I had such a great day! I went to Maple Ridge with my mom and we met and enjoyed the wares of three small food businesses. I love meeting other passionate entrepreneurs. First up was Chef Chris and his business partner Robert at Lava Dining & Lounge. The decor was simple & modern, the atmosphere calm & relaxing and lunch was excellent. They use fresh, local, seasonal ingredients. I was so engrossed with the food I completely forgot to take pictures but check out their website and look at these great reviews on Urban Spoon. The menu was so good it was very difficult to choose. We had the Scallop starter, Austrian Goulash with hand-rolled dumplings, Lamb Friitatta and finished with White Chocolate Mousse with Cranberry compote. I really want to go back with friends and order all the starters so I can try everything. Might order all the desserts too. :)

Next, and only 4 minutes away, we met Lynn at Golden Ears CheeseWorks. The building is beautiful with a welcoming front veranda where you can enjoy tea and a freshly baked scone when the weather is warmer. Inside is a great selection of products made by local artisans to tempt your taste buds. And then there’s the cheese.... They have a number of softer cheeses available right now such as Quark, Neufchatel, Brie and Gouda. As well, they just finished their first batch of feta and next month their first cheddar should be ready to sell. As a new business Lynn said it was very hard waiting for the cheese to age. Their first aged cheddar should be available this time next year. I’m looking forward to trying it out. As a by-product of making all this cheese they have tons of freshly churned butter! I bought this huge 10lb block of unsalted butter that I can’t wait to bake with.

Last but not least we visited Rebecca at Zena’s Gluten-Free Bakery. Their business is only a month old and they are already doing a great job of meeting the GF needs of their community as well as those surrounding. A couple of my customers with gluten-free family had raved about this bakery and I also read about it on Fraser Valley Pulse. With one of our daughters recently being diagnosed gluten-intolerant I really wanted to check it out. They had a nice variety of products that often sell out so you need to visit them early. Bread, cupcakes, muffins, squares, cookies and even biscotti. Realizing that rice flour has very little nutritional value, their flour mix combines quinoa and sorghum. They even make gluten-free, casein-free birthday cakes! Follow them on Facebook to keep up with the changing menu.

These businesses and their owners made the trip to Maple Ridge absolutely worth it. I’m sure there’s many other gems that we’ve yet to discover and I look forward to exploring Maple Ridge again soon. Are there any other small food businesses in Maple Ridge that you would recommend?