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It’s the middle of winter. It’s dark outside, windy and very cold. You’ve got three midterms this week, because your professors are afraid you’ll forget everything you learned after the two-week bender that is the Winter Games.

Yes, February, with its attendant commercialized romance holidays and academic stresses, is a month that calls for stamina. But if you feel your strength flagging, it’s probably because your body has decided that it’s tired of this bullshit.

One of the best ways to preserve your trusty booze vessel’s imbibing powers—and its ability to survive the double whammy of seasonal affective disorder and professorial incompetence—is by loading up on all the good stuff. That’s right: fresh, local foodstuffs will save your life.

We met up with Charlotte Mellstrom, a third–year Forestry student known for her prodigious pizza making skills.
Our goal was to make a four-person pizza using products exclusively from BC. The Farmers’ Market was closed, so we went to the Granville Island Public Market, but it took almost an hour to collect the short list of ingredients we needed, partly because we were gawking at all the off-duty Olympians.

The end product: two portobello mushrooms ($9.16 per lb), two Ambrosia apples ($2.99 per lb), two packages of Canadian mozzarella ($4.50 each), two large shallots and one bunch of sage (99 cents).

We delivered our goods to Charlotte, who glanced at the spread and decided to make a “Shroombrosia” pizza: a sage pesto base with honey caramelized shallots, topped with portobellos and apples. Truly a feast fit for the gods, if we could make the dough following the mystical instructions passed down through the family.

Charlotte learned how to make pizza from her father, who learned it from her mother, who learned it from an “angry Italian man” in the pizza shop where she worked. The pizza-making process, as she demonstrated it, is largely based on handfuls, pinches and positive vibrations. A lack of specific measurements not withstanding, an hour and a half later we were presented with an almost 100 per cent local dish (flour, yeast and an extra red pepper hanging out in Charlotte’s fridge weren’t vetted for location).

We washed the winter-tastic pizza down with a homebrew, and felt that we had justified our fossil-fuelled lives for at least one lazy Saturday afternoon.

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What’s fresh in February?

Charlotte’s philosophy of pizza-making is, “Anything goes. If it tastes good together, it tastes good on a pizza.” Things that naturally grow in the same season almost always complement each other, so an easy way to compose your pizza is by shopping seasonally and locally.

Veggie types:
Beans
Beets
Carrots
Cabbage
Garlic
Kale
Leeks
Mushrooms
Onions
Parsnips
Potatoes
Shallots
Turnips

Fruity types:
Apples!

Other:
Honey
Nuts
Rosemary
Sage

Ocean-y types:
Pacific Cod
Crab/Dungeness Crab
Clams, mussels, oysters
Prawns
Snapper
Sole

Meat, egg and dairy products are generally always available, so don’t sweat it if all you want is a steak.

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Where to buy in the winter season

Farmers’ Markets can be found on practically every gentrified corner in Metro Vancouver during the (relatively) sunny summer months. But come November, the farmers all return home to wait out the winter, coming out only every other Saturday at the Wise Hall, 1882 Adanac Street, just off Commercial Drive.

The Wise Hall winter market has everything that will make you feel like the mean, green, Pacific Northwest fighting machine that you always wanted to be.

If you’re hungover on Saturdays, then you’re almost out of luck because the market is only open for the hours of 10am–2pm, when you’re probably still trying to open your eyes all the way.

The other alternative is the Granville Island Public Market, but even though they stay open until 7pm every day and have “over 50 passionate vendors” (ahem), the selection is much harder to wade through. Less items are BC-grown, and those that are generally take some work to find. Go to Granville Island for the Pacific seafood and to flirt with BC grown fishmongers. You’ll have just as much luck at your local produce stand when it comes to fruits and veggies, with significantly reduced costs.