Chef Claude Bouchard takes a handful of herbs and spreads them over the pizza he's making, on which sizzling fresh vegetables from his garden jostle with goat cheese from a neighbouring farm. He adds a sparkling yellow ear of crunchy fresh corn to the plate, and tosses a salad of fresh greens picked from his garden. At the sublime Limbert Mountain Farm kitchen in Agassiz, every ingredient on the plate is so fresh it squeaks.

"Sorry, I'd love to chat," says Bouchard, carrying the meal out to the patio, "but we are so busy these weekends. So many people are coming."

These days, Vancouverites concerned about the planet's future want to know what they are eating and where their food comes from, so they are taking active steps to visit the source and share in the harvest. The Agassiz/Harrison district at the east end of the Fraser Valley is a hot spot for Vancouverites keen to check out their food supply. Not only is this region lush with food and farms that are happy to host visitors, it's also exceedingly scenic, full of tourist attractions and flat, which make it a great destination for thousands of cyclists, families and weekend foodies on the gourmet prowl.

In late August, the Vancouver chapter of the Slow Food movement took advantage of this growing interest to host a cycling tour for more than 1,000 participants who soaked up the summer sun and snacked on local produce while anticipating the harvest coming this fall. Slow Food's mission is to defend biodiversity in the food supply, spread taste education and bring together pleasure and responsibility.

Slow Food Vancouver believes our fast pace of life has changed our entire way of being and threatens our environment. More alarmingly, climate change is predicted to have a huge impact on food availability in the Lower Mainland.

"The Fraser Valley is considered to have the best growing conditions in Canada," says Slow Food spokesperson Joanne MacKinnon. "Information on our website says the valley supplies 60 per cent of all food produced in B.C. with dairy, poultry, berries, and vegetables. Almost all the eggs, poultry, and milk consumed in the Lower Mainland come from the valley. However, only 15 per cent to 23 per cent of locally produced vegetables and fruit actually enter the local market. Most of our fruits and vegetables come from areas with large scale distribution systems that can supply the same vegetables year round, like California, Florida, and Mexico."

MacKinnon believes the Fraser Valley has the capacity to feed everyone in Vancouver, "but not at the huge scale of production demanded by multi-national distribution companies. With climate change, many of these foreign areas are suffering from major water shortages. The result for those of us dependent on foods from these areas is potential shortages and price hikes."

So what can be done to protect our local food-growing region? Slow Food proponents suggest first learning about the food we eat by engaging with local farmers and supporting their efforts to make the Fraser Valley one of the best and most diversified food growing regions in Canada. A good way to start is one of the Circle Farm Tours, which go all over the Fraser Valley.

The first stop for anyone keen on experiencing a Circle Farm Tour is to pick up a map at the Agassiz Museum and Visitor Centre in the heart of the pretty little town.

Here, manager Judy Pickard welcomes visitors with information about the local farms and tourist attractions, and other interesting autumnal opportunities, such as sturgeon and salmon fishing and eagle watching in September on the Harrison River. "We get lots of eagles feeding on the salmon, and the foliage is beautiful," says Pickard, "but for sure you should check out our annual fall fair because it's been voted the best in all of B.C. We've got everything from eating corn to goat milking to tractor pulls."

This year's Agassiz Fall Fair and Corn Festival is Sept. 17 and 18 while the Fraser Valley Bald Eagle Festival, deep in the heart of "Sasquatch country," runs Nov. 20 and 21.

The views from the Agassiz Museum are of towering peaks on three sides, but as you wander around the end of the valley, even more beautiful is the patchwork quilt of farms that dot the valley floor. It may be the strong Dutch heritage of the region, but everything is tidy and clean with flowers adorning houses and gardens.

Over at the Valedoorn dairy farm, owners Tom and John Hoogendoorn are happy to host frequent tours of their 500-cow barn and adjacent cornfields that illustrate where food comes from. Visiting a real farm in the midst of its working day can be an eye-opener for the unfamiliar.

"We had a lady on a tour of our dairy barn recently who didn't realize where milk comes from," says Tom, a high-energy guy who personifies the new breed of Fraser Valley farmer. "When she actually saw a cow hooked up to an automated milking machine and the milk coming out, she fainted."

Each cow wears a special collar that keeps tabs on how much milk it has given each day. They also wear a pedometer that beams information to a computer indicating how many steps the cow takes in a day. "A sick cow doesn't wander much," explains Tom. "We don't use herbicides or pesticides or bovine growth hormones or any of that junk here. A healthy cow is a happy cow. Hey, you might even see a cow give birth on a tour if you're lucky."

Cows, goats and horses are all part of work day life over at Farm House Cheeses where visitors are free to walk around the grounds and pet the animals, but the real show is behind glass where dozens of different varieties of cheese are made daily. The Peppercorn Goat Gouda is popular, a spicy twist of pure white cheese with red and green peppercorn, as is the Country Blue Stilton, a creamy, crumbly paste with a delicate blue mottling throughout, balanced salt and sharpness. Pre-booked guided tours of the farm and cheese factory are offered until Sept. 30.

"Our herd of Brown Swiss, Guernsey, and Holstein cows feast on naturally good hay, grain, and fresh green summer pasture to provide us with top quality milk," says Jasmine Laurenson behind the counter in the store, carving off a big sample of Brie. "We use only the milk produced on our own farm, delivered directly from the dairy to the cheese room."

Smooth ripe cheese is yummy, but for a different taste treat head over to Canadian Hazelnuts, where manager Kode Longmuir keeps 8,000 hazelnuts trees in top condition for the annual fall nut harvest beginning in the middle of October.

"Harvesting the nuts is real simple," says Longmuir. "They just fall to the ground and we use a harvesting machine to scoop them up and dump them into a giant box. During harvest we might have 200,000 pounds stacked up. It's quite a sight. Anybody who wants to hand harvest nuts can do so by dropping by our office first. The harvest lasts about three to four weeks and we welcome people all year round here at our store."

Because a cycle tour of the flat farmlands might take several days to complete, many foodies make an entire weekend out of their excursion by staying overnight at the Harrison Resort, using the hotel as a rest and relaxation base. After a long soak in one of the resort's famous five mineral pools, hungry cyclists can head over to the venerable Copper Room for a feast of fresh caught salmon, lamb, beef or other Fraser Valley delights.

The Circle Food Tour stops at various other local tourist attractions besides farms, including the Back Porch, where you can stroll the property and look at funky farmhouse antiques, or watch owner Dan Laurenson grind fresh coffee for sale to local cafes and restaurants.

For food lovers keen on a picnic perhaps the best bet is Trudie and Claude Bouchard's Limbert Mountain Farm, where the dining options are unlimited. Chef Bouchard puts on a show in his kitchen, making all meals by hand in front of salivating guests. You can dine in style in the small café, grab a lunch to go, or wander out to the patio with your meal among the lavender and herbs and soak in the views of the pastures, peaks and rolling hills. The 1902 heritage farm boasts tranquil hillside gardens with a wide variety of herbs, heirloom tomatoes and garlic. They teach classes on growing and using the herbs and vegetables, as well as hosting several events in celebration of the changing seasons. Their store stocks their own line of Simply Fine Foods including herb teas and culinary blends, herb chocolate, hummus, relish, pickles, herb vinegars, garlic nectar and pesto.

The Bouchards farm the old fashioned way, by building up the soil using compost and manure, continually renewing the soils nutrients that are then absorbed by the foods that they grow. The result is foods that are superior in nutrition and taste, always fresh, often only hours out of the ground prior to being consumed. Every year, they invite the public to their own harvest festival. This year it falls on Oct 9. Farm hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

An alternative to returning to Vancouver via the freeway is to take a pleasant country drive along Highway 7 on the north side of the Fraser River. This allows for the final touch to any food tour of the Agassiz region, a visit to the often under-looked Kilby General Store and Museum, well off the beaten track at the former site of the long lost village of Harrison Mills. The Kilby kitchen serves a nutritious lunch of soups, sandwiches and daily specials but the real star is the farm and museum next door.

"Everything we serve in the dining room is done slow food style," says server Tara Wolkosky. "It's all made from scratch right in the kitchen."

Thomas and Eliza Kilby officially opened the Kilby General Store Aug. 14, 1906. Their family operated the store from 1922 until 1977. General stores of this era were the centre of their communities, being a place to shop and gather news. There are nearly 11,000 artifacts of that era on display and the store looks like it is still open for business. Today, interpreters are dressed in period costuming representing the 1920s and give tours. Kilby manager Stu Watchorn, a theatre buff, is dressed today like a shopkeeper from the Dirty Thirties. "If you notice how close to the river we are here, you'll see that Harrison Mills is surrounded on three sides by water, creating a flood plain," he says. "Early photographs on display clearly show how local builders dealt with the problem by elevating the buildings and using boardwalks to connect the community."

Those boardwalks are still in evidence outside today. Inside, up a creaking staircase, is the old hotel where rooms reveal clues about life in the 1920s. Here stayed travelling salesmen, railroad crews, farm hands, schoolteachers, mill hands, store clerks, new settlers and surveyors.

"We have a great Halloween party up here every year," says Watchorn. "Very spooky. And don't forget you also have to come back for our Thanksgiving feast [Oct. 10 and 11]."

Surrounding the general store are three hectares preserved as the working farm it once was, where the Agassiz 4H club assists by annually stocking the farm with baby animals and their mothers. An orchard planted in the spring of 1926 still bears fruit today, providing a supply of apples from late August until early October.

The ride home along winding Highway 7 is a treat, as will be the corn, squash, pumpkins and fruit gathered during a weekend in Canada's best farm country.

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