♪ I'm a journalist, and I'm travelling across my home country, Canada.

On this journey, I'll be experiencing some of Canada's most interesting destinations.

My next adventure is in the province of British Columbia, and begins in Victoria, on Vancouver Island.

♪ Victoria is the capital of British Columbia and is on the Pacific coast.

It is surrounded by water and is nestled between the Salish Sea and the rainforests of Vancouver Island.

I've come to the City of Victoria and I'm at the Royal Roads University and I'll be foraging for my food today.

I'm with Métis executive chef Shirley Lang and ethnobotanist Tabitha Jones.

Shirley, tell me about the land we're standing on?

We are on traditional land of Coast Salish peoples, the Lekwungen people of Songhees and Esquimalt and I like to always make sure to acknowledge them whenever I do anything.

[Brandy] So Tabitha, why did you want to meet here in the forest at Royal Roads University?

The forest at Royal Roads University is such a great example of a Douglas Fir ecosystem.

We're in part of the coastal temperate rainforest.

We have so many different microclimates in here.

So we'll find berries and evergreen, and I know that Chef Shirley likes to work a lot with berries and evergreens.

So we thought this would be a great place to harvest.

Okay, so what are we looking at here?

[Tabitha] We're looking at a Grand Fir.

So I will just tell you a little bit about identification on this baby.

As you can see, the needles grow flat right across from each other, there's a little notch right at the end of each needle.

It's a dark forest green.

And if we flip it over, it's almost silver.

[Brandy] Wow.

[Tabitha] And these, are - there's two white silver light green stripes on the underside here.

And that's a really good indication that you have a Grand Fir, Um, oh, please have have a sample.

It's delicious.

Don't you taste the lemon?

Whoo!

I really do.

That's got a punch to it.

And then at the end is a little bit of the resin of the forest, which is just perfect.

It is.

And what do you put this on, Shirley?

[Shirley] I can put it on all kinds of seafood.

I also put it in bannock or in crackers, homemade crackers.

Yeah, it's beautiful that way.

Wow.

I love getting all these ingredients from the forest.

What's next?

[Tabitha] Let's go check out some Western Red Cedar.

[Brandy] Love it.

[Tabitha] Is this what you want to use?

[Shirley] This is perfect.

Yes, I can definitely use this.

[Tabitha] Good.

For identification purposes.

It's darker on top.

Almost a fluorescent green on the underside.

Smells amazing.

Smells amazing.

Smells like cedar.

There's an allergen alert on this.

Some people are actually allergic to Cedar so we must be careful.

I always like to say a please when I take a little piece of a tree before I eat it.

This is actually considered to be the tree of life for many Coast Salish people because it was good for everything.

Including food and medicine.

And clothing and canoes.

Clothing, canoes, yeah, totems, homes, everything, masks, paddles.

So I think we should have a taste.

Yes!

Yes, please.

[Shirley] Punch of almost lemon but more foresty.

I've made cedar pesto with it.

I've made a syrup.

You can mix it into salad dressings.

I've put it in everything actually.

I can use it to cook on and for presentation purposes as well.

Oh, I've seen that.

Oh, I've seen that.

So... That looks beautiful.

Yeah, it's just wonderful.

I can't wait to see what the next ingredient is.

Wooo, look at these!

[Tabitha] Oh look... Yeah, these are Oregon grapes.

These are Oregon grapes.

[Shirley] Excellent.

[Tabitha] Chef, do you want to use some of these?

Yeah, definitely use these.

Okay.

They're very, very sour fruit.

As you can see, they hang in clusters just like grapes.

Oh gorgeous.

Right?

They're pokey.

So it makes sure you got your long pants on when you're traipsing through the forest.

(laugh) [Tabityha] So I think that we should maybe have a little taste.

I brought some that I harvested earlier this year and I actually dried them.

They're almost like a current.

Oh, yeah, and do you use these a lot Shirley?

I use them in bison and like all red meats and then it gives them really good, beautiful flavour to the meat.

And at times I also will use them in relishes and syrups and sauces and they're gorgeous, really gorgeous.

Wow well you're giving me very, very hungry with all these different ingredients, and I just want to thank you so much Tabitha, for sharing your knowledge with us in the forest.

I really appreciate it.

Well, thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

This has been really fun.

Yeah.

Thanks.

♪ I'm so excited to be in the home of Métis executive chef Shirley Lang.

We're going to be cooking up a really tasty recipe.

What is it?

It is wild sockeye salmon.

And I'm going to be poaching it in Cedar syrup that I made, as well as some boughs of cedar and some seaweed that Tabitha, our ethnobotanist, has dried and gifted me.

Wonderful.

So how do you learn to make these recipes with things that you've harvested from the forest or Tabitha has?

Myself.

(laughs) I create.

I talk to Tabitha, when she brings me something new from the wild.

She tells me a little bit about it.

We taste, I taste.

And then I say, well, that would taste really good with that, that would taste great with that.

I wonder what I could do here, I could do that.

So it's all intuition.

It's all playing around.

I'm not a formal chef.

However, I've had my catering company for over twenty-five years.

And my food is well-known globally, actually because I use Indigenous ingredients and marry them with global cuisine, flavours, different flavours.

[Brandy] Wonderful.

And you are Métis?

I am, my father was Cree.

And so I had the benefit of learning how to cook wild, you know, meats and fowl, that type of thing.

And we've also lived on a very large farm.

We had thirteen quarters, so it was very large.

[Brandy] Okay, so tell me about the ingredients that are in front of us?

[Shirley] Well, the first one here is the cedar syrup that I made.

So I'd like you to take a little bit here and taste it.

[Brandy] Cedar Syrup?

So this comes from a tree.

Yes.

Wow...

It smells wonderful.

And we'll - you can use that in cocktails or...

This is amazing.

...salad dressings, I have actually put it in some of our salad dressing.

It's so sweet and... tangy.

It's wonderful!

Thank you, I want some.

I can't believe how good it is!

I'm in shock.

Okay?

[Shirley] Well, that's the base of our dish.

[Brandy] Wow.

This is cedar, as well as chickweed.

And I've made it into a pesto.

Wow.

Mmmmmm... Mmm, that has a tang.

I love it.

It's wonderful.

You remember when we were out foraging?

We had the Grand Fir?

Yes.

[Shirley] And I've just cut up a little bit of the Grand Fir, we're going to use that as a sprinkle on top of the salmon when we go to serve it.

Mmm, so lemony, it just, poof.

[Shirley] Yeah, I just love that.

I might actually put that, some of that, in with the, with the sauce as well.

Good.

The final garnish will be this.

It is sea asparagus.

And I've pickled it with cedar and peppers.

So it might be a bit tangy for you.

It's tangy.

It's chewy.

And it's delicious.

I love it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

[Brandy] Okay, let's get cookin'.

[Shirley] Okay!

Oh, don't they smell good?

[Brandy] Smell amazing.

And what are you going to do with this?

[Shirley] You put it in the sauce, it's going to, um... impart a lot of the the flavour from the cedar bough.

So fun.

I've never seen anybody do anything like this.

I'm just mesmerized.

Oh!

(laughing) It's beautiful.

This looks beautiful as it is.

[Shirley] It is nice, isn't it?

All right, ready?

[Brandy] Absolutely.

[Shirley] Okay, I'm just going to do this so that some of it can be on the top.

And then, there!

So you pop that lid on there for me please?

Yep.

[Shirley] And there.

I have brought in the wine to pair with it.

What kind of wine is this?

This is a Chardonnay from Indigenous World Winery.

[Brandy] That's so fun.

And is that winery from British Columbia?

Yes, it's um, it's in the interior, the Okanagan.

And it's owned by Indigenous folks.

Cheers!

Cheers.

Thank you, Shirley.

This is exciting.

I think I'm coming to your house again.

(laughs) Please do, absolutely.

[Brandy] This is so much fun.

Okay, so what do we do here?

[Shirley] Just take a little bit of this on your fork and little bit of the salmon and a little bit of everything and taste it.

Taste it all up.

Okay.

You're gonna taste some too?

Oh yeah.

First I want to taste it without anything.

It's so good.

Yeah, it's cooked perfectly.

You know, I feel like I even like it more because I know where the ingredients came from.

Can I dip it in here?

Anything that's wild, um, very local.

I mean, this is all super local within ten, within fifteen minutes of my home, so.

[Brandy] I love this pesto.

[Shirley] Thank you.

Salmon is delicious.

But I love greens.

I'm really partial to those but mixed with the wild Oregon grape to me is amazing.

Like you've got the sweet, you've got the salmon, you've got all the earthy flavours.

I mean, you can't go wrong.

[Brandy] Well, thank you so much Shirley for inviting me here and having this experience with me.

My pleasure.

and having this experience with me.

Talk about forest to plate!

Yes, literally.

And we did it together.

Thank you so much.

Cheers.

Cheers, my pleasure.

(glasses clink) I love sharing my food.

Thank you.

For my next experience, I traveled 227 kilometres or 141 miles.

From Victoria, I drove and took two ferries to reach the Sunshine Coast.

The Sunshine Coast is a 180 kilometre or 112 mile stretch from Howe Sound to Desolute Sound.

Although it is part of British Columbia's mainland it is only accessible by ferry, boat or plane.

[Brandy] When you come to the Sunshine Coast.

One of the fun things you can do is you can do the Flights to Flights experience.

I'm with Douglas Bevans.

He created this.

What is Flights to Flights?

Flights to Flights is a product that I created that you can experience a flight over Sechelt Inlet in a float plane.

But then you can experience "flights" as in brewery, like craft beer.

So kind of a fun pun, but just a really awesome way of seeing and experiencing and tasting the Sunshine Coast.

And you're an artist yourself.

I am.

And on this tour, we get a chance to meet other artists?

You can, you can do Flights to Flights or you can take an art tour.

There's just so many options out here.

It's such a robust place for passion and creativity.

And this is why you have the option to visit studios, artists studios or breweries or cideries or distilleries.

[Brandy] And why did you choose the Sunshine Coast for this experience?

[Douglas] Yeah, the Sunshine Coast is just such a fertile ground for art.

Over a thousand artists' studios in such a small area.

Highest percentage of working artists per capita reside here on the Sunshine Coast.

It's, it's just a really wonderful place to call home.

[Brandy] After a fun flight with Sunshine Coast Air as part of the Flights to Flights tour Douglas takes me to a local cidery.

[Brandy] One of the fun places you can visit here in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast is the Bricker Cider Company and I'm with Nick Farrer.

He is a co-owner and helps to make this beautiful cider.

I have to ask you, what is cider?

Cider.

So cider is actually like a wine.

But rather than using grape juice, we use apple juice.

And it's made in exactly the same way as wine.

Okay, so why did you decide to move from England to the Sunshine Coast to make cider?

I met a beautiful girl from the Sunshine Coast, Canadian girl and her family have an orchard just half a kilometre up the road.

And that kick-started the business a few years ago.

That's fantastic.

And what's your background?

Did you work with cider before or brewing?

I was a brewer, I used to make beer.

[Brandy] And how would you describe your cider?

[Nick] It is quite wine-like, we like to experiment.

We like to do different things and test out different flavours.

So we push, we push it a little bit as with flavours, [Brandy] And what is it like having an orchard here on the Sunshine Coast?

It's great.

It's very similar to England as far as the climate we have lots of rain, just like the west coast of England.

But beautiful summers, so lots of sun for the apples to grow in the summer.

And it's, it's very good for, certainly for cider apple growing.

[Brandy] Okay, so tell me about your ingredients in your cider?

[Nick] So predominantly it's apples.

We do some pears but we also have other things to give different flavours, different juices, maybe raspberries.

But in this case that we're doing today we're going to add some hops to ours, to make our Cascadia cider.

Can you show me what hops are?

I can show you.

So these are our hops.

They're from the Cascadia area.

And they are amazing smelling.

Why are they green?

Lots of chlorophyll.

Mmm.

They smell amazing.

But the thing to do is to crush them up, and they will get all the oils from that.

And that's the thing that smells incredible.

And what is Cascadia mean?

Cascadia is a made-up area that's British Columbia, Oregon, California and Washington State.

Wow.

And this, these hops come from that area?

Yeah.

So you said that I could come and help you make cider, what am I gonna do?

We're gonna pour these hops into our cider, the cider is finished fermenting.

And then so we're going to pull that in, and then that's gonna give the cider a different flavour, lots of grapefruit flavour, citrus, a touch of elderflower going into it.

Smells so good and you promised that I will be able to have a taste too, right?

You definitely can.

Okay, let's do it.

All right, so what machine is this here?

That's a fermenter.

That's got our cider in.

We're gonna get you to put some hops into the cider.

Okay, and just take this off?

Yep, take that one off.

I'll take that one if you like.

And then if you take off that gasket too.

Perfect.

I'll hand you up the hops.

Okay, what to do with this?

So just slowly pour the hops into the top of the tank.

And then they'll go down and impart flavours over time.

And how long until we can drink this actual cider in this machine?

It will be about two to three months.

We age for two to three months and then we package it into our bottles and kegs after that.

Alright.

Here we go!

Nice and easy.

Oops, sorry.

Do I have a job?

(laughs) Maybe not if I'm spilling everything all over the floor.

Okay, I'll just put that on here.

There you go.

Oooh, how fun.

Okay, Nick, I really want to taste the real cider.

Can we have some?

We definitely can.

Let's do it.

Okay, Brandy.

So we're actually going to try out some cider now.

It's the good time of the day.

We're actually going to try our Cascadia cider first.

So this is the one that we've just put the hops into.

Not this cider, of course, exactly.

But we're the same cider that will eventually be.

You'll find there's lots of delicious flavours here with grapefruit.

There's going to be some citrus.

You're going to find a little bit of elderflower in there.

[Brandy] Wow, the colour's lovely.

Cheers!

(clink) What am I smelling?

[Nick] So you'll notice that the smell of the hops isn't necessarily the smell of this and the way it interacts with the cider gives it a different flavour.

So hopefully you smell some citrus.

I always think it's really grapefruity, this one.

Oh yeah, I smell fruit for sure.

Did you taste it?

Oh yeah, you gotta get, that's the best bit.

Mmm.

So that's our Cascadia cider.

Mmm.

It's really nice.

It's very light.

Yeah.

And it's very, I call it about halfway to a beer so lots of beer drinkers will drink this one.

I'm looking for the apple in here, but I'm not tasting that much apple.

Yeah, it tends to be in the background a little and the hops are really the bit that gives you those flavours.

There's a tiny bit of elderflower kind of going into the top as well.

I love it.

As contrast to that, this this is more something that you drink, say in the wintertime or in the fall.

It's our La Boulot En Or.

So, Boulot En Or meaning "the perfect job", or "the plum job".

In England, we say like if you have a really good job, you have a plum job, and I believe this is the plum job, the perfect job.

Of course.

[Nick] And this has plums in it, plums from the Sunshine Coast.

We aged it in spirit barrels for a year.

So those spirit barrels are whiskey and rum and scotch.

And it's 7%, but it doesn't taste like 7% spirits in there.

Woah, that smells really good.

Some dark kind of flavours in there, that really give it some body.

Mmm.

It's completely different than the other one.

Totally different.

Yeah.

It's light.

Still light.

Yep.

It's crisp.

Yeah.

And again, I don't taste a lot of apples in here.

No, not too apple-y.

And those, all those different things going on here are really giving it that flavour.

It's delicious, but you know, when I think of cider, I'm thinking oh, I'm going to be like, you know, bombarded by this apple taste, like apple juice.

And it's gonna be super sweet.

But that's not happening.

No, we don't do.

We don't tend to make too many sweet ciders.

Lots of the time that can be sugar and things like that.

And we'd like to keep it nice and dry.

And actually being dry always makes you want to have another one.

Oh, very smart, huh?

Mm-Hmmm... [Nick] So the next one you're going to try.

I wanted to give you something as a different colour.

So this is our elderberry and lavender.

Elderberry giving it that amazing dark purple hue.

And the lavender comes from a local lavender farm here on the Sunshine Coast.

We love to use local ingredients.

[Brandy] Those colours are awesome.

[Nick] Yeah, it's just incredible how they just we don't tend to use too much of it either.

And it gives you that really dark purple colour.

The elderberry?

[Nick] Yeah.

Wow.

As you can tell the, the lavender is in there, but it's not super imposing.

We just use it to accentuate the cider.

These are so crisp, and light.

They're wonderful.

I love it.

Thank you very much.

Well, thank you, Nick, you've changed my whole life when it comes to apples.

And the idea that I thought, you know, everything that you drank that said cider on it tasted like a whole bunch of apples.

This is not the case!

Correct.

Yeah.

No, we try and do lots of different things.

We're experimental.

And apples are our base and they are the blood of the cider.

But yet, we use other things to make it taste different, too.

Well, they're delicious.

Thank you so much.

Cheers.

Congratulations on the orchard and all these exciting things you're doing with it.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for being here.

♪ While I'm here on the Sunshine Coast.

I've come to Gibsons to the art gallery and studio of Indigenous artist, Levi Purjue.

Levi, tell me about the work that you do.

Well, I paint on canvas, acrylic paint and, and I'm also a wood carver.

So I work in Yellow Cedar and Red Cedar, mostly.

[Brandy] Beautiful.

Tell me about your Indigenous background.

Well, I'm Tahltan from the Telegraph Creek area in British Columbia.

My Tahltan name is Mala and I'm part of the Ch'ioyone clan, and that's the Wolf clan.

And on my dad's side, I'm Shosone from Nevada.

[Brandy] And do you think that your Indigenous background has influenced your artwork?

Definitely.

Yeah.

Well, my, my grandmother, Kinse, Jeanie Low, she was brought up in different residential schools in the Yukon.

And even though she knew that part of her culture, she didn't get to experience through her younger years, she always made sure that her kids and her grandchildren heard her stories of being in the Tahltan village and, and just about her culture.

So it's really been, really important to me to be able to keep that part of the culture alive, and to be able to really kind of honour that.

Now, this piece here, actually is - it's one of her pieces.

And it's a baby carrier that she made.

And so this is cowhide for the base and elk hide for where she has her beadwork done.

And sort of been used to carry the children around on their backs when they're walking.

Beautiful.

And I love how there's a little moccasin here and a shell.

What's this?

[Levi] That's deer bone.

[Brandy] This is so wonderful.

So let's talk about the carving underneath.

I'll grab this here.

So this is a wolf family panel.

And this is, this is the main Wolf and it has two cubs with it.

The smaller cub, and a little bit older cub, and this one is in between the two knees of the wolf.

This one's coming through the, through the ears, and the tongue that's touching the forehead of the wolf is basically representing that is, the sharing of knowledge.

And he's learning quite a bit and his, his eyes are open wide, because he's just taking everything in.

And the little bit bigger cub, the eyes are a little bit smaller compared to the size of it because they've seen a little bit more.

And yeah, so in this, this is the knees and then the legs and then goes down to the feet.

Okay, Brandy, I'd like you to to learn a little bit about curving here.

So I'm going to get you started on, on this piece here.

And then I'll give you a straight knife.

And you can do - you can cut in here, and then I'll give you a crooked knife and you can, you know,take some material out from the bottom.

Sounds fun.

Okay, so this is your straight knife.

And I'm just cutting here.

Yeah, but you have to keep a solid...

When you're doing it, you got to keep a solid... grip on it.

Okay.

Because it's kind of hard to, y'know you gotta, you gotta press hard into it to be able to get the material so you have to be... you may be using a couple hands to stabilize it.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm scared.

I just don't want to make a mistake and then...

Okay, so I've cut this and then what do I do now?

[Levi] You're gonna take this crooked knife.

Okay.

And so basically what you're gonna do, here, okay, I'll show you here.

Sure.

You're gonna take this and put your thumb on the edge and your other hand you're just gonna kind of brace yourself and and then just press down and take some material out like this.

Just pivot your wrist to take some material out there.

Okay.

This is not easy, Levi.

Wow.

And this would take me a year to do anything close to this and it would look terrible.

But you are such a good artist.

You've been doing this for how many years?

[Levi] A few years.

So I've been doing it, not as long as most... probably about six years.

[Brandy] So Levi, are you finding that people are buying pieces that you've already created, or they commissioning them from you?

[Levi] I mostly carve pieces just kind of from my heart and, and ideas in my head, and then I sell them.

But I have done a few commissions, but it has to be the right fit.

[Brandy] Well, I can, I can tell even from the little bit that I've done that it's so much work.

And it takes a lot of physical labor.

It takes a lot of time.

And you have to have a wonderful imagination to come up with the different animals and images.

So I want to thank you so much for inviting me here to have a little glimpse into your world.

It's wonderful.

[Levi] No problem.

I'm happy to do it.

[Brandy] Wow.

I'll be here for two years.

(laughing) British Columbia is such a beautiful and diverse place.

I've really enjoyed meeting the artists and the chefs who've been inspired by this province, and I can't wait to come back and explore even more.

♪ ♪ ♪