100 mile breakfast

okay, so here is my report from libby davies’ 100 mile breakfast.

it was a raging success! pondok indonesia restaurant seats maybe 35 people at best – but there was standing room only! at one point, there was so little room that this poor palm tree was put out into the freezing (but stunningly beautiful) morning air to make more room for humans. (hmmm … would that be a metaphor?)

the breakfast was fantastic, consisting of food grown and produced within 100 miles or less of commercial drive – hash browns, corn fritters, smoked salmon and blueberries. the delicious blueberries were from formosa blueberry farms , a farm in maple ridge fighting against a highway project scheduled to be built right through their farmland.

it was good to meet karun koernig of the environmental youth alliance . we briefly talked about one of my pet topics – composting. apparently they have a project right now where they take some of the food donated to the downtown eastside which couldn’t make its way quick enough to the consumer and is beginning to rot to strathcona community gardens for composting. right on! and if you’ve never been to that garden, get yourself over there, it is a magical place in the midst of the city.

i also met arno from the vancouver area cycling coalition . it was inspiring to talk to him – maybe that’ll bring me closer to my hopes of getting myself one of those electric bikes – great for people like me who like to be respectful to the environment, like to exercise a bit, but are just so not into the heavy workouts needed to careen up and down our hills here.

and best of all, going to this breakfast made me think of another change i could help bring about … so stay tuned …