Schema Magazine

Photo courtesy of http://blogs.vancouversun.com

On Sunday, June 10, the UBC Farm will be hosting its second annual Joy of Feeding fundraiser. This international "comfort food" fair will feature dishes from over 15 different ethnicities and regions, including some that you'd be hard-pressed to find on menus in Vancouver. You can sample cardamom and almond cake from Sweden, lamb and beef kibbeh from Syria, First Nations fry bread and more.

And yes, there will be a Vancouver stall. The dish that sums up our city? Chocolate pudding. (Seems a little boring next to such exotic contributions!) Stuffing your face with ethnically diverse food sounds like a great way to spend a day, and the fact that Joy of Feeding takes place open-air at the UBC Farm is even better. Not enough people in Vancouver are aware that there's a fully functioning farm near UBC. It's tucked just yards behind the massive condo construction site in Wesbrook Village: 24 hectares of pastoral scenery, complete with twittering birds, sprawling green fields and an adorable children's garden for summer camp programs.

I've volunteered at the farm a couple times, and my heart rate always lowers within seconds of arriving. The thick screen of forest does a great job of muffling the drone of construction, and you feel as if you've stepped into another world.

The only downside to Joy of Feeding, though, is the ticket price. $50 per person is prohibitively expensive for a lot of people, even if it includes food and a complimentary cookbook. If you're on a tighter budget but still want to check out the farm, my advice is to hold out for FarmAde in September, which is a free, all-ages event.

You can check out their Facebook event page at facebook.com.