With nearly 75 per cent of Langley in the Agricultural Land Reserve, the Township is a hotbed of exciting, diversified and creative farms offering up many delights for our taste buds from berries to cheese. With the most wineries, this side of the Okanagan, as well as quaint cheese makers and major vegetable producers, we are lucky to live where our food is farmed.
But sometimes, we forget what is all offered right in our own backyard, said Well Seasoned Gourmet Store owner/barbecue goddess/foodie extraordinaire Angie Quaale.
"I think we tend to forget how much is available here," said Quaale. That is why she decided to offer "A Very Well Seasoned Food and Wine" bus tours this summer, visiting some of those great farmgate shops while also taking in a cooking class, highlighting and using ingredients from those farms.
The food and wine tours fall on Sundays, and are an all-day affair, with the first stops at Glorious Organic Farms, followed up with a visit to the ever-quaint and delicious Milner Valley Cheese, Township 7 Winery and the bucolic and unique Vista D'oro. In between that, there is a lunch and learn session at Well Seasoned cooking school where Chef Chris Roper, of Langley's Fat Cow and Oyster Bar, cooks with local ingredients that leave the mouth watering for more.
"It's pretty cool. We are getting a lot of good feedback," she said of the tours. And results. There is bus tours Aug. 11 and 18 but only a few seats left on each tour.
"We are getting people from the Island and Okanagan but a lot of locals too, who want to rediscover what is in their backyard," Quaale said.
She pays the farmers to offer a more in depth tour.
"They are getting a more personalized experienced at each stop because we are paying for it. I think that's the difference. We hand-picked the farms because they deliver really good products and they have really good stories," she said.
But also the tours emphasize supporting local farmers and food producers which is something Quaale is passionate about.
"We have really great farms here but unless they get our support they won't continue and that scares me," she said. "This is a really good way to support them."
Quaale help bring the wildly successful Langley Farmers Market to Kwantlen Polytechnical University every Wednesday.
She also is part of many other local initiatives, including being involved in the Circle Farm Tour.
The all-day bus tours are $99. Pick up and drop off is at the Langley Events Centre. For tickets call 604-530-1518.