School is back in session and the fun is just getting started at our local farms which will be hosting corn mazes, pumpkin patches, apple harvests, and so much more this season. Check out the following farms for family fun this fall:

Corn Mazes & Pumpkin Patches Near Vancouver

Some rate apply for admission or activities at these sites.

Willow View Farms

When: U-Pick opening August 17th, 2018
Where: 288 McCallum Rd, Abbotsford
Website | Facebook | Instagram
About: U-pick apples, plums, pears, and pumpkins have become a big part of what we do at Willow View. Visiting the farm provides opportunities to “slow down”, and enjoy nature at a leisurely pace, while celebrating the enjoyment of local homegrown food. The goal of Willow View is summed up by our motto: “Our home, your farm”.

Maan Farms

When: Open now with a Fall Festival every weekend starting September 22, 2018
Where: 790 McKenzie Rd, Abbotsford
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
About: Maan Farms offers something for the whole family. Play area and petting zoo, delicious food and wine, event venue, seasonal attractions and of course berries. The beautiful warm colours, brisk fresh air, and fun family activities! Join Maan Farms this fall for their many a-maze-ing family fun activities.

Richard Country Farms

When: Open daily, 9:00am to 8:00pm
Where: 12900 Steveston Hwy, Richmond
Website | Facebook | Instagram
About: Pumpkin pickers ride hay wagons past the duck ponds and waterfalls to the fields. The farm is ornamented with corn stocks, sunflowers whimsical decorations and almost authentic buildings relocated from Transylvania. They offer a fresh BC grown Spartan Apple as a snack at the conclusion.

Bose and Sons Family Farm

When: Open now through October 8, 2018
Where: 64th Avenue & 156th Street, Surrey
Website | Facebook
About: Sit back on a hay bale and savour Surrey’s countryside on a tractor-pulled ride from the Bose Corn Maze to the pumpkin patch in search of your perfect Jack-o’-Lantern for Halloween. Their pumpkins weigh anywhere from 5 to 100 pounds. Get lost in the corn, through the many turns and arches, as you answer the trivia questions at each numbered post in the maze. Your answers will lead you, should you go the correct way, to the next numbered post through Bose’s two-part maze. Be sure to budget an hour to find your way from the beginning to the end.

Taves Family Farms

When: Open now through October
Where: 333 Gladwin Rd, Abbotsford
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
About: Nothing says fall like going into the Pumpkin Patch and choosing your very own pumpkin. While the smaller ones (especially Cinderella and sugar pumpkins) are better for making pumpkin pies, larger ones help kids carve that perfect jack-o-lantern. Our super-size pumpkins average 50 lbs. Taves has so many varieties and colours! The Applebarn and Sunflower Patch are open now.

Chilliwack Corn Maze and Pumpkin Farm

When: Until October 31, 2018
Where: 41905 Yale Road West, Chilliwack
Website | Facebook | Instagram
About: Getting lost at the 12 acre Chilliwack Corn Maze becomes an interactive experience with passports and challenges as you navigate your way around. Visit the pumpkin patch this year. There are over 15 varieties growing on our farm, come and find your perfect pumpkin.

Aldor Acres Farm

When: September 15 to October 31, 2018
Where: 24990-84 Avenue, Langley
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
About: Numerous animal displays are set up throughout the barns along with a Petting Zoo area outside. New this year are the Pig Races! Races will happen daily at different times throughout the day. After visiting with all the animals, take a tractor-pulled hayride out to the pumpkin patch to find that perfect pumpkin. Don’t forget to stop by the Farmacy for your farm fresh veggies, eggs and pork.

Check all of the farm websites and social media to get the most accurate updates about what is in season, opening hours, etc. Have fun!

Lovers of local seafood and social times rejoice as the Chefs’ Table Society of BC‘s Slow Fish Canada Dinner returns for the 5th year to the Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (“PICA” on September 23, 2018. This annual event allows seafood lovers to gather and indulge in local sustainable seafood in the most interactive way.

Slow Fish Canada Dinner

When: Sunday, 23 September, 2018 from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Where: Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts (1505 West 2nd Ave, Vancouver)
Tickets: Available online now with early bird pricing until September 9th.

Photo Meighan Makarchuk

The evening starts with PICA culinary student-prepared canapés, and Frizzante Rosé from Salmon-Safe winery St. Hubertus & Oak Bay Estate Winery. Next, attendees move through the school’s eight professional teaching kitchens to meet the visiting chefs, who each offer a tasting-sized portion of local sustainable seafood delicacies.

Leading the event committee is Chefs’ Table Society chef Darren Clay, executive culinary chef instructor at PICA, and Poyan Danesh, culinary director at Ocean Mama Seafood.Grazing through the kitchens, you will have a chance to talk to the chefs and winery representatives about their passion for what they do!

The Chefs
Warren Chow, Juniper
Jason Harris, Colette Grand Café at Holt Renfrew
Edgar Kano, Four Seasons Hotel
Greg McCallum, Le Crocodile
Andrea Carlson, Burdock & Co
Julian Bond, Pacific Institute of Culinary Arts
Mark Singsong, Food Art Music
Welbert Choi, Forage

Dishes will include the chefs’ creative interpretations of how to serve sustainable local sturgeon, arctic char, Humpback Shrimp, Honey Mussels, Spiny Scallop Geoduck, Albacore tuna and Octopus. Wines paired with each dish will be from the portfolio of Peacock & Martin, and several Salmon-Safe BC wineries.Dessert will be prepared by Maestro James Coleridge, Uno Gelato.

The intention of the event, aside from raising funds, is to raise awareness for Slow Fish Canada (a Slow Food initiative) and its role in protecting our oceans. Like all Chefs’ Table Society events, the proceeds from this event along with earmarked funds will be used to fund a scholarship; in this case, one that will be awarded that night.

Follow Chefs’ Table Society on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for more info.

Public Disco, a series of open-air dance parties in reimagined urban spaces, is coming to Ackery’s Alley in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown entertainment district. Public Disco at Ackery’s Alley will be the last big street party of the summer with music by Braue, Iain Howie, MA/AM, Ai Hashimoto & Solreia, a licensed outdoor dance floor, food stations and more.

Public Disco at Ackery’s Alley

Where: Ackery’s Alley (675 Smithe St, Vancouver)
When: Saturday, September 15 at 1:00pm to 8:00pm
Admission: FREE! RSVP on Facebook for info

Enjoy the licensed outdoor dance floor, the free sparkle station, hoop zone by DSU Hoop Club and ping pong by frida&frank from 1:00pm to 6:00pm. Chill in the lounge spaces by Oasis Pop-Ups, and enter to win a 2 pairs of tickets to Westward Music Festival shows happening nearby after Public Disco. Dress to express and hold down the dance floor for a chance to win a pair of tickets to Kali Uchis at The Orpheum or Rhye at The Vogue Theatre.

Snack on treats from Pizza Garden, Five Guys, H-Mart Food Court and Red Burrito all within a one block radius of Ackery’s Alley. All ages welcome! Follow Public Disco on Instagram for more info.

MRG Concerts’ Westward Music Festival returns for the second year to Vancouver’s downtown core from September 13-16, 2018. This year’s lineup features British singer, songwriter, composer, producer and author Blood Orange, two-time Grammy nominee Kali Uchis, critically acclaimed rhythmic pop star Kelela and YouTube sensation Poppy, and many more.

Westward Music Festival

When: September 13-16, 2018
Where: Multiple venues, Downtown Vancouver
Tickets: Individual show tickets and festival wristbands on sale online or in person a Red Cat Records.

Additional acts at this premiere multi-genre festival include alt-indie artist Angel Olsen, R&B downtempo soul act RHYE, electronic duo HONNE, Canadian Sub-Pop punk band METZ, Seattle grunge mainstays Mudhoney, Vancouver alt favourites Odds and Indigenous synth-rock band Nehiyawak. View the full line up here »

Follow the Westward Music Festival #WMF2018 on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for more info.

The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival announces its spellbinding 2018 lineup of local and international flamenco artists, September 21-29, 2018 with free workshops and ticketed performances at various Vancouver venues.

Vancouver International Flamenco Festival

When: September 21-29, 2018
Where: Vancouver Playhouse, Scotiabank Dance Centre, Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Annex, the Kino, Vancouver Public Library

La Azulita Flamenco Ensemble, dancer Megan Matheson. Photo by Levent Erutku Photography.

The Vancouver International Flamenco Festival proudly presents the Canadian debut of Spain’s Sara Calero Company in Petisa Loca at the Vancouver Playhouse on September 22nd. Sara Calero is one of the main current references in the renewal of both Spanish and flamenco dance. The company’s piece shares the diaspora diaries of a woman and all women as thousands of Spaniards were forced to emigrate between Europe and America in the mid-twentieth century. Petisa Loca features dancer/choreographer Sara Calero, singer Loreto Arnaiz, guitarist José Almarcha, and the electronic music of The Lab.

The Festival also features some of the finest Canadian Flamenco artists with performances at the intimate Annex (Orpheum). Here is the schedule at a glance:

As one of few celebrated festivals devoted to Flamenco Art in North America, the VIFF has since its beginnings in 1990 grown to a mature understanding of Vancouver’s multicultural audiences by nurturing the form’s hybridized roots in Sephardic, Persian, Gypsy and Indian cultures and by striving to reflect and connect its diverse sociocultural identity through work narratives underlining flamenco’s universal message of humanistic tolerance.

Win Tickets

I have a pair of tickets to give away to Spain’s Sara Calero Company performance at the Vancouver Playhouse on September 22nd. Here’s how you can enter to win:

• Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
• Click below to get another entry by posting on Twitter:

[clickToTweet tweet=”RT to enter to win a pair of tickets to a Vancouver International Flamenco Festival show http://ow.ly/yCqH30lCU7f @flamencoviff” quote=” Click to enter via Twitter” theme=”style6″]

I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Thursday, September 6, 2018 at 8:00am. Follow the Vancouver International Flamenco Festival on Facebook and Twitter for more info.

Update The winner is @wildfireeffect!