Category Archives: Organic

Food certified as organic

Addicted to Weeds…and Seeds

I’m addicted to Weeds. Oh stop it, you. If you’re from British Columbia you’ve read that as “Weed” and that’s not what I said. What I said and mean is Weeds. Weeds & Seeds, actually.

Weeds&SeedsCerealI discovered Weeds & Seeds at the Vancouver Wellness Show, a showcase of products meant to promote health and wellness. I do mean products that promote health/wellness, though not necessarily actually produce it.

After cruising aisle upon aisle of nicely packaged, well-marketed products, many from healthy-sounding companies, it became very clear that if you want to be healthy you’d better take your health education into your own hands and not rely on branding, marketing and sales brochures to ensure your wellness. But I digress. Continue reading →

Is Organic Livestock Management Better?

In response to the post Drinking Milk From Abused Cows, one of my readers commented, “I didn’t watch the video. I’m far to sensitive to watch cruelty. We started buying organic milk many years ago. Do you think that means the cows are treated better?”

Organic Livestock Management

In response I did a little digging and thought I’d share what I discovered. Continue reading →

Fraser Valley Honey

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Source: telegraph.co.uk

It seems to be all about the honey this week, I wonder what that could bee about…

There’s a cute little roadside honey stand I’ve driven past a few times recently and the other day I finally stopped in. I couldn’t help myself, the attractive stand, customer friendly signage, and the honour system payment program drew me in…well, like a fly to honey. It doesn’t get much better than this, for supporting local food producers. (Well, that’s not entirely true, read to the end…) Continue reading →

Delicious Baskets of Food From Local Farmers

Does that sound too good to be true, “Delicious Baskets of Food From Local Farmers”?

I get tired of all the super-hype headlines that entice us to click on links. You’ve seen it, “You’ll never believe…!” Or, “You’ll never guess what happens next!” and my least favourite, “This will change your life!!” Just for the record this claim isn’t all about hype, it is true, just might be of interest, and may even change a wee part of your life–the cooking and eating part.

Watering CanDid you know there are programs were you can get food from local farmers delivered (almost) to your door? Located all over BC, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs offer access to delicious, home grown goodies without you having to do any of the weeding. Continue reading →

Don’t Waste a Bite of That Apple

Once you realize how precious your organic food is, you’ll be much more inclined not to let it go to waste or accidentally rot in the back of your fridge. Consider that in order to go organic someone may have to hand weed, hand de-bug and hand pick the food that ends up in your cloth grocery bags. Between that and the dear price you pay for it (which now makes more sense), you’ll not want to waste a nibble of it!

Here is a great example of how to get every last ounce of goodness from the apples that are readily available this time of year, courtesy of Foodbeast at Huffington Post:

It works!

“Live Inspired” Event with InspireHealth and Nature’s Fare Market

Two of my most favourite local resources have gotten together for the month of October to inspire living a more healthful lifestyle.

Compliments of InspireHealth and Nature’s Fare Markets enjoy a free webinar on the role of nutrition in cancer prevention and treatment, as well as many more tidbits of the information kind and the delicious, nutritious kind (yum!).

Thursday, October 25th, InspireHealth staff and volunteers will be on location in Kelowna to host information tables at all Nature’s Fare stores to distribute information and research about the value of an integrative cancer care approach and the power of cancer prevention. If you’re in the Okanagan, do stop in. We would love to talk with you!

At 7:00 pm on Tuesday, October 29th, InspireHealth physician Dr. Joe Schnurr will present a FREE one-hour webinar designed to raise public awareness of the overwhelming evidence of nutrition’s role in the prevention and treatment of cancer.

You MUST register for this free webinar in advance. Register Now

Live Inspired is a month-long health and wellness promotion and fundraiser, which will take place at all eight Nature’s Fare stores throughout October. In addition to discovering the benefits of different natural food items and supplements that help to prevent cancer, this in-store program will include store demos and sampling. Stop by any Nature’s Fare store and pick up a selection of natural foods and supplements recommended by InspireHealth’s medical doctor, and nutrition team.

Farmers Market Alternative

On my daily walk-about last week I found myself at Home Grow-In, a corner store just 2 blocks west of Cambie that stocks only natural and/or organic BC grown produce and BC made products. The plentiful produce from around the province looked absolutely delicious.

For those days you just can’t make it to your farmers market, chances are Home Grow-In has what you need. And you might just decide to join their buyer’s co-op, similar to a community supported agriculture program (CSA) but with a wider selection of products.

196 West 18th Avenue, Vancouver
Open 7 days a week to 8:00 pm

Savoury Surprise

At the opening of the Home Grown photography exhibit at Museum of Vancouver a couple of weeks ago I snagged a sample mini pack of Skeet & Ike’s trail mix from the many tasty samples of food available from local suppliers.

I don’t like many trail mix blends on the market because they are often too sweet for my taste. Over the years I’ve gradually cut down on white sugar and processed foods — most of which contain sugar of one kind or another — and find that many non-dessert foods are simply too sweet for my taste. (A decadent dessert, on the other hand, can be as sweet as it likes. That is after all its raison d’etre.)

I grabbed the Skeet & Ike’s Organic Fruit and Nut Mix to leave in the car. I sometimes forget to eat and find myself suddenly ravenous and unable to concentrate from lack of food. I’ve been caught often enough with nothing remotely healthy available that I now keep a package of mixed nuts in the trunk for just such moments.

I had occasion to crack open the package the other day and must say I was very pleasantly surprised. Delighted even. Not only was it not overly sweet, it was a delicious sweet and savoury mix, something I’ve not experienced in a trail mix before. I love it!

It’s also guilt-free. The ingredients are all organic and sugar is listed only as a sub-ingredient (in the cranberries and crystallized ginger). The bonus: no filler peanuts in the blend. Plus, best of all, it’s locally made.

Garlic Harvest 2010

Check out the fab garlic I harvest from my garden! I’m not sure why it’s such a novelty, but growing my own garlic feels like a really big deal.

Maybe it’s because you have to plant it almost a full year ahead and it sits in the ground over winter.

Maybe it’s because I had so much garlic rust fungus that getting a crop was in question.

Maybe it’s because we never grew garlic growing up on the Prairies, so it’s the novelty of it.

Whatever the reason, here is the fruit of my labour! I’m very excited.

Of the 9 bulbs that sprouted, 3 are 3″ in diameter with big, plump cloves. I’m saving those, I’ll eat the smaller ones first.

One clove was too small and dried out to use, 3 were average size, and the rest were a bit smaller than average.

The size of the stalks had my fellow gardeners wondering if I’d planted elephant garlic, which I hadn’t. I seeded from large, organic cloves I bought at the local Kitsilano Farmers Market. I don’t know what variety it is, but many of the clove skins have a purple striped colouring to them.

I’m using the garlic in the many stir fries I create using an every changing blend of kale, beet greens, Swiss chard, green beans, yellow beans and snow peas. I LOVE eating meals that are completely from my garden, it feels so rewarding and I know I’m eating very healthfully.

Now THAT is local and delicious!