Why Eat Local?
In today’s society, it’s easy for us to lose sight of where our food comes from. It’s been made so accessible by the expansion of large supermarket chains, that we can pick-up whatever we please, no matter the season. While there are benefits to this system, diversity in the scale is important. Choosing to eat local when possible, has it’s advantages.
At Nimmo Bay, it’s our mission to focus on connecting guests to our local environment, which prioritizes the bounty of the surrounding forest and ocean. We celebrate the smaller, slower, hyper-local food that grows and thrives on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.
There is a plethora of reasons why we choose to focus on local, for both flavour, and sustainable reasons. It’s also a way for us to connect to our community beyond the resort.
Flavours Pack a Punch
If you’re looking to get the biggest, boldest flavours out of your produce, choosing local has a huge advantage. When buying close to home, the time it takes for the food to go from farm to plate is shortened. There is less transportation time factored into the process. This means the farmers can pick their produce closer to peak ripeness. Fruit picked closer to ripeness also has a higher nutrient density. During long transit, the picked fruits and vegetables will also lose flavour. Overtime, the plant cells shrink, and those delicious sugars turn to starch. Ultimately, you’re getting fresher, tastier, and energy rich food.
Choosing to eat local also helps us add natural variety to our diets. Local farmers are growing with the seasons, and that influences your weekly menu. It means you’ll have the opportunity to eat a diverse range of nutrients all year long.
Additionally, it’s important to note that there are less emissions produced with the lower transportation needs of buying directly from farms in your community.
Preserving History
One of the things that local farmers bring to the table are heirloom varietals. This is the kind of diversity that you won’t get from large-scale growers in the grocery store. Some of these heirloom seeds have been passed down and preserved from generation to generation. Checking out a local farmers market is the best way for you to try a type of squash or green that you’ve never seen or tasted before. Without supporting local farmers, there’s a strong possibility that these varieties might be lost to time.
Sourcing from our partners in the local community means our chefs get to play with some incredible ingredients. The menu at our floating restaurant, Little River, is constantly shifting. They’re able to use their imaginations to dream up and execute dishes centered around this special produce.
Health of the Planet
While it can feel like an ever-increasing challenge to contribute to protecting the environment on an individual level, choosing to eat local can help! Most pesticides and fertilizers used in industrial agriculture are made from fossil fuels and rely heavily on their use for production. Whereas small-scale farms choose to grow their crops without using pesticides and fertilizers, or only in very small amounts. They use methods of farming that don’t rely on chemicals.
First, they’re growing a diverse range of produce, increasing the biodiversity and natural resistance of their fields. Secondly, cover crops are often used as a practice to help restore nutrients to the soil and prevent erosion of the land. A cover crop is a planted field that won’t be harvested for profit. Farmers rotate cover crops on their fields so that no one space is drained of life. On top of soil health and biodiversity, it naturally helps control pests and diseases, and smother weeds.
One issue most cities are facing is development of natural spaces. A simple way to help preserve green space in our local communities is to buy from local farms. With your support, they’ll be able to maintain the high costs associated with farming and keep their properties from turning into developments. This green space and the overall health of their land means it has the availability to capture more carbon emissions.
Invest in the Local Community
When you eat local and support local farmers, you’re also making sure that money gets injected right back into the local economy. Your hard-earned money will be re-invested into the community that you live in. There is no middleman in the transactions. When Nimmo purchases seafood and produce, we buy directly from the farmers.
On a deeper level, by purchasing from farms in your community, you’re also investing in the time-honoured tradition of farming and helping to ensure that knowledge lives on. We deeply trust their insights and their expertise. They know what grows best in the region, they know what the seasons do, they can follow weather patterns. It’s not easy to be a farmer, and it truly is a miracle to grow and raise food. We also love the ability to build deeper relationships with our community members.
Speaking of our community, we reached out to some of our suppliers who provide the delicious food that we serve at our floating restaurant, Little River. We asked them to tell us a bit about themselves and what they want you to know about where your food comes from!
Stay tuned for the blog launch.
Words by: Alexandra Janes
Photos: Jeremy Koreski