I am beginning a series of posts on things I love about Canada. I am doing this partly just to highlight the things I love and partly to take my focus off the things I don’t love, especially since most of the things I don’t love involve either the de-valuation of the US dollar or the lack of Arkansans, and those things really have nothing at all to do with Canada, except for its being the place where I happen to be experiencing them.

And so, the first thing I love about Canada is of course, the farms. The dairy farms (both cow and goat) have my particular love right now since the berries are still awaiting their moment as the stars of the summer. All the markets to which I have been carry local products, and the phrase BC made can be found all over, not just on produce but for all sorts of products. When Mary Polly and I met a lady with pink hair on the bus who was delivering papers, she made certain to tell us to go to Granville Island to eat and shop because there is NO corporate American crap over there, just pure handmade CANADIAN stuff!

When I was shopping yesterday evening at the local grocery, I saw products in the cheese case that were made by the farmers I visited last week. When I saw their label, I was like, oh I have to buy that cheese because those people are like my best friends now! Right then and there was when I recognized the brilliance of the Circle Farm Tours. If you go around and visit the farms, meet the artisans who make the cheese, milk, yogurt, etc, walk on their land and pet their animals, you begin to feel connected to the earth/farmer/animal that will make the food that you will later feel compelled, or even privileged to buy if you happen across it in your local market.

So I guess I don’t just love the farms of Canada. I love that farmers are so important to Canadians (or at least to British Columbians) that I already know about them even though I have only been in Canada for a few weeks. The interweaving and networking that has occurred to make Vancouver a locavore’s paradise must account for the fact that there are soooo many people here.