Victoria B.C., Bison, Dan’s Farm and Fermenting Recipes; A Day in Our Life – Arcanum Wholistic Clinic (2024)

“If you’re looking to become a conscious consumer, first consider where your food comes from. Ideally, for our health, and to improve social and environmental impact, we would choose to minimize, or even eliminate highly processed foods from our diet. However, many are at the beginning of their food journey, and so for them I suggest that they at least begin to consider what food companies they are supporting, and take a look into their practices. Nestle is a hot topic right now, and for good reason. If you are feeling drawn to boycotting them for their practices, take a look all of their subcompanies as well. Put into a visual diagram like this, we can really begin to see how food industry controls much of what we eat (if you are eating processed foods). This is why if you want to have choice over what you consume, you need to do your research. Then, spend some time at the farmer’s market and begin talking to your local producers.” ~ Sara Dubeau, DMH, DHHP

Yesterday, we landed in Victoria BC for the month of October. We crossed from Vancouver by ferry (across the Juan de Fuca strait) to this gorgeous rainforestisland with tropical trees, rocky beaches and great hiking mountains. I may be in heaven!

After we unpacked at the nicest Airbnb we’ve ever stayed at (think fully stocked kitchen and a hot tub too), with the loveliest of hosts (a Sulphur and Calc. which was like looking in a mirror), we headed out to find the local healthfood store for our week’s nourishment. We traveled about twelve minutes down the Trans-Canada Highway (which we’d taken pretty much from Cape Spear, NFLD all the way to Tofino, BC) to a highly rated healthfood store for our more specific needs.

As an “O” (Jeff) and “B” (Ally) blood types we’re seeking none GMO’d, non-anti-biotic, ethically raised wild game. Jeff found us a health food store that carried lots of Bison! Bison bacon, ground meat, and even jerky for our hikes. We also picked up some organic eggs, some non-grain lamb sausage, more almonds, some more organic tea (it’s getting chilly here this Fall), and chocolate with no added sweetener (and no, it’s not bitter!)

As we engaged with the salesperson, we asked her where we might get our organic vegetables and she suggested Dan’s Farm. So we pulled up our GPS and headed out of town for the 20 minute drive where the Redwoods are wider than both of us with our arms stretched out!

When we arrived, the phenomenal offerings spilled from the front of the store. Fresh, organic produce from Dan’s fields. We filled our basket with 3 types of kale, squashes, purple cabbage, fresh ginger, beets, pickling cucumber, dill, garlic (they had 6 different kinds!), baby greens for salad and a locally raised leg of lamb. We don’t eat any grains of any kind so our grocery bill doesn’t include bread, rice or much of anything found on the inside isles of a grocery store.

When we got home, I was feeling so excited by our finds that I fermentedthe baby cucumbers in salt brinewith garlic, dill and some spices I carry with us. I cut all the kale with scissors into a bowl, tossed the leaves with organic olive oil and Himalayan salt and roasted it for an hour in an oven at 225 degrees, for about 90 minutes.

I also shaved the red cabbage, beet, ginger and garlic, mushed it tightly into mason jars and added salt brine (2 tablespoons per litre) and jammed on the lids. I sit my ferments in a pan with sides knowing that when I burp them of the off-gassing CO2 each morning, they will spit a bit of liquid over the sides. I keep them on a counter, away from the heat of the stove, windows or other ferments like kefir or kombucha as they will cross-infect each other and muck up the process. Similar to other ferments, you wouldn’t put beer in withred wine or champagne either!

While I was finishing up with my probiotic investments, Jeff stuck the sausage in a pan with coconut oil, also cutting thin slices of beets and squash for cooking around the pan, also a bunch of scissored beet greens. Yum! While that cooked, we started with the the baby greens salad with nothing but a hemp oil drizzle and a little organic balsamic vinegarfrom our stay in Quebec City.

The whole meal was mind-blowing and we have sausage left over for lunch in the morningbefore we head out for a hike and tostrolldowntown Victoria. The lamb roast will be cooked on Monday before we go into busy full days serving patients. I have other ferments of kimchi and salsa that will see us through this week until the new ones are ready in about 7-10 days.

Tell us how you’ve become a conscious consumer and where your food comes from and what you love to make in the way of investments into your health and your family’s well-being. What are your priorities given your own typology? How do you manage this while travelling or visiting new locales? What do you love about your local market and the feeling that fresh, organic food gives you? Like us, you may even find your portions are small given that the food is so nourishing … no need ever for fillers or to resort to chemicalized, GMO’d foods by giant corporations.

Tagged on: Bison, Chocolate, Ethical Eating, Health, Lamb, No GMO's, Nutrition, Organics, photos, Regimen, Vegetables, Victoria