Inside Vancouver

Vancouver Ranked Among the Top 5 Most Sustainable Cities in North America

by Taraneh in Green City on June 9, 2013

Photo credit: Chadversary

Once again, Vancouver has scored high on a world lifestyle report card. Usually, it’s The Economist‘s list of the world’s most liveable cities. This time, Corporate Knights–a Toronto-based think tank–ranked Vancouver the fourth-most sustainable city in North America.

The report card measured North America’s 20 largest cities based on factors including density, water consumption, green space, employment and engagement.

Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and Ottawa finished ahead of Vancouver. Toronto was the last city to make the top five. Other Canadian cities to make the list include Calgary at tenth place and Montreal at fourteenth. American cities Los Angeles and Detroit scored at the very bottom.

Which factors helped Vancouver’s score and which areas still need work? Continue reading:
Vancouver Ranked Among the Top 5 Most Sustainable Cities in North America

5 Ways to Celebrate Meatless Monday in Vancouver

by Miranda Post in Green City on June 6, 2013

Granville Island Market Tour. Photo credit: Edible Canada

If June was a colour it would be green. So it shouldn’t be a surprise that the annual global celebration of all things vegetarian – Meatless Monday – occurs in June.

According to the box gardens in my apartment building’s communal courtyard, all sorts of green veggies are ripe for harvest this month. Whether you love the crunch of rainbow chard or gentle spice of chives or the cruciferous, omnipresent kale, leafy greens mark the ripples of summer harvest to come: delicious fruits and vegetables like blackberries, strawberries, beets and carrots.

This year the City of Vancouver is joining the global call to give up meat one day a week. According to the Vancouver Food Policy Council, a group of volunteer food advisors to the city, Vancouver will proclaim June 10, 2013 as Meatless Monday for our health-conscious city. We will be the first Canadian municipality to make such a proclamation.

The city of Ghent, Belgium was the first city to participate in Meatless Monday as a city in 2009. Then, thanks to Sir Paul McCartney, various cities in the United Kingdom followed soon after. Stars and foodies such as Oprah, Giada De Laurentiis, Russel Simons and Michael Pollan have all signed on to go meatless on Mondays.

So if you want to make like Oprah and worship earthy rouge beets or sugar sweet strawberries, look no further. Here’s a few ways to celebrate Meatless Monday in Vancouver on June 10 and beyond.

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5 Ways to Celebrate Meatless Monday in Vancouver

Luxury Farmers Market Sets Up in Downtown Vancouver

by Remy Scalza in Green City on May 30, 2013

Photo credit: Mr. T in DC | Flickr

Vancouver has plenty of farmers markets. But only one is attached to a five-star hotel.

The Shangri-La Farmers Market is back for another season, offering trendy downtown shoppers a place to find the freshest fruits and veggies and a little something more.

Held every other Sunday in the plaza between the Shangri-La Hotel and Urban Fare grocery, the market has carved out a niche with its specialty prepared foods – everything from organic olive oils to goat cheeses and Italian delicacies.

But this year, the Shangri-La is offering something few markets can boast: cooking demonstrations with one of the top French chefs in the city. Continue reading:
Luxury Farmers Market Sets Up in Downtown Vancouver

Vancouver Farmers’ Market season opens May 11

by Miranda Post in Green City on May 10, 2013

Photo source: Eatlocal.org

Like a Whitecaps Southsider at the beginning of the Major League Soccer season, I count down the days until the summer Vancouver Farmers Markets open. While soccer friends herald the return of the Mattocks, DeWit or Camilo each March, I cheer for the return of Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, Empire Valley Beef and Cropthorne Farms each May.

My ‘season’ starts with Trout Lake and Kitsilano Markets opening on May 11 and 12 respectively. Later, in June the West End (June 1), Main Street Station (June 5), and Kerrisdale (June 15) markets all commence to provide Vancouverites and visitors alike with delicious local eats, live music and handcrafted goodies like ceramics and jewelry.

Breakfast lovers, coffee devotees and food truck followers all have a place at the farmers markets, too. Besides the regulars like La Boheme Creperie, The Bean Buggy and Vij’s Railway Express, new mobile eateries will be added to the repertoire this year.

Between my missions for creamy goat brie and crinkly heirloom tomatoes this summer, I’ll be checking out the various market events. Not only will the summer farmers markets contribute to our community’s pantry but also to our community itself with family, gardening and foodie-focused happenings.

What’s up at your neighborhood farmers market this season? Take a sneak peak after the jump.

Continue reading:
Vancouver Farmers’ Market season opens May 11

Birders of a Feather Flock together for Vancouver Bird Week May 4-11

by Miranda Post in Green City on May 4, 2013

Stellers Jay. Photo credit: Chris Dale/Bird Studies Canada

Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black – stars of the British Columbia/Yukon-filmed comedy The Big Year – introduced me to the world of bird watching. In the comedy, Wilson, Martin and Black’s characters travel across North America to see or hear the most bird species in a calendar year during the American Birdwatching Association’s annual “Big Year” contest.

The next day my partner and I played our own version of a ‘Big Morning’, trying to spot as many birds as we could on sunrise walk through Vancouver’s West End. We spotted seven different bird species including gulls, herons, widgeons and mallards. Suddenly we were hooked. The allure of walking around with binoculars to differentiate grebes from cormorants was no longer an activity reserved for our parents or our scientist friends.

It turns out birding, bird watching or ‘twitching’ as it’s called in the United Kingdom, is a pretty popular activity: according to 2006 survey done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service there are about 48 million birdwatchers in the United States. In Canada, more than 550,000 Canadian adults take part in birdwatching activities annually according to a 2006 study on wildlife viewing activities.
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Birders of a Feather Flock together for Vancouver Bird Week May 4-11