s the context? What makes sense? And what goes where?

The new ones are totally everywhere. These are bizarro lyrics for me. I don’t think the lyrics beforehand weren’t already bizarro, but these ones are very absurd. I’m 1000 per cent satisfied with everything on this album. Love it. Love Subterranean Suburbia, everything fits under that moniker, everything’s great, but those are old songs already to all of us. These new songs, we’ve been playing a lot of them live lately with Shane [Hoy], new guitar accompaniment with us, right? And the new songs are slower, heavier. There’s no real cheery moments. They’re eerie. So one of the songs is about, it’s all kind of paranoid, it’d be like the journal entries of a total paranoid person, like conspiracy artist. That’s direction for that. Subterranean Suburbia is almost the same thing, but not so bizarre. That’s the process. Lots of cut and paste, not literal cut and paste, but I have a stack of paper this big that I go through all the time and I fold shit together which belongs together and maybe, I’ll have a cigarette pack, the top of a cigarette pack with a little bit of scratch of writing and I’ll be like, “That is the fucking one that ties it all together” and I’ll lose it, too. I always lose shit, go around the jam room, like there it is. It’s lots of paper everywhere and sometimes I’ll not even know the context of what I’m referring to. I’ll scratch it on a receipt in the back of a supermarket line and I’ll be like what the hell?

To dig a little bit deeper into Subterranean Suburbia, you were saying the new stuff leans into that paranoid mindset. To me, the record also feels like it’s channeling a lot of frustration or dissatisfaction, maybe anxiety into this

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cathartic expression. Does that make sense? Carlos: It totally does. There’s a lot of frustration. We were talking about even just the name Subterranean Suburbia, it’s a sci fi reference to me, but I reference everything in our modern world right now into a fucking sci fi. It’s a little too terrifyingly Philip K. Dick. That’s what, for Subterranean Suburbia, it’s kind of about one person and a lot of people simultaneously with this existential angst about where and what we are. Subterranean Suburbia is kind of a tongue-in-cheek thing. It came from a movie, A Boy and His Dog, and in this dystopian, post-apocalyptic world, the rich elite live underground. They live in a suburbia, literally subterranean and I just think, yeah, that’s totally possible and a lot of that stems from the angst of what it is to be a person and trying to swallow what’s going on around. Not trying to be cynical or anything, just a realist about it. There’s tons of people locking themselves in. This is not a thing that happens, where people talk to each other, face-to-face. People like to think that they’re for something, even empty Facebook likes and stuff like that. There’s a lot of people with opinions and not a lot of people doing anything about it, right? Subterranean Suburbia is, thinking of all the songs, just the perfect theme to it all. And it’s frustration and it’s confusion, as well. I would say those are the two words most likely to sum it up to.

The record sounds great. I’m really stoked on it. Nic: Thanks. Derek: I’ve played music with Justin for

"I reference everything in our modern world right now into a fucking sci fi. It’s a little too terrifyingly Philip K. Dick." four years and never heard it mastered. So everything about this recording is a huge leap farther than anything I’ve done recording-wise.

Nic: Me, too. Aesthetically, and everything, I’m way critical. I see the shit that works and I’ve always been really intrigued by following a lot of music, and music that I care about, and music that I really like the sound of. And I don’t ever want to replicate their sound. I never want to go into a song trying to say let’s do a fucking this song or let’s do a song like these guys. It’s always, lets do a song like we would do if we were sitting in a room making a new song together. Never anything otherwise. Carlos: What I think you were trying to get at is how visually driven we’ve been since we’ve started. Nic: I have a keen idea.

Carlos: First thing we released, who names a two-song EP? We did: Ego Wholesale. I sent a friend of ours a picture of this weird thing, of what does Ego Wholesale mean to you? This is a picture I like, come up with art for it. It’s always been visual. This one, visually, Jake [Holmes] and I talked about it for months, almost a year, about what we’re doing. We’ve always been visual fucking people. Nic: The whole social media thing, the nature of things has been don’t say something unless you have something to say. There’s no point in blah blah blahing on social media or in person. Especially on social media, it becomes tired.

at all, but in preparation, we’ve been doing little photo shoots to underline Subterranean Suburbia. Nic: There’s one photo of Justin with cans of fruit hanging off of a tree. Carlos: Lyrics off of a new song about low hanging canned fruit. Nic: The least paranoid ramble of the new stuff. Carlos: Yeah, that’s definitely the least paranoid, talking about espionage.

Well, canned fruit? That’s like bunker food, man. Carlos: That’s exactly it. Nic: That’s the true Subterranean Suburbia: canned fruit growing underground.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Cheap High’s debut LP, Subterranean Suburbia, is out September 30 on Dipstick Records. They will be playing six shows with Blessed, starting with Captain’s Cabin in Mission on September 30 and 333 in Vancouver on October 1 before heading east towards Winnipeg. Along the way, they will be playing several house parties. As Nic reminds me, “a good house show is a house party.”

Carlos: Superfluous posts. We’ve been taking some cool fucking pictures. I don’t know if you follow us on Facebook

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community snapshots

photo by Katie Stobbart

Exploring emptiness Urban spaces have all these eerie characteristics that somehow come alive at night: instead of the plain old grey parking lot you might find by day, there are ominous shadows, and brighter tones take on a yellow tinge. Light has definite boundaries and its glow is faintly animal, like eyes gleaming in the dark. Next time you’re walking past the “Sear” [sic] parking lot or somewhere else that appears abandoned, stop to consider the character of empty spaces that might seem plain at first glance. Halloween is not too far off, and it’s not too early to psych yourself out! Note: Don’t forget to be cautious during explorations of remote or dark locales. Stay safe!

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A Mission for a multicultural Diwali Anthony Biondi If you’ve ever seen satellite images of the globe during Diwali, you understand what a celebration of light means. The entire Indian peninsula is lit up brighter than any city, from the Alps all the way down to the very tip of the country. Vibrant colours, and strings of light call out into the night sky. Diwali is a celebration light overcoming darkness, a multi faith holiday recognized across India during autumn. Each faith group has its own unique reasons for celebrating but its influence is universal. Diwali takes place over five days and is mostly celebrated in homes with the lighting of candles and firecrackers. The bright lights are a way of showing thanks to the heavens for abundance, and is made apt by its proximity to the time of harvest. Halfway across the globe, Mission will be joining in the light this Diwali with a multicultural celebration. It’s a free, public event, and purportedly the largest Diwali celebration in the Fraser Valley. There will be dancing, free food, and a market.

“We’re integrating other cultures into Diwali,” said Mission Community Services organizer, Rick Rake. “We have Mexican dancers, we have Irish dancers, we have Ukrainian dancers. Of course, when we introduce them we’re going to show how they relate to light, in terms of their celebrations.” The dancing opens at 6:00 p.m. on October 26, with an instrumental act by students of Dashmesh Punjabi School. Following that will be an array of multicultural dances including two dance acts from Dashmesh, and the bhangra dance club from the University of the Fraser Valley. “The Fraser Valley Hindu Cultural Society is providing all of the food. [All] the food will be cooked at the Sikh temple in Mission,” said Rake. The food will be served as a buffet inside the theatre, and followed up by the main dancing events. Highlighting this, the foyer of the theatre will be turned into an international marketplace and community centre. “I’ve got a team that’s going to take the entranceway to the Clark Theatre, and Image by Rajan Manickavasagam /flickr

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with 15 strings of lights and all of these paper garlands around, to make it look like Diwali,” said Rake. The market will feature booths from the Mission Library, Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley, Victoria Hair Salon, Mission Food Centre, and many others. There will also be opportunities to have henna done. Mission’s Diwali celebrations have been going on for six years now, having started out in just a small classroom in Heritage Park. “More people came aboard, more volunteers came to help, sponsors came aboard,” said Rake. “It touched a nerve with people.” Since then, Rick Rake says he sees a turnout of about 1,000 people every year. “The doors are open to everybody,” says Rake. According to Rick Rake, the focus of Mission’s Diwali is to help educate people about other cultures. “If you understand the culture, there’s no fear,” says Rake. The Fraser Valley has a diverse cultural background, and with so many communities sometimes there can be misunderstandings among them. With education, Rake hopes, the borders can be brought down. Rake is hoping to make this year’s celebration one of Mission’s biggest. Though the celebration is located in Mission, Rake says he gets visitors coming out from all corners of the Fraser Valley.

LOVE A

Truck Food Truck Festival slays Fort Langley with decadent smorgasbord Jess Wind

What do you do when you have 25 food trucks and not nearly enough stomach to try ‘em all? Bring helpers! We showed up hungry, at the crack of 11 a.m., ready to take on the Fraser Valley Food Truck Festival’s final event of the season in Fort Langley, and we were glad we did. Before the trucks had fully rolled up their windows, line-ups started forming. Poomba’s Smokehouse and Mo Bacon sandwiches quickly had hungry guests looking for early lunch. We did a lap up and down Glover Rd., taking in the beautiful backdrop of historic Fort Langley, before committing to our first street food indulgence. Taters, The Baked Potato Co. was our first stop and with so many different baked potato topping options, it was hard to pick a flavour. Luckily they offered free samples! After much deliberation and tasting it was decided that the “Sea ya later tater” with lobster,

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snow crab, and cod in a cream sauce was amazing, but the “Wild West chili tater” with beef brisket paired better with the baked potato foundation. Staying true to smokehouse chili flavours, it was a warm, hearty start to the day with a generous helping of tender beef. The next step was to investigate what was coming out of the wood-fired oven at Whistler Wood Fired Pizza Co. Their menu featured a variety of favourites including pepperoni and Hawaiian, but I went with the unexpected and subtle rosemary rock salt. Scorching hot out of the oven, the unmistakable smell of rosemary wafting around me, I folded the first slice of impressively thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizza and took a bite. Flavours were subtle and complemented the hint of sweetness in the crust and the rich tomato sauce. This pizza was so good, my helpers went back for seconds to try the pepperoni.

Perhaps the most talked-about dish was Feastro, The Rolling Bistro’s “Original Dirty Fries.” These fries make poutine look like child’s play. They featured a bed of tasty fries, topped with pulled pork, two kinds of aioli: chipotle and lemon garlic, house-made BBQ sauce, fresh salsa, and pickled jalapeños. It was colourful, aromatic, and each flavour shone brightly. People were stopping us in the street to ask which truck the mountain of food came from. The festival featured other food truck staples including tacos from Los Tacos Hernanos, gourmet hot dogs from Dougie Dog, and gourmet mac and cheese from Reel Mac & Cheese. There were

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“Big Ass Truck Made” burgers at Suburban Spoon, Fish and Chips at Pub Grub, and bannock sandwiches at The Bannock Wagon. But it was time for something sweet. Though Mollies Mini Donuts were calling with their sweet fried “hugs,” the smell of which could be detected far down the street, I decided to go with a cannoli from The Cannoli King. There was just no denying the combination of sweetened ricotta, almonds, and chocolate chips rolled in a crispy fried cannoli shell. I only ordered one, and regretted it later when they sold out early. By the time we’d indulged in all we could handle, the line-ups were stretch-

ing further and further from the trucks. Despite relatively quick cook times for food trucks, some people were waiting upwards of 45 minutes for their dishes. Laine Ogilvie of Memory Laine events, who organized the food truck festival season in the Valley, commented on the crowds and overall impression of the event. “The crowds were amazing. We did have a few line-ups as you do with large crowds. All the attendees were so happy to be there, and did not mind the wait,” she said, adding that they expected the turnout in Fort Langley. “This is usually the norm with these events, we do bring 25 food trucks and there usually are lineups, but they are not too long of waits as the trucks are quick getting food out.” The online discussion followed this sentiment. Many of the food trucks advertise their social media presence, and happy customers commented that the food was well worth the lineup, and they were thrilled to have attended.

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Ogilvie noted that the changes to the Fort Langley festival this year made for a more successful event. “We moved the event to Glover Rd., had double the trucks, and an overall better event. Live band, kids entertainment, community involvement.” The trucks lined the street and were framed by bustling local shops and Fort Langley’s historic Community Hall which featured live music, plenty of seating, and an artisan market to round out the event. Fort Langley Food Truck Festival pulled out all the stops to make it more than just a collection of excellent street food. It was a community-wide, family-friendly, and food-centric event that put many smiles on many faces. We showed up hungry, indulged in food truck staples, and found new favourites. How long ’til next year?

Curly Kale Eatery is all local Sasha Moedt

When Curly Kale Eatery chef Mike Slanzi was given notice by city officials to leave his location at Chilliwack’s The Local Harvest Market, it was a scramble. “The building wasn’t built to commercial code, so the city came down on them,” Slanzi explained. He’d worked in that space for nearly a year and a half. Curly Kale served all local food – predominantly sourced from that very farm. “Basically the city gave us a month to move – one month to find a place that was move-in ready,” Slanzi said. There were two potential locations: downtown, or a location near Garrison Crossing. The latter was a good fit – and after a short while preparing, Curly Kale Eatery opened up April of 2016. “If we hadn’t gotten this in that first month we probably would have, that would have been it,” Slanzi said. But with luck and hard work, the move was suc-

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cessful. Curly Kale eatery still serves all local, with most produce coming from The Local Harvest Market. There was even space below for a fellow vendor also evicted from The Local Harvest Market – Magpie’s Bakery. Any bread on the menu comes from Magpie’s Bakery. Moving to the new location for Slanzi was “a little bit of a blessing in disguise,” Slanzi commented. “But I miss the farm.” After being open for approximately five months, things are going well – but you might not have heard about it. “We’ve done no advertising, none whatsoever,” Slanzi said. Beyond the basic social media—Facebook, Instagram, Twitter—Curly Kale Eatery has a modest public profile. “It was a choice,” Slanzi explained. “I’ve been in the industry for a very long time, and I see restaurants open with a bang, and they end up not having enough food to feed the masses

on the grand opening.” Despite the low profile, every week there are new faces, and old regulars that keep coming back, Slanzi said. Clientele are as diverse as the menu. “The people that come here, they like the flavours. They aren’t looking for the greasy spoons anymore. Here they are still getting a full meal, and it’s healthy and natural.” Some things haven’t changed from The Local Harvest Market days. Curly Kale Eatery still sources every single item on the menu locally. From eggs, to pork to tomatoes, Slanzi sources local, and creates menu items from scratch. “We are able to sustain ourselves with what’s around us,” he said. Working with solely local food keeps him on his toes as a chef, Slanzi admits. He has to be flexible with his menu: “if we don’t have tomatoes, [the menu] changes slightly. The burger I’ll change to a slaw instead of tomatoes and lettuce,

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for example. And it works. I still find the flavour to still go with everything.” The furthest away Slanzi sources his food is seafood from the coast. “There’s no squid, but [I’ve used] black cod, BC spot prawns humpback shrimp, salmon.” It might not be as easy as heating a bag of pre-seasoned, pre-cut or pre-portioned food, but Slanzi believe it’s critical for the community to source local, for a plethora of reasons – from environmental, to health. “As a chef, I feel like this is how it should be done. It’s hard … I do everything from scratch, [I do the] labour, I pay higher prices for the produce and the meats. But [the farmers] take care of the animals; they take care of the produce. It’s not over processed. Prices go up, labour costs go up – but we’re still selling stuff at good prices.” Slanzi doesn’t bother much with the popular buzz words of the culinary world

"As a chef this brought me back to life." today – seasonal, handmade, in-house, etc, etc. “I don’t like using the phrase farm-to-table, because that’s another throw around term,” Slanzi explained. He just does it, and the truth is in each ingredient on his menu. “There [aren’t any] big GF trucks coming in, the big produce trucks coming in from California, or Mexico,” Slanzi said. “If nobody supports the small farmers, then that’s all you get – mass deliveries.” While local prices might not be as cheap, Slanzi believes with support, that will change. “The more people support them, their prices come down. And I want to support that change.” Sustainably raised food is important to Curly Kale, Slanzi continued. “A lot of places are doing organic processes, but they aren’t necessarily certified. As long as they’re doing in humanely, and the pigs are running around doing what they want to do. To me, that’s real food. And if we use every piece. I mean, we did pig’s ears!” While pig’s ears weren’t a smash hit with customers—(“I thought it was great!” Slanzi laughed; “You cook it really slow, boil it really slow for about three hours in water, then you deep fry it, it’s like calamari!”)—Slanzi says sourcing local allows such creativity in the kitchen. “As a chef this brought me back to life,” he said.

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“I’ve been bored for years at other restaurants. You get stuff like the humdrum of doing the same stuff, day in day out. Now I’m like – ‘what can I do next?’ This is why I got into the business. It’s a great feeling.” Mike Slanzi is happy with how far the Curly Kale Eatery has come since leaving The Local Harvest Market. They just recently extended their hours to serving dinner, on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday evenings, where he says things have been “calm, quaint and so far well received.” His ultimate goal with Curly Kale Eatery is to pass on the ‘eat local’ philosophy: “I would love to have another restaurant that someone else is running – I want them to be able to do their own thing… and to be able to train people to create menus, and to be a chef, and pass it on.” “So take the same idea to say, Cranbrook, and do the same thing there. I want people to learn that they can do this, and that other places can do it.”

community snapshots

photo by Katie Stobbart

A tribute to autumn Autumn is here in all its crispness. In this photo taken of the tree-lined sidewalk outside Abbotsford Middle School, some leaves are still green, but many have taken on a juicy red colour â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the deep kind of red that makes us think of shining apple-skin and cozy little houses made of old Clayburn brick. A vital red, illuminated by the bright sear of a fall sun. Bring out your favourite scarf and head outdoors to enjoy the weather for yourself!

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Spice Train

to Scoville Hot Smoke Salsa By Joel Smart This easy-to-make tomato salsa is easily tailored to your preferred heat and taste. Even for a novice it can be made in less than an hour, and the results will make you wonder why you ever bothered buying pre-made salsa before. Don't be afraid to let the veggies get pretty dark under the broiler; it's the key to getting Hot Smoke Salsa just right.

Ingredients 6 large tomatoes, cored and halved 4 medium cloves of garlic, peeled 4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (canned) 3 small carrots, washed 3 Thai dragon chilies 2 large red peppers 1 jalapeĂąo pepper 1 large cooking onion, halved and sliced 1 tsp white vinegar Canola oil Sea salt and ground pepper to taste (optional: 1 pack Wendy's chili sauce)

Directions 1 Lay tomatoes face-down on lightly greased, foil-lined tray. 2 Add onions, garlic, and carrots on tray. 3 Place full red peppers, jalapeĂąo, and Thai chilies on tray. Spray or drizzle canola oil over veggies and place tray in the oven on

4 rack 5-10 inches from broiler. 5 Broil on high for 10 minutes. 6 Remove any blackened

tomato skins or onion slices that seem very charred and place in bottom of large plastic storage container. Rotate peppers so all sides blacken. Return tray to oven.

7 Continue to check veggies every 10 minutes, rotating peppers and re-

moving any blackened veggies. Fill the plastic storage container with finished veggies.

8 Once peppers are fully charred, place in separate plastic storage con-

tainer and seal with lid. Let sit until cool, as the steam will improve flavour.

9 Remove peppers from container. Cut off

red pepper stems and slice lengthwise, opening peppers up and removing all seeds. Easily peel off blackened red pepper skins. Discard skins, stem and seeds.

10 Carefully cut stems off jalapeĂąo and Thai chilies, without touching the seeds or inside juices, as they can burn your fingers if you aren't wearing gloves. Discard stems, but don't seed the hot peppers as the seeds add heat and flavour you don't want to miss.

11 Add peppers to original plastic storage container. 12 Spoon desired chipotle peppers in adobo sauce into container as well. 13 Use hand blender to mix veggies and peppers until smooth, with no visible chunks.

14 Stir in vinegar (and chili sauce if desired). 15 Once cooled, add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in your favourite hot sauce for extra heat.

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Behind the scenes at local nurseries

Get the 411 on one of gardeningâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s busiest seasons by Lisa Caroglanian Dorazio Unlike our southern hemisphere friends, autumn, also known as fall, begins for us in the Lower Mainland September 22nd. As our daylight disappears, it is the time of year when you begin to think about Thanksgiving and Halloween, transitioning out of swimsuits into sweaters, and looking for interesting and fun things to do when the temperatures cool.

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While we are so fortunate to lead the nation in the most tempered climate, we often neglect to take advantage of the weather and set out to discover the hidden treasures in our backyards. Only a short distance from our homes and workplaces are dozens of plums in garden centres and nurseries. Within the grounds of these riches you can find yourself shopping in venues for items ranging from West Coast Seeds (organic seeds from Delta, BC), to the North American-made Garden Girl clothes (Homestead Nurseryland & Florist), canning items, and even pet carrying cases (in the pet-friendly Buckerfieldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s locally owned and operated since 1919). If you work up an appetite while searching for plants at Tanglebank Gardens you may find yourself taking a break to do some Christmas shopping and lunch at

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their very own Brambles Bistro. Admittedly, I found myself salivating over The Reuben, a delectable Cultus Lake corned beef, house-made sauerkraut, and Swiss cheese sandwich with Russian aioli (served with bread and a side salad) while passing time looking at the landscape or watching others shop for amazing winter-hardy herbs. Additionally, Tanglebank Gardens grows produce for their restaurant, further adding to the uniqueness of this enterprise. Although not yet in the public eye, merchandise is often priced during the summer for â&#x20AC;&#x153;Christmas in Julyâ&#x20AC;? events. Similarly, riches that you will see in these enterprises in March/ April are actually being purchased now. On the recommendation of a friend, I discovered Cannor Nursery, which has served our community for

over 40 years. Did you know that in addition to selling primroses (which are typically ordered in February) you can purchase beautiful Oak Leaf Hydrangeas and Rudbeckia, and find fantastic crabapple trees, bark mulch, and gravel too? The Mathies family provides a cozy venue — in the Tamaringo Café located on premises — for locals to meet and enjoy delicious treats prepared daily. Also displayed on premise are photographs taken by local talent Mitch Aivazoff. Not well known is that Cannor Nursery is the home base to Canada’s first mobile boutique — InsideOut Mobile Boutique — yet another fascinating part of what really takes place within the walls and on the grounds of these centers.

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Nurseries are blooming with garden expertise An avid gardener knows that fall — even more so than spring — is the time to enjoy getting out and obtaining creative tips to spruce up the surroundings in preparation for Thanksgiving and Halloween. Whether you are looking for mums or gourds and pumpkins, there are dozens of venues open to the public in the Lower Mainland, where you can purchase these items for your garden or containers and obtain free education too. Variety is the spice of life, they say, and so too is the selection of plants. Choosing an annual (a plant that goes from germination to the production of seed within one year, and then dies) versus a perennial (a plant that lives for more than two years) plant varies from person to person. There is no right or wrong as it is all in personal preference. While additional personnel are brought in to manage the busy seasons, there can be the expected seasonal staff decrease; however, most companies maintain staff year-round, providing steady employment for our locale. These organizations offer workshops and are available to assist you daily. Whether you want to know how to care for your outdoor plants or what type of fertilizer to give your indoor plants, pro-active consultation is available. As I was reminded by Kees De Jager, Manager at Devan Greenhouses: “every plant is like a human — they need vitamins.” Passionate about their work, the staff at Devan Greenhouses is highly educated, friendly, and always excited to help you answer any questions.

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Consider for a moment too the free education you receive at a garden centre. Do you want to know how to set up a “fairy garden,” English garden, or how to plant trees? When I visited Devan Greenhouses I had no idea I would be schooled in irrigation systems. I thought I would meander through the store, to look at goldfish for sale, to see beautiful plants, and to take the odd photograph for your enjoyment. Having shopped there for years for hanging gift baskets, vegetable plants, and basket stuffers, I had no idea that they had a sophisticated water filtration system. How did I manage to miss the very obvious holes in the floor, you might ask? Mr. De Jager was kind enough to further educate me — and in layman’s terminology — about their very sophisticated system for a winter of growing plants. Basically — and I take generous liberties in simplifying the process — recycled water comes up out of the floor and then drains during the off-season for watering. We also think of fall as the months of September to December, but what you may or may not realize is that for most garden centres and nursery businesses, fall is actually their busiest time of year. Fall is an amazing time for growth and getting a heads up for spring. It is a particularly good time for shrub and

tree planting. When planting in the fall, roots benefit with an early growth for the year ahead and fall blooming plants are afforded the heads up for spring. These businesses actually purchase plants in October for April sales. Consumers are encouraged to visit these sites in the fall to see colours and the beautiful ornamental grasses that are available for planting. Ironically, the planning for fall occurs in what most would consider the slowest time of year — January. It is during that time many of these businesses are making plans for the upcoming seasons, while the details of the past season are fresh in their memories. Some of the activities that occur in January include travelling to gift/garden shows in Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Toronto and analyzing previous year sales, customer requests, and recommendations from local growers and vendors. Considerations are given to a wide variety of items ranging from which type of garlic bulbs are the hardiest for our soils to what garden plants, accessories, and colours are trending for the year. Nurseries that utilize local growers, such as North Star and JRT Nurseries, for raising their plants, will spend the winter season reviewing their orders and inventory. To say there is never a dull moment in these big businesses is an understatement.

Playing in the dirt is good for you After you have enjoyed your fall plants make sure that you winterize them so that you can, like nurseries do, pot them up for next year. We are in the 8a and 8b hardiness zone for plants. While most perennials should be cut back after the first hard frost, to minimize plant debris and soil-borne diseases, you should consult with your local gardening centre for plant specifics. Plants will winter best in well-drained soil and generally, after fertilizing them during the summer months, can be left to the elements. Mulching is another way to protect your plants throughout the winter months and we do advise you consult guides or your local nursery for more information. All of these steps will help to advance your spring “potting up” of plants into beautiful arrangements. Gardening is not just good for the soul; it is good for your health. Whether from a strong desire to learn about our food chain or recognizing the value in being outdoors, staff at Buckerfield’s shared with us that they are seeing what was old renewed again as “younger people are getting back to roots.” Dirt is good for you. It is outdoors, good for the brain (the mycobacterium vaccae found in dirt can accelerate learning and brighten moods), good for the immune system, good for the skin, and some medical research has

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indicated that it is even good for fighting allergies and asthma. A challenge for garden centres and nurseries this time of year is to sell out of all their merchandise, but not too soon. The majority of the operations I spoke with generally relied on experience and not the Farmers’ Almanac for predictions and long range forecasts. Despite predictions for warmer temperatures, there was no accounting for an early fall this year and the record number of mum sales to date at some of the shops. Despite some record-breaking plant sales, there are still multitudes of colours and assorted types of flowers and plants for you to purchase and assemble in time for Thanksgiving. Stop in to visit your local store for plant selections, workshops, or to be added to their newsletter lists. Whether you go out and enjoy the self-guided Circle Farm Tours that are available throughout the Lower Mainland (#CircleFarmTour), take a stroll through your favorite garden centre or nursery, or just go play in the dirt in your yard, my hope for you is that you explore the endless possibilities that avail themselves to you for a happier and healthier life in the Lower Mainland.

Garden Centres and Nurseries All Seasons Garden Center Ltd. Bramble Bistro Buckerfields Cannor Nurseries Ltd. Devan Greenhouses

Ferncliff Gardens Five Maples Nursery Ltd

Hansonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Landscaping and Nursery Homestead Nurseryland & Florist

JRT Nurseries Minter Gardens North Star Nurseries Rona Home Centre Sunrise Garden Center Tanglewood Gardens

community snapshots

photo by Jess Wind

Mission City Post Office The post office building on 1st Ave in Mission is one of few buildings in any of the Fraser Valley historic downtown areas that is still used for its original purpose: in this case, a post office. According to Waymarker.com, a website where users share interesting locations around the world, the building was originally constructed in 1935 in an art deco style. It has been renovated a couple times since then. Last year, the Mission

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Record reported that Council wanted to ensure the building, if not retained by Canada Post, would be used for a community-sanctioned purpose, rather than transformed into "a pawn shop or Burger King" (Mayor Randy Hawes). There is comfort in that intent to respect the integrity of the historic building even after it ceases to be a post office.

Local harvest Home grown Westcoasters Dessa Bayrock and Jess Wind bringing you some local literary flavour. We review works set in the valley, written by authors from the valley, or that have that British Columbia, Fraser Valley vibe. Come back each month to see what the Fraser Valley has to offer.

Weight of Dew by Daniela Elza, 2012 Daniela Elza once told me that Weight of Dew is meant to be travelled with — to be slipped into a tote, and consumed on the road. While you journey through the book, your physical self journeys through the dips and turns and looming mountains of a BC road trip. I first read Weight of Dew in the winter of 2014, before leaving BC for two years for grad school. I never got to travel with it, to experience its gaps and silences echoed in the landscape outside. This time on the return trip home, with two cats, a husband, one very dirty Civic and most of the country behind us, I did. Elza’s Weight of Dew considers space, existence, and language as intimately tied to each other. Taking us on a journey from suburban Vancouver through the Rockies, this collection considers how vast space and unyielding silence juxtapose each other in the landscape and in ourselves. These ideas are carefully echoed in Elza’s use of language, structure and form. A rippling river doesn’t pool, it is “( p ( o ( o ) l ) i ) n ) g )” and when things start tumbling along, we are

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Jess Wind

asked to “p a u s e” and to “( l i s t e n.” I knew Weight of Dew was special, but it wasn’t until I took the journey with it and experienced the physicality of the words on the empty highway that it truly came to life. My journey with this collection feels stretched over two years. The all too familiar restlessness and suffocation that comes out in part one, “gather here” sets us up to move, to get up and get out

and rediscover what has been lost by staying put. In “serving time (in the burbs” we feel imprisoned by the city and its suburbs. Elza writes “the empty space is limited/ to lawns where thoughts are/ regularly zapped with mowers” These poems are just itching to get out on the open road, desperate for space to spill words onto the page, yearning to find out what they’re worth. This is why I return to Weight of Dew now. Part two asks “what is it we want from this long journey?” and as I find myself winding through towering mountains and old growth trees, I ask myself the same thing. Weight of Dew leaves Vancouver and the Valley, I am returning to it. How do these words, the reverse path, the return trip, affect me/us/readers/writers? I am compelled to work backwards through the collection, to travel back to the valley instead of toward it. The final stanza in part three “still words” suggests this too: everything that has happened to you

begins here— pavement embraces sky

of not-pavement

you are drawn to

the way the way this moment

and you could

fall through it.

The highway dips over the hill, bends around the mountain. Who knows where it goes next? Was that a bear? A moose? A train? Going back does not mean going backwards; we must be careful we do not fall through the pavement into this cycle. Elza takes us “through the Rockies” where the spacing of the lines says as much or more than the words within them. Line breaks and open-ended brackets force us to take our time and breathe — “(we are reduced to awe” at the “breath-taking/ peaks.” Then, still moving backwards through the collection, “on the Crowsnest Highway” Elza speaks of old routes travelled. I too am reminded of how I have been here before, “afraid/ to enter the words” there is that hint of anxiety that this might not be the right path, but just the easy one.

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Then we are “through the Okanagan valley” and given time in the vastness of empty space. such distance

as if time grows clearer with ( the silences ( between— The fear subsides, and familiar landscapes come into view. Where the vertical space of the Rockies was stifling, the horizontal space of the Okanagan is freeing, welcoming. Then before we know it, we are “past Hope” and we know where we’ve been, and why we’ve come back. the sign said: find out what

lies

beyond Hope.

It’s a challenge, a promise to find something wonderful, peaceful, and vastly different from whatever was before Hope. For us, beyond Hope is the next step in this journey — not a challenge to discover the untamed wilderness of BC, but a challenge to rediscover and re-appreciate life in the Valley. The cats are done with sitting in the backseat, the car needs an oil change and we are home. Elza’s Weight of Dew is a travel book. It begs you to take it along on the road, either the physical highway stretching across this province, or your own personal journey. In it’s pages you will discover space to speak, space to be silent, and space to contemplate the next turn. It reveals more of itself each time you visit it, and you should visit it numerous times, on numerous journeys. This is a fall book, a cozy book, a book for thinking and tea and campfires. I hope it finds its way into your travel bag.

Irregular spacing is intentional.

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fresh fiction A selection of three poems by Dessa Bayrock Photos by Marvin Herrera

April A colleague cried this morning, and not for no reason. I kneel in front of her and hope her hangnail will stop bleeding. The only other thing I can think about is that the tiny gem of her nose ring has rolled inward. I wonder if she will fix it. I wonder if she will stop crying. I have come here from the tax office, which I paid one-hundred-and-thirty-three dollars to tell me I owe one-hundred-and-ninety-one dollars. I am tired of being poor. It is snowing. Again. My shoulders are covered in miniature drifts. Ostensibly, this is spring. A man on the bus wears a hat that reads YA NEVA KNOW. The woman beside him has hair like wheat, like popcorn. I want to put the ends of it in my mouth. I want it to taste salty. I want them to love each other. I want the world to make sense. YA NEVA KNOW. YA NEVA KNOW. No, I don't suppose you ever do.

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August It is the hottest day of summer but I can't help but think it was worse a year ago. I remember feeling betrayed by my climate, my body, some combination of the two. I remember being unable to breathe; I remember feeling the season was sitting on my chest, and laughing. But now, here, the heat touches me only idly, like a curious child, an offhand lover, a doctor. I am surprised to find myself sweating. I am surprised to trace damp patches on my skull, my back, my arms, my knees. It is an unlikely summer, an unlikely tolerance, and I am distant from it all; I am removed; I am above Deep in this impossible season, I dream I am haunted by the heat, the hell and the hum of it, the heady raw weight of it. I drift from room to room like a ghost, seeking relief and finding none and when I throw open the curtains I see, impossibly, winter Ââ&#x20AC;&#x201D; summer sun beating down on snow that refuses to melt but stands in drifts against the rooflines of the neighbours, glittering in the heat like a smile. Impossible! Impassable! I dream I am tossing and turning and standing at the window; I dream I am sweating and dripping and seething in the yard; finally, I dream I am burying myself in the snow, rooting myself down into the heart of it, the base of it. I am desperate, now; I am boiling alive in my skin. But the snow is barely cold at all, only rough and raw like salt. Still I dig down, until I can go no farther. I am no cooler for my trouble: merely buried, weak, and dreaming. (And isn't that always the trouble? That dreams are so rarely revealing?)

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September The province has forgotten itself, rain pelting down in a storm better suited to the coast, the prairies. No one in this city knows how to deal with the weather. A man outside slips and falls and hits his head, and a stranger tends to him, running into my coffee shop to fill a glass of water, gathering up a clean cloth to press to his scalp. I watch a paramedic approach her, palms outstretched, casually comforting, but I can see by the line of her jaw and the tilt of her head that she will refuse to leave. We are quick to form attachment. Me, I take a new way home: eyeing up apartments on unfamiliar streets, and wondering where I will live, in the fall, when my lease ends. Roots cut. Wandering. What is the universe trying to tell me, anyway, with this impossible rain? This storm is full of omens: Four women with identical umbrellas pass me in a line before parting ways at the next cross-street; An empty double-decker bus blows by, empty, except for a single man on its lower level, head blonde and bowed; a primrose extends a delicate limb over the sidewalk at the exact height of my face, knocking into me like a bird. I drink it in, all of it â&#x20AC;&#x201D; the city, the storm, the blossom, and most of all, the way the perfume of dying petals mixes with the rain, overruns the gutters, overflows the streets, and bathes my head and shoulders with a scent as thick and as coppery as blood.

Interested in having your FRESH art featured in Raspberry magazine? Visit raspberrymag.ca/Fresh-submissions to view our submission guidelines.

community snapshots

photo by Jess Wind

Tonks on cat safety Most of our community snapshots are taken outdoors, but this month we want to share this special picture of Local Harvest columnist Jess Wind's cat, Tonks. In light of Halloween approaching, please remember that it can be a scary time for cats outside, and keep a watchful eye for feline friends who might run into trouble. Black cats, especially, can be targeted for malicious activity around this time of year.

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emerge

New art investigates identity Katie Stobbart The most recent exhibit in the Art on Demand series at The Reach (32388 Veterans Way) in Abbotsford features art by Sidi Chen and Nancy Timmermans. Chen, who is also president of the Visual Arts Students Association at the University of the Fraser Valley, is showing three oil paintings that are thematically connected and share titles: The Pond of Duck and Lotus I, II, and III. Timmermans (Trinity Western University) displays a series of familial portrait sketches on wood panels. In her statement on the exhibit, curator Alisha Sandhu notes that both artists’ works “grapple with the many ways that we understand and construct identity.” Dozens of friends, family, fellow artists, and community members attended the opening of Art on Demand, as well as two other exhibits at The Reach, on the evening of September 22, where the artists were present to field questions and discuss their work.

Follow the progress of emerging artists every month as part of our partnership with The Reach. Get a glimpse of Art on Demand exhibits, catch short interviews with young local artists, and more.

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Getting to the inside A look at the Reach's new exhibits Katie Stobbart While you are at the Reach supporting local emerging artists and viewing their work, you can explore two more exhibits which opened on the 22nd: Get There From Here featuring Yukon artist Nicole Bauberger, and Inside the Outside featuring the three-dimensional creations of Deborah Morriss. Get There From Here is a collection of over 200 paintings created by Bauberger several Canadian journeys from coast to coast to coast. Curator Laura Scneider observes that “Bauberger’s ambitious project quantifies the immensity of the country in artistic terms while drawing our attention to the role of the highway in constructing our aesthetic experience of the land.” The paintings are displayed in a section of the Reach’s main gallery space, with selections from Bauberger’s travel notes recorded on the walls with the images. The immensity of the project makes for an impressive first glance, and provides plenty of fodder for a viewer’s meditative journey among the paintings.

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Inside the Outside occupies a smaller space in the Reach’s Grotto Gallery, and includes ten sculptures composed of papier-mâché and other materials such as iron pigment and sand. Morriss’s creations range in size and colour, but all have organic shapes and are all vessels: there is space in the middle. At the opening on September 22, she drew attention to the idea that despite the imaginary quality of each shape, the space inside suggests the possibility that a creature might have lived inside and built the shell around itself—hence the title, Inside the Outside. The vessels form a compelling union between the natural and the imagined. Art on Demand and the exhibits featuring Bauberger and Morriss will be on display until November 20. In the meantime, three additional displays open as of September 29, meaning there’s an incredible amount of art to enjoy during and after October.

PETER CLAPHAM

by Adapted from the novel by Louisa M. Alcott

NOV 11 & 12, 16 – 19, 2016 @ 7:30 MATINEES NOV 12 & 19 @ 2:00 ABBOTSFORD ARTS CENTRE 2329 Crescent Way, Abbotsford www.gallery7theatre.com

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fresh art Rachel Kirkpatrick â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Henna Artist Rachel Kirkpatrick got her start as an artist doing henna tattoos for festivals, conferences, and concerts. She now uses varied mediums such as pressure-wash art and sand. Rachel chooses to work primarily with the ancient art of mandalas and sacred geometry as she finds them to be extremely meditative to create. She loves that her viewers also find the images to be therapeutic as well. Rachel loves nothing more than experiencing other people's joy caused by her own art.

s a child I was always creating â&#x20AC;&#x201D; whether that was writing stories, drawing on an easel, copying what I saw on Art Attack, painting my nails with white-out, or simply taking a felt pen to my bare limbs. Art was my favourite class in grade school, and when I went to university, I made it my modus operandi to take one visual arts class per semester as an outlet for my other academic courses.

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In my first year of university, I started to dabble with henna tattoos and had a colleague take me with her on her henna gigs. Since then, over the last four years, I have done thousands of henna tattoos at countless gatherings such as concerts, festivals, and corporate events. Because of the doodle-y nature of it, drawing Henna tattoos became the perfect art form for me. I am a synesthetic artist, which means that in my mind's eye, no matter what, each colour, letter, day of the week and sound all have a colour attached to it. So for me, doing big pieces of work that require lots of shading and colour can be very overwhelming. When I do something that is monochromatic, such as a henna tattoo; in my mindâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eye, it is very colourful.

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A few years ago, while pressure washing my momâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s driveway, I got sidetracked and started pressure washing the sidewalk with henna art. After three hours of focused work, I was very pleased with the large-scale art that I had produced. Since then, I have completed many commissioned pressure wash pieces all over Vancouver.

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This past summer, I moved in with my dad to White Rock, while incubating a human child. One day while meditating near the ocean, I drew with my hand a small mandala. Later that night, I got the idea from a friend to try to do exactly that, on a larger scale. The next day I went to the hardware store, bought a rake and found myself making large scale sand mandalas underneath the white rock pier on an almost weekly basis. I have found that the mediums I gravitate towards tend to work well with my doodle-y mandala art and they tend to be ephemeral in nature. I am obsessed with street art, but it is a hard balance to mentally want to create a piece, and then know that you could get arrested for what you are doing. With the mediums of sand and pressure wash art, I have found a balance of work that is public, but non-threatening to society, and temporary.

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I particularly like to work with mandalas as I find them to be very therapeutic. Mandalaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s are an ancient symbol used by many religions and people groups, and representing infinity. They are perfectly symmetrical. I particularly love them because for me they are the perfect blend of art and math. Currently, I keep busy doing henna tattoos, henna style t-shirts, keeping my sketch book stocked, and doing the occasional sand mandala and pressure wash art. I am constantly on the lookout for new mediums to be able to share my work with the world.

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Interested in having your FRESH art featured in Raspberry magazine? Visit raspberrymag.ca/Fresh-submissions to view our submission guidelines.

With A Muse On My Shoulder Kelly Wong The Fraser Valley Watermedia Society (FVWS) and Cat Janzen of Mint and Moss Floral Design displayed their work at the Kariton Art Gallery from September 3 to 27, with opening reception held on Saturday, September 3 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.. The intimate setting of the gallery provided patrons an opportunity to view the pieces up close, as well as interact with the artists themselves. Works ranged from peaceful, nature-inspired landscapes to moodier abstract pieces, which gave the collection great depth and level of engagement. Conversing with FVWS president David Tickner, I learned about the long-standing history of the society, which dates back to 1983 and has strong ties to the Abbotsford and Mission Art Councils. The FVWS has one major annual exhibition, though there may be plans in the future to increase this number. Accompanying the paintings were fresh floral designs crafted by Cat Janzen of Mint and Moss Floral Design. The three-dimensional aspect of the petals and greens arrangements beautifully complemented the two-dimensional artwork on the walls. Mint and Moss was founded in late 2015, and the artist-owner takes inspiration from local nature and seasonal offerings. Janzen has also received recognition for her talent by the Abbotsford Arts Council with an Honourable Mention at the 2016 Arty Awards.

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fresh picks Music Soul Mates, Villain Villain, Levy @ Carport

October 5 at 5 PM

Catch Soul Mates, all the way from Saskatchewan, with local artists Villain Villain at one of the raddest pads in town. Come prepared to be rocked. Carport Manor 33800 McDougall Ave, Abbotsford

Visual Arts Art of the Carver woodworking show October 22 at 11 AM - 4 PM

View and purchase a wide array of artistic wood carvings by local artists, as well as shop for tools and supplies. Matsqui Community Hall 33676 St Olaf Ave, Abbotsford

Opening Reception: Land and Sea October 29 at 6 PM

Rosalie Luymes and Nicola Tibbetts open a show featuring paintings inspired by coastal landscapes. Kariton Art Gallery 2387 Ware St, Abbotsford

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October 2016 Community Roadside: A Harvest Social A family harvest event by the same people who organized Abbotsford's Tulip Festival. Complete with a craft beer corn maze, family corn maze, pumpkin patch and more. Bring your dog, this is a pet friendly event.

Fri - Sun all month 11 AM - 6PM

36737 North Parallel Road, Abbotsford

Maan Farms Haunted Wine Launch Come in costume and enjoy Maan Farms' latest seasonal wines in their winery barn. There will be costume contests and other prizes. Must be legal drinking age. Tickets $20

October 20 at 6 PM

Maan Farms 790 McKenzie Rd, Abbotsford

The Vintage Barn Market Located in Heritage Park, Chilliwack, this seasonal market opens late October selling any number of antiquities, novelty items, vintage wares, and pop-up shops. $5 Admission

Oct 28 4 PM - 10 PM Oct 29 9 AM - 4 PM

Heritage Park 4140 Luckakuck Way Chilliwack

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Our contributors Anthony Biondi is an artist and writer living in Abbotsford. He has been previously published in The Louden Singletree, and served four years on The Cascade’s editorial board as Art Director and Production and Design Editor. He is a humourless crab, and fundamental contrarian, whose cholesterol may be higher than his IQ. Dessa Bayrock is an ex-journalist with a soft spot for the Fraser Valley. She currently lives in Ottawa and studies the apocalypse as part of her M.A. in English. You can find her reviewing books online at Bayrock, Bookrock and for Ottawa Review of Books. If you rearrange the letters of her name you can spell “abyss croaked,” “as bark decoys,” or “brocade as sky,” all of which describe her in one way or another. @YoDessa www.bayrockbayrock.wordpress.com Katie Stobbart is a writer and editor from Abbotsford. She has edited The Cascade newspaper, Louden Singletree literary magazine, and the Pacific Rim Review of Books. She is also a member of the PWAC (Professional Writers Association of Canada) Fraser Valley chapter. A selection of her poems will appear in a co-authored chapbook soon to haunt local library shelves, dentists’ offices, and hotel lobbies: It looks like a chicken. Katie is also working hard to improve her patio gardening game. Kelly Wong is a born-and-raised Abbotsfordian who is an ardent supporter of the arts.Whether taking in live music, checking out opening exhibitions, or attending plays, she is at home in creative environments. Kelly is happy to contribute to Raspberry magazine and looks forward to being a part of the Fraser Valley’s growing arts and culture community. Jess Wind somehow managed to earn two degrees by writing about zombies. She holds a BA in Creative Writing from UFV and an MA in Communication from Carleton University in Ottawa. Jess is an ex-editor of The Cascade, is

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published in The Louden Singletree and has been known to blog about entertainment media and culture. She likes her coffee black, her video games retro, and her sports local. Joel Smart is a UFV alumnus and former copy editor at The Cascade. He can usually be found perched on an exercise ball in front of his computer, or burning his taste buds off with extra spicy home-made salsa. He cares about human rights, the environment, and snuggling his little baby cat so tightly that she makes a tiny squeak. Lisa Caroglanian Dorazio, writer, speaker and author of Amazon Bestseller “Conversations that Make a Difference: Stories Supporting a Bigger Vision” resides in Abbotsford, BC. A published newspaper journalist in her primary years, Ms. Dorazio continued her writing career as a sports journalist and technical writer. Currently on the executive of the Professional Writers Association of Canada (“PWAC), Ms. Dorazio works as a business

consultant creating business plans, human resource and marketing materials and various written documents. When she is working on behalf of her clients she continues to enjoy all sports, traveling, reading, sewing & crafts, gardening and baking for her family/friends while working on her soon to be published book about miscarriage and loss of children. Nick Ubels is an editor, musician, and event planner living in Abbotsford with his wife and three cats. He loves black coffee and tennis but is terrible at both. His life story served as inspiration for the events of Batman Vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice. Sasha Moedt is a UFV grad and a former arts editor at The Cascade. She currently works as a residential support worker as well as a copywriter. When she’s not working, she’s writing, and when she’s not writing, she’s out enjoying local culture, food, thrift shops, and all the cool things the Fraser Valley has to offer.

Contribute to magazine To contribute writing, art, or photography to this emerging Fraser Valley publication, contact info@raspberrymag.ca

Raspberry magazine is a monthly Fraser Valley magazine devoted to arts, culture, and community life. Established in June 2016, Raspberry publishes reviews, event coverage, and other arts-friendly content online as we work toward our goal of publishing in print. You can follow us on social media for updates on our progress, information and insights on the Fraser Valley arts and culture scene, and fresh arts coverage.

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