Harvest Community Foods has been serving noodles in Vancouver’s Chinatown for thirteen years. More than a ramen spot, Harvest is also a grocery store that sources local products and produce.
There’s a wonderful intangible value to a neighbourhood spot where everyone knows your name and your order. We spoke with Gabriella Meyer, chef and co-owner, to learn more about the deep connections forged with customers and the community over the last thirteen years, as well as how Harvest continues to support local Canadian producers.
Harvest History
Harvest Community Foods opened in 2012 after a neighbourhood-wide vote determined that the space should be a grocery store. When Chef Andrea Carlson took over, she decided to sell bowls of noodles as well. Carlson, previously of Bishop’s and Raincity Grill, was actually on the hunt for a space for Burdock & Co when she took on Harvest. Shortly after, she found Burdock’s home a little further up Main Street and realized she was going to need help with her new noodle shop/grocery store.
“At the time, I was going back and forth to India,” Meyer recalls. Carlson emailed her, asking if she wanted to come back and run Harvest. Meyer and Carlson first met when they worked together at Raincity Grill. While Meyer doesn’t think Carlson expected her to say yes, the timing for her was perfect, so she accepted. “I’ve been here, literally, ten years,” she reflects fondly, “January was ten years, which is crazy.”
On the Menu
While the menu was initially conceived by Carlson, now, all but two of the bowls are Meyer’s creations. Meyer also has the freedom to craft daily specials.
The #17 is one of Carlson’s originals. This ramen comes in a beloved squash and miso broth (that is also available for sale) with yuzu, radish, and sesame. It can be made vegan if desired. In fact, a lot of the menu items at Harvest are vegetarian or vegan. This makes sense for a space that is always festooned with fresh fruits and veggies.
While the #19 isn’t vegetarian, the watercress is one of my favourite parts of this rich, chicken ramen. The #19 also comes with one of Harvest’s soy eggs which are fantastically flavourful and perfectly gooey.
The open kitchen you see at Harvest is all the space they have, so they benefit from being able to use Burdock as prep space. It’s why you’ll find Burdock-baked (which means one Michelin star) cookies and treats at Harvest. You can also quite literally find burdock on the menu: the #41 ramen comes with spicy pork in a miso gravy with pickled burdock.
Community Sourced Agriculture and Shopping Canadian
Over the years, the roots of Harvest have grown deep. That root system, rhizome-like, ties it not only to Burdock & Co but also to Bar Gobo, “the hi-fi wine bar at the end of the world” just down the block. Harvest feels intrinsically part of the community now. When the sun shines, patrons slurp noodles on the sidewalk. When it rains, the window’s fog up, giving the space an even warmer and more welcoming atmosphere.
Since the beginning, Harvest has taken orders for, and sold CSA (community-sourced agriculture) bags. For Carlson, Harvest is an expression of her food philosophy: “I believe in supporting local food systems and people who nurture the land instead of destroying it.”
The CSA bags support local farmers while encouraging customers to eat local and seasonal. “We used to do it every other week,” explains Meyer. At first, the numbers were modest. Twelve, then twenty, then forty bags were going out.
“Then, the first week of the pandemic,” remembers Meyer, “I was like, should we do it every week?” CSA orders exploded from eighty bags up to four hundred. The team will be forever grateful: “It was the only thing that kept us going.”
Now that spring is on its way, new produce will be available like nettles, which you definitely can’t get at your local Save On Foods. Even if you don’t order a CSA bag, Harvest always has local, seasonal produce for sale, as well as all shelf-stable grocery items like salsas, hot sauces, and cleaning supplies.
In our current trade war, Harvest is a great place to buy Canadian. They carry Klippers Organics pickles, Alimentaria-made salsas, and supplies by Ucluelet’s Mint Cleaning. That’s only a few of the dozens of Canadian brands on the shelves. Harvest makes it easy to pick up some groceries and enjoy a bowl of noodles, all while supporting local.
