Slow Food Cycle this Sunday in Pemberton
I learned of this annual event when I naughtily “borrowed” my landlady’s Westworld Magazine to read a few interesting food-related articles before I delivered it upstairs. When I finished reading the article about Slow Food Cycle Sunday, I wrote down the event details and without hesitation decided I would attend. (Do read the article, a PDF complete with tantalizing photographs!) Now the date is finally approaching — not that I wish summer to pass quickly as it has been, but I’ve been looking forward to this — and I’m training daily now for the tour.
Training?
Slow Food Cycle Sunday, which also goes on in Agassiz (east of Chilliwack), is a bike-based tour of local farms, eateries and artisan shops in Pemberton’s Lillooet River Valley. A 26-kilometer trip may sound daunting, but the terrain is “as flat as Holland” and, judging by the photos, paved, which makes it easy. That’s good news for me as I have done almost zero(!) biking since my family Europe trip in 2000 where it was la mode du jour. A number of factors lead to this and I won’t discuss, but for the past month I’ve been riding frequently with increasingly longer trips. Come Sunday it will be seven consecutive days and by then perhaps I’ll have tackled the massive hill my “born to ride” dad glides up and down twice a day, five days a week. Oh hills have hardly been a problem on a good bike (except day 1); what I’m concerned about is my endurance! And my poor rear end on a men’s saddle. But it will be well worth it.
My dad (bike enthusiast) and I (local food enthusiast) will be driving up, but Go Green Shuttles (designers be warned) offers an affordable $55-return trip with your bike. If you don’t have a bike, rentals are available on-site in Pemberton.
Ok, so I get the cycle part, but what’s this Slow Food thing?
Good question.
Slow Food is a non-profit, eco-gastronomic member-supported organization that was founded in 1989 to counteract fast food and fast life, the disappearance of local food traditions and people’s dwindling interest in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it tastes and how our food choices affect the rest of the world. Today, we have over 85,000 members in 132 countries.
Love food, love bikes? Love both?
This is a family event, free to attend, and guaranteed to please. The weather will most certainly be sunny, even if it’s raining in Vancouver, so no excuses!
The deets:
Pemberton, BC
“Bring your bike and helmet, a waterbottle, your appetite and cash, and graze your way up the valley.”
Sunday August 17, 2008, 9am – 4pm
Start at the Community Centre on Pemberton Meadows Road (follow the signs from Hwy 99). Sign in at the registration table any time from 9am on.
See you there!
