History

Jericho’s Beginnings

Jeremiah Rogers was cutting spars in Puget Sound in 1859, when he met Edward Stamp, an English mariner, and industrialist. Their working relationship began, after Rogers agreed to look for spars on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. After working the Port Alberni area with Stamp, Jeremiah Roger’s (Jerry’s Co.) logged the old growth forest on Point Grey, around West 4th area, much of this wood went into the building of early, pre-Great Fire, Vancouver.

Jerry’s Cove or Jerrys Co which was condensed to Jericho. The Jericho Beach area was first known as (iy’a’l’mexw) in the Squamish Nation language. It is situated on the West Side of the city of Vancouver and neighbour to Kitsilano beach, which is named after, (August Jack (Khatsahlano).

The Cafe

Jericho Cafe -3689 W 4th Ave, a spot that was once the famous cafe little Budapest back in— In the 60’s, the restaurant was an oasis for neighbourhood folk, with a piano, and some live music, always serving incredible wholesome European food. The owner/server was big handsome Hungarian man named Joseph. He ran the room alone, serving 8 to 10 tables; he was always busy- so sometimes service was slow, at one speed, giving gracious, professional service, if you were in a hurry, you did not bother going in. In the kitchen a team of two older aproned- Hungarian women, cooking on home style stoves, putting out amazing traditional Hungarian food. Breakfast was outstanding. eggs, sausage, potatoes, rye bread. Big stainless coffee percolators brewing coffee, the never endling flow.

Jericho got involved with the restaurant when it was called Pasquale’s, the same building as little Budapest, a restaurants life had finished so the Landlord took over the restaurant, ran a pizza concept for a few years. West fourth avenue was going through major changes, this part of west fourth became a freeway, all destination traffic, little walk-in traffic, except if weather was nice. The concept was to fill the huge breakfast gap- an all-day breakfast joint- servicing Jericho/Point Grey Kits.

Jericho Cafe became a West 4th avenue staple back in 1995 and not just for the food, which was amazing! It was a place where the community gathered. There were music nights and cabaret nights, where connections were made between artists of different disciplines. This was Steve’s vision. He was always concocting something in his mental kitchen – the next event that combined great food, drink and art. Jericho Cafe will always hold a special place in my heart as a culinary and cultural oasis.

There was a grouping of incredible breakfast places in the heart of kits, like Cafe Zen and Sophie’s cosmic cafe, but very few West of Macdonald. Serving breakfast all day became the cornerstone of that spot, it was the income centre for that location for a long time until – La Quercia opened in 2008 with traditional Italian food and won best new restaurant, right off the start.

Jericho Cafe – Our Role

Jericho has been researching, growing, cooking, and selling products in the food business for forty years. Developing relationships with many chefs, restaurateurs, growers, wholesalers, and brokers. Through discussions with these people, we realized that the need for quality specialized products in the Food Business was not adequately met by the larger distribution companies.

The COVID-19 pandemic uncovered an immanent weakness in the current industrial, global food system. Which revealed consumers and industry systems were unaware of the many vulnerabilities of how unsustainable the food systems were in wholesale; retail (supermarkets), and the restaurant business. The Market was not ready for the possibility of something going wrong. A huge crack in the veneer showed a weakness in the system which almost collapsed, instead came to a halt.

The “Ghost in the Machine” showed the most relevant characteristics of today’s industrial food system which are specialization, standardization, and consolidation which achieves the economic efficiencies or increased profit or economies of large-scale food production and distribution. While such systems can be very economically efficient, it showed the risk and unsustainability and possible udder collapse of such system.

Jericho brings the farmer together with the wholesaler, retail, and restaurant industries by educating the consumer about the value of a local agricultural sector. Specializing in sustainable and organic products of high quality at fair prices, we collect and disseminate information concerning all aspects of the food industry and attempt to reintegrate these specialized products into the mainstream market.

Jericho Cafe – Our Experience

Jericho brings – 40 years as a cook-chef from the restaurant business down to the farm. We have been farming and landscaping for over 20 years, we approach landscaping from a sustainable Market Garden ideology, combined with my culinary experience – we will find the best design solutions for your sustainable market gardening needs.

We bring knowledge of culinary food trends and years of working with food from kitchen to the garden paradigm, always searching for the best seeds. We are always looking to have great relationship with farms from the island and Okanagan, always looking for great quality food. We specialize in Tomato and chilies, and always looking for great tomato and chili products.

Contact Us

Cove Garden

Taking what I learned from Dunbar & Ganges Gardens and used it to manage a restaurant and resort Market Garden for the Cove in West Kelowna on an old horse ranch owned by the Bennett family. The main gardener had left without notice, so I came into the situation and looked after seedlings, a huge array of tomato varieties about 300 seedlings in all. I developed landscaping and chefs garden and was liaison between kitchen and farm. I hired staff and began growing season. I amended fields and created ideology of garden and decisions about how and what to grow.

Ganges harbour house – salt spring

I worked as a breakfast cook and farm worker and was involved in transplanting the raspberry patch, and harvesting food, working with kitchen and garden.

Learned more about sustainable agriculture and the vitality of a market garden and how much food can be produced on a small patch of land.

Dunbar Garden

Dunbar was my first major foray into Urban Gardening, the garden lab-exploring soil and drainage, old school weeping tile systems of moving water around a garden. Working with Japanese style rock work and creating a herb garden, five years of landscaping and until year three- a complete sustainable system, using only what was on site, did not spend any money for three years. Year four and five, I even sold produce to a chef friend.

Fantastico

Ran garden for restaurant and was liaison between kitchen and garden. Garden was rescued from a year of neglect, over three years brought garden into a healthy sustainable roof top garden for the restaurant.