Kent's Chicken Coop

Chilliwack is the largest dairy producing area in British Columbia, with poultry and greenhouse growing close behind, and that ordering is not trivia. More than 700 farms work the 17,000 hectares of farmland inside the municipality, and something close to 30 per cent of local economic activity comes off that ground. A name like Kent's Chicken Coop therefore lands differently here than it would in a city where the food arrives by truck from somewhere else. What the shop actually does with that is not stated in the listing, and will not be guessed at here.

The independent half of Chilliwack's grocery trade is the interesting half, because the supermarkets are all national and therefore absent from these pages. What is left is farm stores, greengrocers, butchers, bulk and health-food shops and the seasonal stands that open with the corn in August and close when it is done. There are more than twenty-five food processing companies in the municipality as well, which is part of why the distance between a field and a shelf here can be so short. The record carries no telephone number and no website, so nothing at all can be checked in advance of a visit. The street address is precise, at least, which is more than several entries in this category manage.