organic

Lucky us! Tonight, we get to talk to Eduardo Uranga and Thierry Vrain (and Ivan Loubier) of the CCAC - The Community Created Agricultural Co-op. An ambitious venture - they aim to acquire agricultural land to grow pesticide and antibiotic free foods for 300 families. Listen in and see just how far they've come, how well planned and sourced this project is, and how you can still get involved before it's too late! 

Today on the Edible Valley podcast we're learning about bread and who better to learn from then the experts at Cake Bread. Jorden Marshall (owner) and Ian Harris (head baker/pastry chef). We learn what they are doing and the many products they carry.

Chef Jonathan Frazier and Darren Howlett  are joined again by Kira Kotilla and Mariette Sluyter of Merville Organics, to discuss CSAs, or Community Supported Agriculture. You may have heard of these programs, where fresh produce shows up at your house weekly through the growing season. What you may not know is how beneficial these programs are to local farms - new or established, small or large, nearly every farm benefits from such programs. You can see it as pre-paying for the best quality locally grown food at it's peak, and the farm your supporting sees it as micro-financing and sustainable crop management. Listen in to hear more about this engaging topic... 
 
 

 
Tonight’s episode of Edible Valley welcomes a few more members of The Merville Organics Growing Cooperative to the show, Kira Kotilla and Mariette Sluyter! We delve into the challenges of Organic certification, and the logistics of coordinating 5 farms to compliment one another towards a common goal. With both a new take (Mariette) and a veterans eyes (Kira), a bigger picture unfolds of what todays modern farmer day (and growing season) entails!
 

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Finally after a long wait: Flavour - The North Vancouver Island Picnic! We were lucky to have Darren walk the grounds of Flavour while recording interviews with many exibitors and guest to find out who they were, what they brought and why they were there. Please enjoy, we sure did.

Dave Semmelink joins Jonathan and Darren today to talkabout his involvement with Lush Valley and his farm, Lentelus Organics. Jonathan met Dave while on a Lush Valley tree-harvesting day, raising money for the Comox Valley Chef's Association, and knew he was the kind of guy we love having on the show. With his feet firmly entrenched in local food production, and deftly involved in community efforts, we asked him to regale us with his LushValley tales. To our surprise, he was more suited as a follow-up to our recentCharcuterie and Local Farming episodes. Listen in as Dave delves into Farming,Food and Philanthropy!  
 
www.lentelusorganics.com

As we near the end of summer, Chef Jonathan and Darren
thought it may be interesting to hear from a few local farmers about how this
summer compared to others, and the state of local farming in the Comox Valley.
In attendance were: Gardening enthusiast extraordinaire: Ms. Toni Dunne; Owner
of Ashbury Farms: Mr. Miguel Laroche; and recently relocated member of Merville
Organics Ms. Robin Sturley. Listen in and hear how they weathered this years'
curveballs, rolled with the changes, and dealt with the excesses. Let us know
how your garden and your bounty may have differed from previous years - we
would love to hear about it!

GARLIC pt2! Following up with everything garlic in our lastepisode (and with the Garlic Festival just around the corner), Arzeena Hamir returns togo into greater detail about the variety of flavours and textures of this keyingredient; growing techniques, and choices you have when considering yourgarlic. She speaks of the benefits of eating our locally produced vs. imported types,local strains and varieties, and the methods required to grow your own hearty garlic.It’s always a treat to have such a passionate and compelling proponent of localfarming in the studio for this podcast - listen in and let us know what youthink!  

GARLIC! Tonight we sit down with the ever lovely Arzeena
Hamir of Amara Farms and Craig Freeman of the Merville Hall to talk garlic.
With the Garlic Festival just around the corner, there is just so much to
cover! Arzeena has so much to say about flavours, strengths, varietals, and
more, and really gets to the heart of why there needs to be an annual Garlic
Festival. Craig then walks us through the reinvigorated Merville Hall and lays
out their accomplishments and ambitions – not the least of which is hosting
this great event! You are not going to want to miss this event – listen in for
all of the details!

Today Chef Jonathan Frazier and Darren Howlett had the wonderful opportunity to sit with Vickey Brown of the Comox Valley Farmers Market, Sue Smith formerly of Beyond the Kitchen Door and Chef/President Leslie Stav of North Vancouver Island Chef's Assosciation. In a lively discussion about the direction and future of Comox Valley Farmers Markets, we discuss the growth and continued trends towards supporting (and eating) local and the connection between our local Chefs and the Market.