It’s the time of the year to indulge in the best food and drink, whether you’re splashing out on a holiday meal or planning the perfect party.
From fresh turkeys and Island-grown heirloom potatoes, squash and Brussels sprouts, to artisan sourdough for your bread stuffing, and cranberries harvested fresh from Island farms, everything you need for a traditional holiday feast can be sourced close to home.
FARM-TO-TABLE SHOPPING
Gleaning local ingredients from farm-based food shops and markets around Greater Victoria makes for an exciting edible outing – the kind of Christmas shopping any food lover would relish.
Plot your day with visits to farmers’ markets, farm stores and butcher shops around the region – from Michell’s Farm Market, with their own vegetables and pasture-raised beef, to Dan’s Farm and Country Market, brimming with local produce grown right next to their roadside shop.
Country Bee Honey Farm offers the full holiday shopping experience in a cosy space with free-range turkeys and Christmas trees, honey, and hand-made beeswax candles and tea lights to brighten your holiday table.
At Millstone Farm and Organics Inc., they mill organic, gluten-free flours – including rice, teff, sorghum and flax – and have Canadian maple sugar and freshly ground spices for holiday baking.
Fickle Fig Farm Market is a bistro/bakery/farm market all rolled into one. It’s a rustic gathering space where you can pick up freshly baked bread, croissants and whatever lovely produce is in season from local farms, or simply take a break for lunch. Keep your eyes on their social media to see what’s in store and what’s cooking in their kitchens – everything from sandwiches and seasonal soups or festive holiday treats, and mulled wine to rum balls and Christmas cookie kits.
It’s a great way to put a face to your food and meet the people working to produce it, with a story to tell when you present a festive meal to your guests.
A CUT ABOVE
If you like to chew the fat with your local butcher, stop in to watch Fraser Orr at work.
Following in his father’s footsteps, Fraser continues the tradition of making sausages, perfect little Scotch meat pies and legendary haggis at Fraser Orr’s Butcher and Deli in Saanichton.
Fraser specializes in British classics, from breakfast bangers to black pudding, but you can also get a perfectly frenched rack of lamb, a prime rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, or a fat turkey roll filled with their own bread and sausage stuffing and ready to roast for a holiday dinner.
“We do our best to source local and Island-grown products from nearby farms to ensure the products are hormone and antibiotic free,” says the dapper butcher, always decked out in a shirt and tie, jaunty trilby hat and heavy apron.
From a street-side window you can peer into his chilly cutting room, where pork bellies hang ready for the sausage grinder, and he’s busy cutting AAA steaks to order or curing bacon.
“My guarantee is stamped on every one,” adds the personable Scot, twisting a batch of Cumberland sausages into plump links.
It’s quite the operation behind the scenes here, where wife and business partner Lori turns out creative daily soups and sandwiches, meat pies, Scotch eggs, Tourtière (in three sizes) and all of the other savoury stuff in the deli case. There are also pretty lattice-topped fruit pies in the freezer to take-and-bake and lots of mincemeat tarts for the holidays.
“We make tubs of it,” she says of the traditional mincemeat they make with suet and rum. “We sold 2,500 mince tarts last year.”
There are big breakfast sandwiches – a fried egg stacked in a bun with Scottish Lorne (aka Square) sausage and HP sauce – and you’ll find everything you need for old-fashioned fry-up, including Orr’s streaky rolled Ayrshire bacon, “tattie scones” and Heinz Beanz in a tin.
If you fancy a bowl of Cullen Skink chowder or an oven-ready meat loaf, the freezer is also filled with Lori’s meals-to-go.
With sweets and treats imported directly from the U.K., the deli is downright Dickensian during the holidays. Someone on your list will surely appreciate a box of Barry’s tea, a rich fruitcake from Marks and Spencer, or a jar of marmalade from their impressive collection.
“People love to do a traditional Christmas for their family,” says Lori, “and we pack the shelves with all of the nostalgia.”
Heading along a tree-lined route – one that’s popular with cyclists and even those clip-clopping down the road on horseback – you could miss the unassuming roadside sign, adorned with a pink pig, that announces Berryman Farms.
But inside the tidy Berryman Brothers Meat Ltd. shop in Central Saanich, you’ll find a wall of frozen food, from their own pork sausages and rolled Porchetta roasts, to local chicken and lamb, B.C. beef and Fraser Valley duck. There’s even a chiller filled with marrow bones and chewy pigs’ ears for the family pet.
Berryman brothers Justin and Gregory have turned their farm-based butchering business into a marketing marvel — cutting, curing, packaging and flash-freezing meat from their own farm and others in the region to serve Island customers.
The store began as a way to market the pork produced on their family’s farm and grew to include meats raised by their extended family and friends, with the selection now augmented with products sourced from other B.C. producers and processors.
But their own pork remains the focus. If you want a whole hog, portioned for the freezer, or a suckling pig, this is the place.
With their comprehensive e-commerce site, the brothers are tapping into modern consumer trends, and make shopping online for frozen, portioned protein extremely simple.
Whether it’s their ‘butcher’s choice’ meat box, a BBQ box, or a party charcuterie box complete with crackers, cheese and a jar of locally made roasted garlic jelly, they will prepare your order for pick up at the farm or deliver it right to your door.
TURKEY TIME
The quest for a locally-sourced turkey is often the biggest challenge for holiday shoppers.
If you don’t buy direct from a family farm or know a butcher who does, an Island-raised turkey can seem as rare as hen’s teeth.
Berryman Brothers specialize in supplying fresh holiday turkeys, complete with all the trimmings – offering local free-range and smaller, less expensive free-run turkey options.
Fraser Orr’s makes fresh turkey rolls to order – white and/or dark meat roasts in several sizes – filled with homemade bread and sausage stuffing, and sells large roasting chickens from nearby Woodgate Farm.
Or stop at Carnivore Meats, where all of the lamb, beef and pork is grass-fed and finished, and sourced from local producers, including Parry Bay and Stillmeadow farms in Metchosin, with free-range turkey available to order in season.
Contact local butchers to book your fresh turkey in advance, as supplies are limited.
THE GIFT OF LOCAL
Today, the locavore, farm-to-table ideal is engrained in the minds of chefs and food lovers alike with the best city restaurant menus featuring a who’s who of local farms and food producers.
And as both climate change and the political climate awakens Canadians to issues around local food security and food sovereignty, buying local is more important than ever. It shortens supply chains and keeps food dollars in the community while forging connections with the people who produce the food you eat.
From tasty free-range turkey and beautiful Island bubblies to sip alongside sustainably-farmed B.C. caviar and Island oysters – we have lots of local luxury foods to fete the season in style.
So spread the love and give the gift of local food this holiday season.
Your friends, your family, and your farmers will thank you.
If you’re looking for more farmers and producers near you, the Southern Vancouver Island Direct Farm Marketing Association produces the annual Island Farm Fresh guide. There is also a searchable index with maps and more information on their website – islandfarmfresh.com.