Despite a year off because of the threat of wildfires, and the flooding scare sparked by one of Canada’s most substantial landslides a week earlier, Pemberton’s popular example of pedal-powered agritourism continued its relentless growth in its fifth incarnation on Sunday (Aug. 15).

About 3,000 people flocked to Pemberton farms for the 2010 Slow Food Cycle Sunday, up from about 2,300 in 2008 and way up from the approximately 400 riders who came out for the inaugural event. Participants pedalled along Pemberton Meadows Road with beaming faces despite the sweltering summer temperatures that soared up to about 35 degrees.

Kind-hearted local farmers and vendors had plenty of water features and cool drinks on hand, including the roadside sprinkler set up by the Marinus family at the 21-kilometre mark on the scenic road, which brought about much water-based frolicking for sweaty riders and even bigger smiles.

The throngs of happy thousands rolled through the registration desk newly established in the heart of the Village and spilled out onto Pemberton Meadows Road to sample local products, savour connections with local growers and soak up the spectacular valley views.

Twelve farm families welcomed the hordes at their homes and properties, supported with stands filled with food and goods from more than 30 local businesses and chefs.

“It’s such a blessing to have this event. I’m so pleased to be part of it,” said Jesse Fromowitz of the Riverlands Market Garden.

“Everyone’s done a lovely, lovely job,” said part-time Whistler resident Susan Keenan, who made it all the way out to Marty and Andrea Van Loon’s Pemberton Valley Farms, about 23 kilometres up the road, using her new electric bike. The committed farmers’ market shopper enjoyed the two-wheeled trip through the beautiful valley.

“We’ve always bought local, and what a difference… To see the farms that are contributing to that is a real plus,” Keenan said.

Sitting outside the shady gazebo on his farm that hosted catering by the Black Squirrel Restaurant, paintings by Suzanne Plante and sales of fresh veggies, Marty Van Loon said he thinks word is spreading about the event and Pemberton agriculture.

“I think the key is, of course, we have to remember that this is about food… We like to have people know what we can grow in Pemberton. We can feed a lot of people, but the general trend with food in the past has been a lot of it looks good and it’s cheap,” he said.

At the Helmer family’s hopping organic farm, which hosted Lucia Gelato, Mount Currie Coffee Co. and local jewelry alongside their produce and animals, Jennifer Peters, the chef de cuisine at Vancouver’s Raincity Grill, sold culinary creations shaped with the Helmers’ Sieglinde potatoes and other local products.

“I think people should know where their food comes from. Part of eating healthy is knowing, ‘Is this grown locally by people who care about what they’re doing?’” Peters said.

For some, like Pemberton’s Andrea Blaikie, the one-year deferral of the Slow Food Cycle because of the 2009 wildfires that raged in the Meadows only deepened the determination to do the ride.

Her nearly three-year-old son Romer Bear “is a biking aficionado… (and) he’s now old enough to help me out in the garden, and he’s spent all summer so far rooting around, eating spinach and anything he can pull out… so it’s really neat for him to experience the real thing,” Blaikie said.

She added that she feels “this is what Pemberton is all about.”

Plus, she said, adding to the list of appealing aspects for young Romer, “there’s tractors.”

Kids climbed on the big green John Deere tractor parked at Shaw Creek Farm, the third-generation seed potato farm run by John and Michelle Beks. Homemade ice cream sandwiches, an art display and a back-massage stand were among the enticements stationed inside the cool barn that will soon be packed full of potatoes.

The farmers fielded questions from waves of guests about the how their business of growing seed potatoes works, and why the Pemberton Valley is so disease- and virus-free.

“I just like doing (the Slow Food Cycle) to educate people so that they understand more where their food is coming from,” John Beks said. “It doesn’t give a direct impact for more sales for me because we do seed potatoes, but indirectly it benefits.”

The Slow Food Cycle did have an impact for local businesses overall, Paul Vacirca, president of the Pemberton and District Chamber of Commerce, said on Tuesday (Aug. 17). Alongside the “tremendous” attention it brought to the area’s valuable agricultural sector and the display of agritourism unique to Pemberton, Vacirca noted full local hotels and bed and breakfast facilities, busy restaurants and hopping grocery stores.

And, naturally, bike rentals for Sunday were all booked up at the Pemberton Bike Co. as of Saturday afternoon (Aug. 14).

Vacirca raved about the displays at the Los Farm, and the chance to underscore the importance of the agriculture in the Pemberton Valley and surrounding area.

Slow Food Cycle co-organizer Anna Helmer was tired on Monday (Aug. 16) as she headed back to her full-time job as a farmer, but she took a moment to savour the “fantastic day,” the “stellar” work of the 80-odd volunteers and the success of the new registration in the Village and post-cycle Augustfest fundraiser and entertainment.

“(Co-organizer Niki Vankerk) and I are tired, and looking forward to next year,” Helmer wrote in an email to The Question.