“Anyone can take a bean and roast it,” says Dyan Spink, with husband Gary at their gas-fired coffee roaster. “But to create great coffee using this special equipment is considered to be an art.”

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Dyan Spink’s entrepreneurial journey started in 1986, when she moved from Quebec to British Columbia. Along with her household belongings, she brought 11,500 pounds of maple syrup. Her plan was to sell the syrup at Expo but, once Expo ended, she found herself with remaining inventory. She started making and marketing gift baskets so she could unload the rest of the syrup. This home-based enterprise was a huge success. Always on the lookout for the next trend, she then mastered the art of hand-painted leather jewellery-making and developed a product line that was distributed in boutique stores across Canada.

Spink’s enthusiastic entrepreneurial spirit and achievements did not go unnoticed. In 1997, she was hired by the Business Development Bank Canada to teach people in the Comox Valley how to be self-employed and write business plans. Always eager to take on a new challenge, she moved up Island from Coombs.

Dyan teamed up with Gary Spink soon after moving here. The couple clicked—partly because the entrepreneurial spirit bug had bitten him, too! Gary had been successfully self-employed for many years as well. After selling his Parksville/Qualicum-based business, he had moved to the Comox Valley to help Tory & Sons Plumbing and Heating grow what was then a new business.

While Gary worked full-time at Tory & Sons, Dyan was kept busy with the teaching contract during the fall and winter months. She loved what she was doing but needed to generate some income during the summer. Not one to sit back and simply smell the coffee, she decided to build a business based on her favorite beverage.

Dyan had previous restaurant industry experience and was a barista, so she bought a mobile coffee cart and christened it ‘Joe Cartos.’ She began selling Joe Cartos specialty coffees at the Comox Valley Farmers’ Market. The locals quickly learned to love their signature mochas topped with chocolate whipped cream, Chai lattes, espressos and other decadent specialty coffee beverages.

A few months later, the Spinks launched Joe Cartos Coffee Cart Manufacturing. Gary’s technical background and Dyan’s business experience proved to be a winning combination. They introduced Joe Cartos to entrepreneurs across Canada by selling their Food Safe-certified mobile kitchens at industry trade shows.

“We didn’t just sell coffee carts,” explains Dyan, “we made it a complete turnkey operation. I taught people how to operate their new enterprise, giving instruction and support on everything from how to make coffee to keeping financial records.” In 2002, the Spinks were recognized for their efforts with the Vancouver Island Business Excellence Award (BE) for Small Business of the Year.

While attending trade shows to sell Joe Cartos to others, the Spinks became sold on the idea of artisan custom coffee roasting and began researching this as another possible business venture.

In 2004, their coffee cart business moved in a somewhat unexpected direction. In preparation for Westjet’s then new airline service to the Comox Valley, Dyan responded to a Request for Proposal to operate a new restaurant at the airport. (She was, after all, an expert at writing business plans.) The challenge was to build a menu based on a food service operation that could not have a grill. Of more than 30 submissions, Spink’s innovative plan for ‘Joe Cartos On the Fly’ was selected. A modified Joe Cartos Coffee Cart formed the basis for the food service operation—who knew you could make scrambled eggs using an espresso machine!

The Spinks operated Joe Cartos On the Fly from 2005 through 2007. In addition to building a successful food service operation that focused on local and organic food, they also won more awards. Joe Cartos On the Fly was voted by airport patrons as #1 in Food Service for airports under 500,000 passengers by the Airport Council of Canada. In 2005, they earned another BE Award for Small Business of the Year and were the runner-up for Restaurant of the Year.

While Joe Cartos On the Fly was deemed a success, the Spink’s interest in building a coffee roasting business continued to brew.

“We were in Mexico—and in the process of buying a coffee roaster—on the day we learned that we had won the airport restaurant bid,” says Dyan. “We walked away from the roaster at that time but never let go of the idea. We continued to learn about coffee roasting and, by 2007, knew it was time to take the idea of a roasting company off the back burner, so to speak. We sold the restaurant and bought a vacant lot in Royston. Over a two-year period, we built a home for our family and a Carriage House for our new venture— Royston Roasting Company. The Carriage House zoning in Royston also allowed for us to include a two-bedroom suite above the roastery, where our guests could, quite literally, wake up and smell the coffee!”

During its first season of operation, the two-bedroom vacation suite, called A Great Place to Stay, attracted visitors from all over the world. Guests enjoyed all the comforts of home, a view of the ocean and, of course, fresh Royston Roasting coffee.

I am impressed by the Spink’s success and ask how this growing enterprise has been funded. “This company was ‘funded’ with sweat equity and my credit card,” explains Dyan with a laugh. “That, and the support of friends and family. Gary, my daughter Sareh, son Tannaar, and family friends Natasha Mew and Holly Ha, have all been a tremendous part of our success to date.”
My attention is now drawn to the large steel and hand-tooled copper coffee roaster positioned just a few feet away from Dyan’s office area. To me, the assortment of knobs, dials and gizmos on the front of the machine resemble a big smiley face and remind me of the cartoon characters Thomas the Train or The Little Engine that Could. I can imagine how ‘perky’ it looks when its ‘mouth’ spews toasty brown coffee beans into the big cooling dish positioned below.

The roaster, explains Dyan, is a gas-fired OZTURK, imported from Turkey. When they bought it in 2008, it was the first of its kind to be sold in Canada. (I am not surprised when Dyan tells me that they have been asked by the Turkish Company to be the exclusive Canadian distributor of OZTURK products.)

It is capable of roasting about 15 kilos (33 pounds) of coffee in about 20 minutes. The roasting process combines state-of-the-art high tech instruments with old-fashioned hands-on techniques. Green coffee beans poured into a hopper on the top are then dropped into a rotating drum where the temperature easily reaches 200 degrees Celsius. The roastmaster controls the roast by paying close attention to timing, temperature, smell and color. In this business, mere seconds can make the difference between the perfect espresso or over-roasted.

“Anyone can take a bean and roast it,” adds Dyan, “but to create great coffee using this special equipment is considered to be an art. We are attentive to the roaster throughout the entire process, carefully recording the time and temperature while we wait to hear the distinctive ‘crack’ that tells us the coffee bean has reached a particular stage. The size and moisture content of the individual beans, the type of beans used, and many other criteria all factor into the roasting process. When I know the beans are just right I empty them in the cooling tray where a blade rotates and a fan circulates air around them to ensure they cool quickly and evenly.”

Dyan then guides me over to an assortment of 40-to-75-kilogram burlap sacks that contain fair trade organic raw green coffee beans. Then, she starts opening bulks bins that contain the soon to be packed finished product. Royston Roasting has four signature roasts—Swiss Water Processed DeCaf, Dark French, Medium Colombian and Espresso. For their Christmas Blend, they package a special mix of espresso and medium roast. They also make a ‘half-caf’, a 50/50 mix of medium and decaffeinated beans. She takes a scoop of each variety and points out the special attributes of each one. Color, size and aroma are part of the analysis. I inhale deeply—they all smell exquisite!

Coffee doesn’t grow like a typical bean. It grows on trees and, prior to being handpicked, the ‘fruit’ looks like cherries with the coffee ‘bean’ as the ‘pit.’ Coffee is grown in several equatorial countries and is typically harvested from January through March. The beans used at Royston Roasting Company are purchased from several countries, including Colombia, Mexico, Peru, Panama and Nicaragua.

“All of our coffee is Fair Trade Organic,” adds Dyan. “At the moment, the concern with Fair Trade coffee is that the farmer is required to pay big dollars to certify that he has received a fair price for his coffee. Then, when those certified Fair Trade coffee beans land in distribution centres in the US, a broker pays the Fair Trade License Fee again to the US government, the cost of which is added to the price. When those fair trade beans arrive in Canada, the Canadian government requires the Fair Trade License Fee over again for the same beans. In the end, the price we pay for green coffee beans is nowhere near what the farmer was paid!”

In an effort to truly give farmers fair prices for their coffee beans, considerable effort is being put into a system to buy Direct Trade. No broker. No Government. As a member of collective buying group called the Roasters’ Guild of North America, Royston Roasting is now working toward buying all their coffee direct from the individual farmers or through the Collective, paying them in advance to secure the harvest. The Spinks have been personally visiting farms where their coffee comes from and this spring Gary will be working and participating with one of the harvests. Now that’s a nice perk of owning a coffee roasting company!

While Dyan Spink takes pride in her abilities to roast fabulous coffee, it is her efforts in packaging and marketing her product that are setting a new standard of excellence.

Royston Roasting Company packages are made with 100 per cent biodegradable rice paper. A zip-lock top eliminates the need for the cumbersome (and wasteful) twist-tie foil strip that is commonly used on other packaged coffee and tea products. As an added bonus, the zip-top keeps the coffee fresher, longer. A modification of the package design ensures that it doesn’t tip over as easily as other coffee bags and the insertion of a special one way valve that prevents air from getting in and staling the coffee, but keeps flavor and aroma fresh by allowing the roasting gases to escape.“The other great thing about Royston Roasting is that we can be anybody’s coffee,” claims Dyan. “We offer personalized labelling for corporations, individuals, Christmas and birthday gifts, and non-profit groups.’

Interest in Royston Roasting coffee has spread by word-of-mouth. In addition to wholesaling coffee to non-profit groups, custom packaging for business promotions, and selling at the Farmers’ Market, Royston Roasting Coffee is sold in a select group of local specialty or convenience stores. See their website for a list of locations.

Again, Dyan Spink’s efforts have not gone unnoticed. Last spring, she applied for and was invited to a preliminary screening for a potential appearance on the hit TV show Dragon’s Den. She didn’t make the final cut but had a blast meeting the crew! She has also had to make more room on her awards shelf, adding the Business Excellence Award for 2011 Manufacturer of the Year.

If past success is any indication of the future, there is a good chance that Royston Roasting Company will soon be up for another award. “I am excited to announce that this December, we will officially open the Royston Roasting Coffee House,” Dyan says.

“Renovations are almost complete in our new digs in downtown Royston, the former Fat Bonos Ribs restaurant. In addition to exclusively serving Royston Roasting coffee, we will be offering a variety of healthy and local menu items. We anticipate being open for the early morning and lunch crowd only. In the afternoons, the coffee house will close to the public and be used to roast and fill wholesale orders as well as coffee barista and latte art training.”

The Spinks are excited about this latest venture. The new location will enable them to employ several local people, continue to promote Vancouver Island products and tourism, and educate others about something they are obviously very passionate about—a great cup of coffee.

FMI call 250.338.7511 or stop by the coffee house: 3904 Island Highway S, Royston. www.bccoffee.ca

• Before you even start to grill, keep your BBQ clean and free from any greasy build up. This makes for good cooking and prevents greasy deposits from catching fire. Before cooking, close the lid on the BBQ for approximately 10 minutes, which will burn off any residue, then open and brush with a good steel brush to clean off any remaining particles.

• Keep a stray water bottle beside the BBQ and be ready to give a quick squirt when necessary to prevent flare-ups.

• Be organized. Have everything you need close by before you begin. More food has been charred when the cook runs into the house to grab a serving platter!

• Marinate the meat. Simply marinating the meat for at least 20 minutes not only improves flavor, but tenderizes all cuts of meat. You can marinate meat, poultry and pork overnight in the refrigerator, but fish should be marinated no longer than 20 minutes as marinating actually starts the cooking procedure in fish.

• When you are marinating, never use the marinating sauce again for basting as this can cause contamination. If you want to use some of the sauce for basting, remove some before marinating and set aside.

• When basting—if the sauce or glaze contains sugar, only apply during the final part of the grilling, otherwise the sugar will cause burning and charring.

• Direct cooking is what most people refer to as grilling. It is the technique where the food is placed directly over the flame to cook. Good choices for this are steaks, vegetables, fillets and kabobs.

• Indirect cooking is where the food is cooked away from the direct flame. In most cases, the burner is lit and the food is placed on the other side of the grill and the lid of the BBQ is closed. This provides an oven-like atmosphere for your cooking.

• To tell if those steaks are cooked to perfection, professional chefs generally use touch to tell when a steak is done. Press down the centre of the steak with your finger. A rare steak will feel quite soft to the touch. A medium-rare steak will have some resistance but yield to the touch. A medium steak starts to feel firm, but still will have some give in the centre and a well-done steak will feel very firm.

• Try putting a sprig of fresh rosemary into the charcoal fire to add flavor to barbecued food.

• If you can keep your hand over a fire for three seconds, it means you have medium heat. At this temperature, most foods grill without burning on the outside.

• Above all, take precautions to refrigerate any leftover meats to avoid any contamination. This is such a great time of year to be able to enjoy eating outdoors, and with a little care and attention to detail you can start to create meals where everyone is asking for seconds!

“We’ve really gotten to realize what an amazing experience the kids are having here and how it is impacting their lives,” says Barbara Odegard, far right, with from left, husband Bryne and WWOOFers Anna Pape, Alice Cazzola and Hirofumi Ozawa.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

The Odegard’s moved to Fanny Bay in 1996 from Parksville where they had operated a one-acre market garden and nursery.  Bryne had been a troller fisherman on the West Coast for more than 20 years and a combination of factors lead to the decision to make the switch to farming.

“The industry was dying and it wasn’t much fun anymore,” Bryne says.  “I was noticing that all my friends were dying at sea.  It didn’t make sense, you know, everyone else was dying, maybe I’m going to die out here, you know.  The more that died the less I enjoyed the idea of it.”

Barbara fills in the rest of the thinking behind the transition:  “We wanted our daughter to have a healthy life and we thought this was a good lifestyle.  Plus we love plants and growing.  We realized that as we were married and spent more time together that our real passion together as a couple is growing things.  Love it, you know, love, love, love it!”

When they found the 11.5 acres that had been fallow for 10 years but still had good soil and water potential, they knew they had found the key to launching their dream of becoming full time organic farmers.  Established in 1948 by Mildred Halgren, the farm had mostly produced hay and housed goats.   The Odegards loved the farm and the unpolluted Fanny Bay area right from the moment they saw it.   They chose to name it Ironwood Farm because they felt it signified strength.  Ironwood is also one of the names for a native hardwood bush that is best seen in June when it produces sprays of white flowers.

The mice had to be evicted from the house and the floors needed more support, but eventually they had a comfortable home and were able to focus on developing their crops.  “It takes time to get to know your piece of land and weather patterns,” says Barbara.  “When you first start out you want to do everything and you realize very quickly that there are many factors that don’t make things work.

“Number one you take stuff to the market and you realize people don’t want that.  One thing we have learned is that consumers are very stuck in their ways and it is a challenge to get people to eat a vegetable that looks even a little bit different from what they are used to.  And then we learned very quickly too that you have people say, “Oh you have to grow lemon cucumbers, everybody will buy them!”   How many times did we try doing stuff like that?

“So we’ve learned over the years what does well here, what crops you get good money from, what crops keep producing for the minimum output” she adds.  “We always indulge in a few new things every year because you can and its fun to, but, by in large, it took about 10 years to figure out what is going to make you the money and what will the land produce for you.  They have to go together.”

“We’ve learned over the years what does well here,” says Barbara Odegard, at work in their Fanny Bay gardens.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Their mainstay crops include lettuce, greens, rhubarb, leeks, spinach, chard, kale, green onions, tomatoes, cabbage, broccoli, arugula, squash, zucchini, radish and parsley.   They also grow bedding plants, potatoes, various fruit and, occasionally, they have sold eggs and organic chicken.  Over the years they have experimented with selling directly from the farm and while they are not currently doing that, it remains in the planning mix.  Mostly they sell off-farm at the Comox Valley and the Tofino Farmers’ Markets.  They also supply goods to a local food box program, Sunshine Organics, and the Tofino/Ucluelet Culinary Guild.  The purpose of the 65-member Guild is outlined on their website:  “As members of a dynamic culinary community, our mission is to work closely with each other and our region’s farmers, fishermen and foragers to provide unique food experiences that rely on sustainable farm/boat-to-table practices and the freshest local ingredients prepared with integrity and passion.”

Passion is something Barbara and Bryne have in great abundance when they talk about farming and living sustainably.  Given our cool spring I thought asking about how they deal with the weather might dampen their enthusiasm.  Not so, as Bryne responds: “We grow so many things that something is always happy.  Luckily this year we planted a lot of stuff that likes the cool weather.

For example, “We knew that it was La Nina this year and that it was expected to be a cool spring, so you sort of consider that and don’t think that you’re going to be planting something that really likes the heat early in the year.”

Adds Barbara:  “We are constantly paying attention to the weather forecast for sure, and as far as planning months ahead that is difficult, but I think this is where the small market farms really have an advantage because we potentially prepare ourselves to grow everything.  The diversity makes it like Bryne says—something will always grow.  As long as you have all the bases covered and you get it out there and get it in the ground, if we don’t get the heat and the zucchinis don’t grow then you’ve got lettuces, etc.”

One topic that definitely brings out their passion is when they describe the difference that working with “WWOOFers”—World Wide Workers on Organic Farms—has made to Ironwood Farm and their lives.  WWOOF was originally founded in Britain in 1971 as Weekend Workers on Organic Farms.  The organization has spread out across the globe and is now referred to as World Wide Workers on Organic Farms.  The Canadian branch of WWOOF was formed in 1985.  In return for volunteer help, WWOOF hosts offer food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about organic lifestyles.

The Odegards found out about WWOOFers from a presentation at a Courtenay Earth Day soon after they started Ironwood Farm.  They signed up to be hosts the next year.  Barbara laughs, noting that “we realized very quickly that we couldn’t do it alone!  But, I think a lot of farms like ours find they’re in the position that you don’t make enough money to pay people to help you and a lot of people don’t want to do this kind of work.”

The first year they hosted a young couple from Ontario.  It was quite a task to figure out how to utilize their help.  Fifteen years later, Ironwood Farm is an extremely popular destination for people from all over the world.  They host three to five people at a time, and ask workers to make a minimum three-week commitment, and if possible to arrive on a Sunday and leave on a Saturday.

Barbara handles the scheduling and both of them work directly with the WWOOFers because the vast majority of them have never worked on a farm or done any gardening at all.

Arranging a good mix of applicants is what Barbara strives for because she believes one of the biggest joys of having WWOOFers at their farm is helping them to learn about each other.  The day I visited there were WWOOFers from Japan, Germany, Italy and Belgium.

Many WWOOFers stay in touch and some have returned to visit to underscore in person how pivotal their experience at Ironwood Farm has been for them.

“We’ve really gotten to realize what an amazing experience the kids are having here and how it is impacting their lives,” says Barbara.  “It is a humbling experience.  They are realizing there are more ways to live than to just think about how much education do I need to be a doctor, lawyer or accountant?  And, is money the only thing I need to be thinking about?  What about, how do I want to live in the world?”

She cites as an example a current WWOOFER, Hiro Ozawa, a 26-year-old man from Japan.  “He says we have totally changed his life,” says Barbara.  “He says he has become organic man.  He never thought about it, and he’s a chef working with food, and he never thought about how different food can taste when it is grown by hand.”

Ozawa is from near Tokyo, Japan.  He tells me he decided to try WWOOFing because as a chef he wanted to learn more about growing herbs and vegetables.  Before coming to Ironwood he made a bicycle journey from Alaska to San Diego.  So he is fit, but at Ironwood Farm, he says he has become more fit and he has learned a lot about good food and working.

Alice Cazzola, pronounced Alicea, is visiting from Turin, Italy.   At 19, many of her friends thought she was crazy to come to Canada to work on a farm.  I asked what she thought about her experience.  “You need much patience but it gives you satisfaction,” she says.   “You can see the result of your work.  Maybe with other jobs you don’t see so clearly.  And it is manual work.  Not only mental and thinking so you need both your brain and your body.  Sometimes jobs are too much in one direction but here you have a good mix.   Maybe the right one, I don’t know.”

Anna Pape, also 19, from Germany, adds:  “I like the moments when we have good laughs and sharing the dinners and sitting together at the table.   It’s always fun and interesting.”

There are journals filled with enthusiastic messages written by WWOOFers about their time at Ironwood Farm.  It is obvious that it is an arrangement that works well and adds a unique dynamic to this farming operation.  Barbara summarizes its importance: “Here was a way for Bryne and me to get some help and to teach at the same time, and, to give something back.  It has become such a huge part of our experience.  We probably would not be farming if we did not have these, mostly young people, coming here.”

Farming is a difficult life.  Few farmers in Canada can make a living without working off the farm.  The Odegards have faced these challenges and they continue to try to creatively overcome them.  In addition to their daily farm work, they contribute to organic growers’ organizations, sit on boards, teach courses and give lectures.

After 16 years of running Ironwood Farm they still love each other and love what they’re doing.  Would they, I asked, suggest that others give farming a try?

Bryne’s answer epitomizes the essence of my visit to Ironwood Farm:  “I don’t know if I’d recommend it to anyone, but, there’s lots of satisfaction.  Just when you put the seed in and three days later it has popped up.  It’s a pretty good feeling to see that new energy coming out of the ground again and again and again.  And when you transplant something and it rains the next day or that night and everything just gets their feet and they take off.  That’s a good feeling too.  Or, you run the hoe down the row and you’ve killed millions of weeds in five minutes just by walking with the hoe and they’re all dying.  You know.”

FMI go to ironwoodfannybay.blogspot.com or search for them on Facebook.  Purchase their produce at the weekly Comox Valley Farmers’ Market in Courtenay.

How do you know a good wine? “I say, taste it, and if you like it, it’s good wine!” says Abel O’Brennan.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

Abel O’Brennan is a winemaker with a mission.  As the driving force behind the Comox Valley’s newest winery, Coastal Black, his work is all about broadening the horizons of wine-drinkers (whether they are casual sippers or connoisseurs) by welcoming them to the world of fruit wines.

The term ‘fruit wine’ refers to all wines made with fruit that is not grapes.  It can be made with tree fruits, berries, pomegranates and more—even, in Hawaii, naturally—pineapples.  Fruit wine has been around as long as classic grape wine, but hasn’t (yet) come on board as a full-fledged member of the mainstream North American wine industry.

“I missed the memo that says grapes are not longer a fruit,” says O’Brennan with a good-natured laugh.  There are no grapes in any of Coastal Black’s products, but there are plenty of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries, all grown on the 820-acre Coastal Black farm in Black Creek.

Their newest product is a sparkling blackberry wine.  It joins a blackberry table wine, raspberry table wine, and blueberry table wine, and a blackberry as well as a raspberry dessert wine.  As well, Coastal Black makes three types of mead (spiced, blueberry, and plain) from honey produced on the farm.

“Fruit wines don’t get enough respect here in North America,” he says.  “People think it’s something Grandpa makes in his basement.  They don’t know that these fruits make really excellent wines.  And there’s a misconception that it’s all really sweet, but in fact our blackberry table wine is fairly dry and pairs well with many foods.  It’s our flagship product and is hugely popular.

“If you look at other parts of the world like Finland or Australia, fruit wines are very well established.  In Asia, they love their fruit wines.  Here, it’s a market that is not being capitalized on.”

O’Brennan was interested in filling that market gap, and all the signs seemed to support him.  The farm was already moving into berry production for processing, so using some of the crop for wine made sense.

O’Brennan wanted to work with what grows well on his soil and in his climate.  Clearly, blackberries grow extremely well: currently, Coastal Black has the largest cultivated blackberry crop in Canada.

“The soil isn’t great for grapes here, and it’s hard to find a grape varietal that can be ripened to its full potential in this area,” he says.  Also, fruit wine appealed because it allowed O’Brennan to sidestep some of the solemn, occasionally pompous attitude that tends to prevail around wine.  “There’s such a mystery around wine.  People get all worried and ask what they are allowed to drink it with or what wine they should be buying.  I say, taste it, and if you like it, it’s good wine… no matter how many stars it’s rated.”

O’Brennan, dressed in worn jeans, a T-shirt and a baseball cap, perfectly fits the role of the unpretentious, down-to-earth farmer.  Standing somewhere above six-foot tall, with a good strong frame and capable looking hands, he looks like someone who can fix a tractor, frame a barn, or tell you all about the soil just by squeezing a handful.

He is also, clearly, a capable businessman.  A closer look at his baseball cap shows it sports the Coastal Black logo, a subtle reminder that this is no hobby winery but rather an ambitious commercial operation.  Since opening for business last August, Coastal Black has produced 80,000 litres (that’s 108,000 bottles) of wine and mead.  The winery boasts state-of-the-art equipment which, says O’Brennan, was only possible because of the relatively large scale of the whole operation.

“We definitely jumped into this business with both feet.  I remember when I was starting out, I was chatting with a wine-making veteran, and he said, ‘Y’know how to make money in the wine industry?  Start with a big one.’  We’ve definitely found that to be true.  We have a lot of investment.  Sure, it is a romantic and fun way to make a living, but the reality is that it is a capital heavy business.  We are working with a business plan that has to come to fruition on schedule,” he says, sounding serious, but not worried.

Coastal Black already has loyal customers—“People are buying the blackberry sparkling wine by the caseload,” says O’Brennan.  Their whole product line is available at close to 60 stores across the Island.

And, well before its first birthday, this fledgling winery has already brought in some prestigious awards.  This past April, Coastal Black entered four wines in the Finger Lakes International Wine Competition in Rochester, New York, and all of them won awards: the Blackberry Dessert Wine won gold, the Blackberry Table Wine and the Spiced Mead won Silver, and the Raspberry Dessert Wine won Bronze.

“It was a nice bit of validation.  There were 3,300 wines entered from 18 countries, and 64 wine experts were flown in from all over the world to judge.  Ours was one of only two BC wines to get a gold.  What a feather in our cap!” says O’Brennan.

Coastal Black wines recently won four awards in an international wine competition, including gold for their Blackberry Dessert Wine.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

It’s a pretty impressive start, and there’s more growth to come. The day after I interview him, O’Brennan is heading off to Italy for an educational tour with a company he’s buying a fancy bottling plant from.  “It’ll be the first of its kind on the Island,” he says, enthusiastically.  The winery is currently in the final stages of getting a patio licence, which will mean they can serve wine by the glass to visitors.  He has plenty of plans for the future—a traditional wood-fired oven by the patio, a venue that can be rented for events such as weddings, a new barrel cellar, and more.

Obviously, O’Brennan is as much businessman as farmer.  He is also very much a family man.  At 26 years old, he’s expecting his third child and is a very-involved member of the four-generation extended family that lives and works on the Coastal Black farm.

For O’Brennan, who was born and raised on Vancouver Island, the story began when he joined the Ludwig clan by marrying Amanda Ludwig six years ago.  With that ceremony, he stepped into a story that goes back to 1989, when Terry and Bonnie Ludwig bought a 250-acre homestead with a house and a lot of brushland in Black Creek.  They cleared the land to create pasture, built barns, and brought in a herd of dairy cows.  The farm thrived and at one point they were milking 260 cows a day.

Over the years the Ludwigs expanded, adding land till they had 820 acres.  They also had three kids, Amanda, Daniel and Phil.

In the early 2000s, after going full tilt for over a decade, the Ludwigs began to contemplate making a change.  Their kids were moving into adulthood, and the whole family, including its new member O’Brennan, had a series of conversations about what could happen.  No one wanted to take over dairy farming (O’Brennan is allergic to cows and breaks out in hives when he gets too near them), but there were other promising ideas for the using the land.

Daniel, the youngest son, was a beekeeper who wanted to move seriously into commercial honey production.  Phil, the oldest son, was ready to go forward with his dream of founding a specialty sawmill that would provide custom-cut lumber.  And the O’Brennans were interested in fruit farming and wine-making.

“It wasn’t an easy decision,” says O’Brennan.  “My in-laws had done very well with the dairy farm.  A lot of long conversations had to happen.”

The first fruit was planted six years ago, while the dairy farm was being phased out.

“The year I was 22 was a huge year for me.  Our first child was born, and that was the year we went big into fruit.  We brought a team of Mexican workers here as labor and I had to learn Spanish,” O’Brennan says.  He was also learning how to make wine, under the guidance of a consultant whose help, he says, was invaluable.

“It was a learning curve, I tell ya!” he says, laughing and shaking his head as thinks back on the intensity of that year.

The sawmill and beekeeping operation partner perfectly with the winery.  The bees pollinate the berries, the honey supplies the main ingredient for the mead, and the sawmill provided the lumber to transform the cow barns into the winery and tasting room.

The whole family lives on the property: the original dairy farmers Terry and Bonnie, Terry’s parents, their three grown-up kids, with spouses, and a couple of grandchildren (and more on the way). This set-up seems like an unusual throwback to an old-fashioned world of farming that, if we believe media reports on the dwindling of rural culture, is dying out.

Although statistics have been telling us that young people are leaving the farming life behind to move to cities, O’Brennan offers an alternate point of view.

“That trend is coming to a bit of an end,” he predicts.  “People are realizing the value of producing agricultural products that can be enjoyed.  There so much more awareness about where our food comes from and how it is processed.  If you look over at Europe all their chefs are rock stars and agricultural production is in a whole other league.  That’s the trend we’re starting to follow now.  There’s a new appreciation of farming and the rural life.”

O’Brennan loves his farming lifestyle.  “What could be more romantic than running a winery?  Sure, it can be really, really busy—for instance harvest is an eight-week marathon when we work 18-hour days to bring everything in—but on the other hand things slow down in the winter and we can take a nice family holiday.

“I work long hours lots of the time but I don’t see what I do as work.  Everything I do I’m doing because it’s meaningful to me.  When I bend over to pick up a stone, I’m improving the ground.  I love what I do.  It’s a kind of freedom,” he says.

He also appreciates the way the business allows him to manifest his values around community and environmental sustainability.

“We like to do things naturally here.  We can’t use anything that might be harmful to the bees.  We don’t spray our fruit from blossom to harvest.  We control aphids by releasing ladybugs; in fact, there’s a short video on the website about this, which is kind of fun,” he says.

Another big value for Coastal Black is relationship.  Hosting tours and tastings isn’t just good for sales, it’s a way of creating a sense of community with clients, educating them, and giving them a connection to the land and people that produce the wine they drink.

“These days, people really appreciate knowing the producers of what they consume,” he says.

Coastal Black runs a wine club that anyone can join.  Members get special opportunity to buy exclusive releases, enhanced flexibility in booking tours, and a 5% discount on all purchases.  As well, Coastal Black donates an additional 5% of all wine club member purchases to one of three charities (chosen by the member): the Canadian Cancer Society, the Vancouver Children’s Hospital and KIVA, a global organization that provides micro-loans in developing countries.

“We’re grateful to be able to support these charities,” says O’Brennan.  “Everyone knows someone who’s been affected by cancer.  And what is more important than the health of our kids?  The KIVA grants often go to support agriculture, which is very close to our hearts here.”

There’s no doubt that all aspects of O’Brennan’s work lie very close to his heart.  He’s doing something he loves, with people he loves, in a place he loves.  And at the end of a busy day, when he sits down finally to sip a glass of wine and look out at the incredible view of the mountains, he surely can feel he’s fulfilling his mission.

Coastal Black Estate Winery is located on Endall Road in Black Creek.

coastalblack.ca

Mac’s Oysters in Fanny Bay employs more than 50 people and ships more than 80,000 pounds of shellfish to market every week. Manager Gordy McLellan, whose grandfather started the business in 1947, shows off some of their recent harvest.

Photo by Photo by Boomer Jerritt

It is not your typical farmhouse overlooking a typical farm.  Instead of miles of rolling pasture dotted with grazing cattle, the ‘farmhouse’ at Mac’s Oysters Ltd. in Fanny Bay overlooks the ocean.  If you watch closely, you will spot the occasional seal popping up for a breath of fresh air.  There are cormorants and other sea birds bopping along on the waves.  Instead of crowing roosters and cackling hens, you will hear the cacophonic cries of seagulls and the chirps of a bald eagle as he surveys his territory from a vantage point atop a nearby cedar.

Established in 1947 by Scottish immigrant, Joseph McLellan, Mac’s oyster farm is still owned and operated by the McLellan family.  According to his grandson, Gordy McLellan, the company now employs more than 50 people and ships a whopping 80,000 pounds of shellfish to market every week (a total of more than four million pounds per year).  In addition to the Fanny Bay location, Mac’s has operations on the shores of Quadra Island, as well as five locations on the Sunshine Coast.

Although the McLellans and other BC shellfish farmers harvest their product from the sea, the ocean floor is Crown Land, owned by the Government of Canada.  Each farmer leases the ‘land’ and is responsible for operating their shellfish farm in their designated deep water and intertidal beach areas in an environmentally responsible manner.

The piles of broken oyster shells and stacks of empty oyster crates beside each and every oyster shack are a testament to the resiliency of this industry.  Despite the fact they have not seen a price increase in many years, shellfish farms on Vancouver Island are still surviving.  And, just so you know, those heaps of oyster shells you see outside each oyster shack are not trash.  Some of the empty shells are used to ‘plant’ and grow new oysters on.  The rest of the discarded shells are crushed and used as biodegradable landscaping material or ground up as a calcium supplement for chicken feed.  This is a sustainable industry where nothing is wasted.

On the coast of Vancouver Island and the BC mainland there are dozens of oyster shacks like Mac’s, where ‘aquaculture’ not ‘agriculture’ is the business focus.  There are five main regions in BC where commercial oysters are produced: the Discovery Islands, on the BC coast across from Campbell River; Okeover Inlet and the Sunshine Coast, south of Powell River; Baynes Sound, including Fanny Bay and Baynes Bay; West Coast Vancouver Island, south of Ucluelet; and the Southern Gulf Islands, just north of Sidney.

“Shellfish farming in general—and oyster farming in particular—have been major contributors to the BC economy for almost 100 years,” explains the BC Shellfish Growers Association’s executive director, Roberta Stevenson.  “The Association was established 62 years ago to act as a governing body to represent the business and environmental interests of shellfish farmers and their industry partners. Today the industry directly employs 1,000 people in BC and produces in excess of $40 million worth of shellfish annually.  We are financially supported by our 180-plus members, along with occasional grants from the government.”

It is interesting to note that the specific oyster species that have made BC a world-renowned oyster producer are not native to these waters.  The very thing that makes our oysters so meaty and delicious—our nutrient rich, cold, clean water—also limits oyster spawning and reproduction.  So, in the early 1900s, shellfish farmers began importing larger and faster-growing oyster ‘seed’ from commercial producers.  The seed may be from ‘Pacific’ oysters but is imported from warmer regions, like Hawaii.

The Olympia oyster is native to this region but is not suitable for commercial production as it is generally quite small and irregularly shaped.  This makes them difficult to market on a commercial scale, though they are still delicious.  Many Islanders consider it a special treat to be able to harvest and enjoy native Olympia oysters.  And, according to the Capital Regional District of Southern Vancouver Island, Olympia oysters were an important food source for First Nations people, who harvested them from estuaries, saltwater lagoons, tidal flats and other protected areas, such as pocket beaches.

Today, it doesn’t seem to matter whether they are a highlight on the menu of an upscale restaurant, steaming in a fire pit on a remote beach, farmed, or harvested from the wild, the funny thing about oysters is that people either love them—or not.

People who love oysters enjoy them in a variety of ways—they slurp them raw right off the shells, they slather them with hot sauce, they dip them in batter and drop them in a deep fryer, or they toss them on the barbeque to savor their steamy flavor.  And, just as each individual’s taste in oyster toppings and presentation varies, oysters from various regions of British Columbia develop their own distinct flavors and unique culinary characteristics, too.

“Just like wine, oysters owe much of their flavor to the terroir or merrior of each growing region,” explains Stevenson.  “There are three key factors that influence the flavor and texture of BC oysters: the growing environment, the growing depth (which affects water temperature) and the farming technique—beach versus deep water or a combination of both.  Developing the Pacific Kiss brand was how we decided to promote this fact.”

In 2009, months before the Province of British Columbia was set to take centre stage by hosting the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the BCSGA embarked on a special project that would showcase BC fresh oysters to the world.  With the support of the various shellfish growers and a grant from Western Economic Diversification’s Community Adjustment Fund and Coast Sustainable Trust, the Association developed a creative a marketing campaign to brand our world-famous oysters with a ‘Pacific Kiss’.

Launching the Pacific Kiss promotion during the Winter Olympics was perfect timing, considering that BC oysters are their most flavorful in February and that both the Olympics and oysters have a connection to the time of the Roman Empire.  It is believed that ancient Roman Emperors kept a steady supply of oysters on hand for great feasts and visiting guests.  Casanova, the famed 18th century Italian lover, reportedly started his day by consuming 50 oysters for breakfast.

As part of the Pacific Kiss campaign, each oyster producer was asked to create names for their oysters.  The oyster farmers did not disappoint.  Some, for example, were given names that linked them to their specific region and/or producer, such as Mac’s Beach, Pearl Bay and Ship’s Point.  Others were given fanciful names that were tantalizingly poetic, like Beach Angels or Summer Breeze. One name honored our Salish First Nations people—the Sinku, which means clear running water in Salish.

Branding BC oysters with a ‘Kiss of Approval’ is assurance for consumers, restaurateurs and exporters that the oysters they buy are an environmentally sustainable seafood choice.  The Pacific Kiss stamp authenticates them as World Class, top quality BC oysters, mussels, clams or scallops that are a delicious and nutritious food choice.  As importantly, it is assurance that the product was grown at an environmentally sustainable farm by a registered member of the British Columbia Shellfish Association.

The Pacific Kiss promotion focused on three target audiences.  The first was international visitors and local diners who were introduced to a gourmet dining experience featuring a platter of a dozen Pacific Kiss oysters from 12 different areas.  The Pacific Kiss Platter was served in restaurants on Vancouver Island (including several in the Comox Valley) and in the cities in and around Vancouver.  A flyer that identified each oyster’s location on the plate, the regions where they were grown, and their unique culinary qualities accompanied each platter.  The dining experience was interactive and fun, much like a wine tasting, and created a wonderful dialogue about food in general and BC oysters in particular.

Mac's Oysters

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

As a result of this special campaign, on Valentine’s Day 2010, oyster lovers in Vancouver devoured an astonishing 500,000 raw oysters!  As expected, many of those oysters were consumed and enjoyed by Olympic visitors from other nations.  The program will continue in 2011 and the Pacific Kiss Platter is expected to get rave reviews again this Valentine’s Day and in the months to come.

The second focus was to use the Pacific Kiss promotion to educate chefs about BC oysters.  It is important that chefs understand that buying BC oysters is supportive of local growers, similar to how we have been educated to support fair trade coffee, tea and chocolate.  On September 10, 2010, BCSGA introduced BC oysters and the Pacific Kiss promotion to more than 500 chefs from across Canada who attended the Chefs’ Congress in the Cowichan Valley.

“When you take 12 different Pacific Kiss oysters from various regions in British Columbia, taste each of them and experience their differences, you start to better appreciate the industry.   As chefs, we are now able to form relationships with individual BC shellfish farmers who produce some of the best shellfish in the world,” says Robert Clark, executive chef of C Restaurant in Vancouver.

The third target is the people of British Columbia, in an effort to foster local pride in and knowledge of the product.  “The people of British Columbia should be thankful that we live in a part of the world with waters that are pristine enough to support a viable shellfish industry,” explains Stevenson.   “Not only do these farmers provide a delicious and nutritious local food product, they export it around the world and play a significant role in supporting the local economy.

“From a food safety perspective, all BC shellfish is grown under stringent Canadian standards and all fresh or frozen product is certified for export to the US and other international markets,” she adds.

“All products are tagged at harvest to ensure full traceability.  In addition, both the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program and SeaChoice recognize BC shellfish for adhering to responsible environmental codes of practice and providing consumers with a best option for seafood selection.  It is our hope that the Pacific Kiss campaign will remind Islanders that BC oysters are not just something to enjoy—they are something we should all be proud of.”

FMI: BC Shellfish Growers Association, www.bcsga.ca or call 250.890.7561.

Celebrate the Sea!  The BC Shellfish Growers Association invites you to come and celebrate the bounty of the sea at the 5th Annual Shellfish Festival. The Gala Dinner will be held June 17th at the historic Filberg Lodge and Park and the day-long festival will be June 18th at the Comox Marina. More than 4,000 people are expected to attend this year’s event to sample shellfish from various producers, learn about the industry and have fun.

“In addition to all of the regular events and activities, this year’s Shellfish Festival will feature the BC Oyster Shucking Championship, live entertainment, cooking demos, lots of fresh shellfish and the Seafood Chowder Challenge for Comox Valley restaurants,” says the Festival’s Executive Director Matthew Wright. “You also won’t want to miss the Chefs’ Dinner. 200 guests will be treated to a gourmet six-course meal served by some of BC’s top chefs who have been partnered up with a shellfish grower to bring you their combined culinary delights.”  FMI: www.bcshellfishfestival.ca

“You have to be passionate to do this,” says Island Spirits co-owner Pete Kimmerly at the distillery.

Photo by Boomer Jerritt

I had to go to Hornby Island to discover gin’s true potential. Like a lot of people, I have drank gin in various incarnations over the years—from syrupy Singapore slings to sophisticated martinis, with plenty of frosty gin-and-tonics in between—and so I assumed I knew everything worth knowing about this versatile spirit.

That assumption was entirely washed away on a recent visit to Island Spirits, a craft distillery nestled in the Hornby Island forest.

With my first sip of Phrog Gin, Island Spirits’ signature product, I realized I was in a whole new spirit world. All those great, if rather fuzzy, memories of drinking gin in the past faded away. This was a different gin experience, one I wanted to repeat. So I sipped again.

Smooth. Clean. Complex. Subtle. A flavor that evolved in my mouth and held out the promise of revealing more secrets with the next sip. A flavor that has won accolades from consumers, bloggers and the media, as well as a number of awards. Island Spirit owners Pete Kimmerly and Naz Abdurahman have even been approached by the trendy organization Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED), devoted to spreading innovative ideas, about being one of their speakers (they declined on the grounds that Island Spirits wouldn’t be able to keep up with the resulting demand.)

Phrog Premium Gin owes its quality to an ultra-pure distillation system and to a special recipe that adds just the right proportions of 14 botanicals: juniper berries, of course, but also coriander seeds, licorice root, cinnamon, lemon peel zest, lime peel zest, cardamom seeds, cumin seeds, cloves, fennel seeds, caraway seeds, star anise, angelica root and lemongrass.

This gin is the result of three-and-a-half years of experimentation. Dedicated to the twin ideals of purity and quality, Kimmerly and Abdurahman patiently tried out 40 different variations before coming up with the final product. They put equal care into the creation of Phrog Premium Vodka, their gin’s sister product, and into three unique vodka infusions: Black Jelly Bean Sichuan, infused with star anise and Sichuan pepper, Aquavit (with anise, fennel and cumin) and Vanka (subtly flavored with vanilla bean).

These are spirits made for sipping, perhaps with a small splash of spring water, much as people sip a good single malt Scotch whisky.

It’s not just the drinking experience that’s remarkable, says Kimmerly. The morning after is notable as well—he and Abdurahman promise that their liquor is so pure it causes no hangover.

This may or may not be true (and I look forward to testing the theory) but one thing is certain—this is a very sophisticated product.

Jurgen Gothe, one of many journalist-connoisseurs to praise the Phrog products, writes: “Phrog Gin is one of the loveliest new gins to arrive in the decade since all those high-end gins have really come into their own.

“Then, the Phrog Premium Vodka: bracing and sharp, velvety (but not oily, there’s a big difference), sweet-edged (just try it over premium vanilla ice cream!); a fabulous new premium vodka that easily keeps pace with any and all others in the $50-plus category.”

All this from a cozy, hand-built facility at the end of a dead-end gravel road on a small Gulf Island.

The story behind the Phrog spirits is a curious combination of do-it-yourself traditionalism and advanced science. This blend makes perfect sense once you know the background of the two partners.

Kimmerly was a former ice-breaker captain in the arctic. The company he worked for didn’t allow staff to bring alcohol on board, so Kimmerly started making his own. Up in the arctic, stuck on a ship, surrounded by ice, he had plenty of time to learn, by trial and error, how to set up a still and successfully concoct a more-than-decent batch of alcohol. He picked up ideas from observing how salt water was distilled to provide drinking water on board.

In 2003 he moved to Hornby, where he served as ferry captain before retiring last year.

Dr. Abdurahman, in contrast, brings his knowledge straight from the lab. A now-retired Professor of organic chemistry at UBC and BCIT, Abdurahman contributes not only scientific expertise but also useful contacts. For instance, Island Spirits was able to send its product to the University of Toronto for a Gas Chromatography-mass spectrometry Analysis (a test for impurities) on UofT’s state-of-the-art machine.

“We were the first distillery in Canada to have this type of testing,” says Kimmerly proudly. He’s even prouder of the results. The tests showed their product was pure alcohol to the ninth decimal place, satisfying Kimmerly and Abdurahman’s near-obsessive quest for purity.

When the two men met seven years ago, distillation was a hobby. Over the years it naturally evolved, encouraged by the enthusiasm of their many friends on Hornby, many of whom participated in the development of the gin and vodka.

“There’s a party here every other night. We’d take along our latest batch and see what people thought, make notes, and then adjust our process once more,” says Kimmerly.

As the recipe matured, so did its presentation. The name Phrog was chosen in homage to the spring chorus of randy tree frogs from the pond beside the distillery, with the playful Ph a nod to the rigorous science underlying the project. Early versions had a home-made label on a wine-bottle, but when the product outgrew that type of packaging, Kimmerly and Abdurahman hired a graphic designer from the Napa Valley to upgrade their look.

The result was a sleek, stately clear glass bottle with clean lines and a heavy base, imported from France, with an eight-layer melted-on label offering a bare minimum of words: just “Phrog Premium Gin” (or Vodka). It’s clean, simple and classy, but not at all conservative, just like the spirit it holds.

While the product and packaging are urbane and elegant, the distillery maintains a modest country vibe. The main building, next to Kimmerly’s house and portable sawmill, is a cedar-shingled barn-like structure with big red doors.

Inside, the feel is part science lab, part workshop, and part drinking establishment. An elegant three-metre long bar commands the centre of the room. This is where visitors sit to taste the various blends. Behind the bar is the main still—a convoluted construction of copper pipes, plastic tubes, levers, switches, thermostats, funnels, glass vials, computerized monitoring devices, and more copper pipes, about six feet tall and five feet wide. It looks like something out of a Harry Potter movie set, or perhaps Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

While the workings of the still may seem magical to the uninitiated, such as me, it is in fact a highly-engineered system.

“This still is really more suited to a lab than a distillery,” says Kimmerly. He launches into what to him is an abbreviated explanation, distillation for dummies, so to speak. There’s lots of talk of differential back pressure, equilibriating alcohol columns, and reflux ratios, but it pretty much goes right over my head. Until we get to the end of the process, which is pleasingly simple: a clear liquid drips steadily out of a plastic tube into an old-style glass jug. This I can understand.

The still, explains Kimmerly, is calibrated to circulate the vapors a hundred times or more. This is one of the keys to the liquors’ purity. Another key, he explains, is that this is a batch-run still, which means that it distils one batch of liquor as one cycle, rather than the more common continuous-run still where the liquid is continuously fed into the system. This gives him a great deal more control over the process.

Kimmerly would probably love to talk about, and tinker with, his marvellous distilling machines all day long, but there is more involved in running a business, especially one involving hard alcohol. The biggest challenge, he says, has been finding ways to make the business viable without becoming too big.

“We never would sacrifice quality for quantity. And we don’t want to get so big that this becomes a rat race,” says Kimmerly.

The small scale approach of Island Spirits is part of its charm, not just for its owners but for its clients.

“The modest footprint of the distillery is a pleasant reminder of when spirits were distilled from small companies around the country, instead of today’s massive factories where speed and quantity rule, rather than patience and quality,” comments culinary writer Don Genova.

But while small may be beautiful, it is not practical given the current alcohol distribution system in British Columbia.

BC’s liquor laws date back to the prohibition era, but these days the government keeps tight control for financial rather than moral reasons. Liquor distribution is big business, bringing in about $850 million annually for the BC government.

The all-powerful Liquor Distribution Branch (LDB) effectively owns all distilled spirits as soon as they hit store shelves, charging a 173 per cent mark-up, which comes on top of a hefty federal excise tax. That doesn’t leave much room for the store, the distributor, and the producer to make a profit.

“Only the huge operations can make it in this environment,” says Kimmerly.

And only medium-to-large operations can consistently manufacture the minimum 10,000 bottles/year needed to place a product in the LDB outlets, so Island Spirits is limited to private liquor stores. These, unlike the LDB stores, can charge more for a popular product (and many of them do so for the Phrog brand), but this doesn’t trickle down to Island Spirits.

Kimmerly explains that for every $50 bottle of Phrog spirit sold, the company ends up with $12.50, which barely covers the costs of producing, bottling and shipping. Even when they sell from their own site, which they have a licence to do, they are required to remit all the money to the LBC, which eventually sends them a cheque for their small share.

Another obstacle for craft distilleries is the fact that they can’t distribute their products directly.

“We send our stuff to the specialty warehouse in Vancouver, and private stores get it from there, even if they’re in Victoria. So if I want to sell my gin at the Hornby Coop [about a five-minute drive from the distillery], each bottle has to ride six ferries and go through six warehouses!” says Kimmerly.

But change is coming, he believes. Island Spirits has joined forces with BC’s six other craft distilleries to lobby for regulatory changes. They are asking for the sorts of arrangements that laid the foundation for BC’s successful wine industry and the proliferation of microbreweries around the province.

This would include the right to make direct sales to restaurants, the easing of the LDB portion of direct sales made from the distillery itself, reduction of steep excise taxes, and an overall lower LDB mark-up for qualifying craft distilleries.

“It’s crazy for the government not to give us a break,” says Kimmerly. “They changed regulations for the wine industry and now there are 4,290 wineries in BC. Craft distilling is getting a huge following in places where it can flourish. There are some 20 craft distilleries in the city of Portland alone!”

In the meantime, business is booming. Phrog Premium Vodka and Gin are available at 25 stores in BC and 14 in Alberta; also, onsite sales are brisk.

“We’ve had two tours drop by this week. A while ago we had an 80-foot tour bus come to check us out. We have repeat customers who visit us from all over and buy whole cases. In the summer, I was often selling 100 bottles a day. I can’t advertise, because we can’t keep up with demand,” says Kimmerly. “We sold 6,000 bottles last year and 8,000 so far this year.”

Clearly, Kimmerly and his partner are confident in the quality of their product. As for all the rest—negotiating with the LDB, lobbying the government, figuring out how to grow the business appropriately —he is willing to be patient and persevere.

“You have to be passionate to do this,” he says, “And you have to be an optimist.” And having an exceptional, ultra-pure, made-on-site liquor to sip at the end of the day certainly helps keep the spirits up (no pun intended).

For more information visit islandspirits.ca

The season surrounding Christmas is called Christmastide, running from sundown on December 24th to January 5 (also known as the Twelve Days of Christmas).  In some places, people believe it is bad luck to keep decorations up after Christmastide.

Christmas actually comes from Middle and Old English words meaning “Christ’s Mass.” In Greek, the first letter of Christ is “X”, which is where the abbreviation Xmas (or Xmas) comes from.

The first Christmas hymns we know of were sung in 4th century Rome.

The top Christmas tree producing provinces in Canada in order are Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.

St. Nicholas lived in the south of modern-day Turkey as the bishop of Myra, a town in the region Lycia.  He was known to give secret gifts, like leaving coins in shoes left outside.  Nearly 1,000 years after the saint’s bones had been removed from his gravesite, the government of Turkey formally requested the return of his bones from the Italian government.

English-speaking people get the modern Santa Clause from the Dutch for St. Nicholas, Sinterklaas.

Since 1971, the Province of Nova Scotia has presented the Boston Christmas Tree to the people of Boston in gratitude for the relief supplies received from the citizens of Boston after a ship exploded in 1917 following a collision in the Halifax, Nova Scotia Harbor.  Part of the city was leveled, killing or injuring thousands.

The Christmas Tree

More than 2,000 trees are usually planted per acre for a Christmas Tree Farm.  On an average 1,000-1,500 of these trees will survive.  In northern US, maybe 750 trees will remain. Almost all trees require shearing to attain the Christmas tree shape. At six to seven feet, trees are ready for harvest.  It takes six to 10 years of fighting heavy rain, wind, hail and drought to get a mature tree.

The first decorated Christmas tree was in Riga, Latvia in 1510.

Growing Christmas trees provides a habitat for wildlife.  Tree farms are also good for people—an acre of Christmas trees provides for the daily oxygen requirements of 18 people.  Christmas trees also help to remove dust and pollen from the air.

The best selling trees are Scotch pine, Douglas fir, Noble fir, Fraser fir, Virginia pine, balsam fir and white pine. In the first week, a tree in your home will consume as much as a quart of water per day.

According to the National Christmas Tree Association, Americans buy 37.1 million real Christmas trees each year; 25 per cent of them are from the nation’s 5,000 u-pick farms.  One to three seedlings are planted the following spring for every one Christmas tree harvested.  73 million new Christmas trees will be planted this year.

Artificial trees will last for six years in your home, but for centuries in a landfill.

93% of real Christmas tree consumers recycle their tree in community recycling programs, their garden or backyard.  Recycled trees have been used to make sand and soil erosion barriers and been placed in ponds for fish shelter.

Using small candles to light a Christmas tree dates back to the middle of the 17th century.  Christmas tree lights were first mass produced in 1890.

Real Christmas trees are involved in less than one-tenth of one percent of residential fires and only when ignited by some external ignition sources.

Every year since 1947, the people of Oslo, Norway have given a Christmas tree to the city of Westminster, England. The gift is an expression of good will and gratitude for Britain’s help to Norway during World War II.

The first printed reference to Christmas trees appeared in Germany in 1531.  The oldest record of a decorated Christmas tree came from a 1605 diary found in Strasburg, France (Germany in 1605).  The tree was decorated with paper roses, apples and candies.

There are lots of things you can do during the holidays that make children feel a real part of the celebration. Create a tradition with food. All kids love to help when it comes to making cookies, and Christmas is no exception.

Cut gingerbread cookies into shapes of people or animals and decorate with icing and candy. The aroma in the house is wonderful as they are baking and once they are cooled and decorated, make a hole in the top of the cookie, thread with colorful ribbon and hang on the Christmas tree or around the house.

Gingerbread houses are readily available in grocery stores. They come pre-baked in a kit with all the candies, so all you need to do is put it together with the included icing and let your child’s imagination go to work while they create the gingerbread house of their dreams.

Thumbprint cookies are popular at Christmas, but adding cocoa to make it chocolate and putting candy in the centre instead of jam can make it a family tradition at this time of year.

Children can have fun helping with Christmas baking, or baking alone if they are old enough. This is a great way for parents to get a head start in holiday baking and it should be a fun, stress-free time that can be shared as a bonding, family activity.

Let the kids bake their own cookies to leave out for Santa—they’ll take pride in baking and decorating them to leave out for that special night when Santa pays a visit.

Try to find a few foods to serve that would only be offered during the holidays and not eaten regularly throughout the year—for example, a food dish from the family’s ethnic background could be included. If these foods are already part of meals throughout the year, dress them up with all the trimmings to make them special.

Create a party atmosphere when decorating the house and tree. Tell stories about particular ornaments and how they were acquired as you decorate the tree. Play holiday music and talk about other Christmas memories. Kids love hearing stories about themselves and about what their parents were like when they were kids. If some of the tree ornaments are handed down from generation to generation, make sure to tell the kids who they belonged to and the significance of them to your family.

Make it an adventure to go as a family to pick out the perfect Christmas tree. Let the kids have a say in what is picked, even if it’s not the best tree available. Or better yet, find a Christmas tree farm and go out and cut down your own Christmas tree.

There are many Christmas and holiday movies to choose from. Find one movie that is suitable for the entire family—there are Christmas classics out there—and make it a tradition to watch it every single year, no matter what!

Starting Christmas traditions with your children is fun and a great way to create lasting memories. Whether it’s choosing to cook or bake something only at the holidays, attending a Christmas event yearly, making a gingerbread house, or transforming the house into a Christmas wonderland, including the entire family in the process will ensure your children have memories that will last from year to year and they’ll carry the traditions forward to their own families.

Gingerbread Cookies

This classic recipe for gingerbread is sure to be a hit.  Using a cookie cutter, cut dough into shapes.  Once cooled, let your creativity loose and get to work decorating.  Makes approximtely 20 5” cookies.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 1 cup packed dark-brown sugar
• 4 teaspoons ground ginger
• 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground pepper
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• Royal Icing for decorating

Preparation:

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment; mix on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough into thirds; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to a 1/4-inch thick. Cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Space 2 inches apart on baking sheets lined with parchment paper, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.

Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool on sheets on wire racks.

Put icing in a pastry bag fitted with a small plain round tip. Pipe designs on cookies; If adding candies, press into icing while soft. Let icing set completely at room temperature, about 1 hour. Store cookies between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature up to 5 days.

]]> http://www.infocusmagazine.ca/2010/creating-holiday-family-traditions/feed/ 0 http://www.infocusmagazine.ca/2010/perfect-pumpkins/ http://www.infocusmagazine.ca/2010/perfect-pumpkins/#comments Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:18:58 +0000 Dialect http://www.infocusmagazine.ca/?p=1643

“Everything we sell here is made here,” says Shannon Farrell, in one of Shamrock Farm’s pumpkin patches, which are open to the public for picking throughout October. “We don’t just do pumpkins!” Farrell adds. Photo by Boomer Jerritt.

On a sunny fall day, Shamrock Farm is bursting with the colors, scents and sounds of autumn. The home of Shannon Farrell and her family is a profusion of pumpkins—as well as a cornucopia of organic edibles and a menagerie of animals.

Ten years ago, the Farrells opened their family farm to the public for a feast of pumpkin-picking during the month of October.

“In October I do a lot of school tours, ” says Farrell, as she leads the way past beds of aromatic lavender, rows of ripening apple trees, and flocks of clucking chickens on the way to the children’s pumpkin patch, a field in which she has planted the varieties that will most appeal to kids. “This field is only for the groups—the public goes around to the big patch at the back. I book every day—I can do three school tours a day, maximum 60 children in a group. About 700 to 800 children came through last year.”

Careful planning has gone into the school tour pumpkin patch. “I’ve planted out front here, so little kids can carry their pumpkins back to the cars and the schoolbus. In this field I need pumpkins that are easy for the children to take home.”

Farrell offers a key tip for successful pumpkin-picking: “We’ve already cut them all off the vine! As soon as your pumpkin is orange, cut them off the vine, and you can leave them in the field till you need them for Halloween or for baking.”

The children still have to choose a favorite among the varieties though. “Sugar pumpkins are a bit smaller and heavier—they’re my favorite,” she says. “You can cook with any of the pumpkins but I think these are the best.”

In the half-acre patch are a wealth of kid-size pumpkins—the classic Sugar pumpkins, but also orange Dakota, white Cotton Candy, palm-size Jack-be-Little, ghostly Baby Boo pumpkins and ornamental gourds. Then there is the amazing Batwing pumpkin. “They’re all the children’s favorite!” says Farrell, picking up a small pumpkin that is orange on top but almost black on the bottom, with a scalloped edging like the silhouette of a bat’s wing.

“Every year I learn something about pumpkins,” Farrell says. “Last year I was wondering why all the batwing pumpkins were solid orange—I found that they start completely green, and will go completely orange unless you cut them off the vine! So as soon as I saw these starting to look like the batwing shape, I came out and cut them off.”

The Batwing is a small pumpkin, so is not the best for carving. “The teachers like to get a normal jack-o-lantern size pumpkin for carving. And one of the schools that comes out doesn’t celebrate Halloween, but you can always use a pumpkin for baking. So those children take home the sugar pumpkins, which are great for pumpkin pie or soup.”

Careful tending of the patch ensures healthy pumpkins and soil. “We rotate the pumpkin patches every year,” says Farrell. “We put a cover crop on, which helps the soil. Fall rye, peas, red clover—just to get nutrients back in. We’ve learned that you can’t plant pumpkins year after year in the same place or you’ll get diseases.”

Years of experience come to fruition at the farm in October. “We’ve been here growing pumpkins for 17 years, and open for ‘U-Pick’ for 10 years,” says Farrell. “We used to sell just wholesale to the stores—we started with Courtenay Country Market, Discovery Foods, then when Quality Foods in Comox opened up, we took some pumpkins in there and they bought anything we could send them. We’re lucky that way!”

Seeing how much her three boys—aged 11, 13 and 15—and their friends loved the pumpkins encouraged them to open up the farm to others. “When the boys were really little, my girlfriends would come with their kids and they had so much fun that we thought, ‘Why don’t we let everybody come and enjoy the pumpkin patch?’” says Farrell. “We still sell to those stores, and then we’re open every single day in October for people to come to the farm. There’s no charge, people don’t have to phone ahead.”

Various barns and assorted farm animals are interspersed between the pumpkin fields. The constant cluck of chickens and the occasional crow of roosters provide the background noise in the barnyard. Inside one of the barn stalls, bustling hens mingle with rather dignified-looking goats. “We’ve only had the goats for a couple of years,” says Farrell of her seven purebred Nubians—four adults and three triplet kids. “I use them for the goat’s milk soap I make. The Nubians have the highest butterfat content in the milk and it makes the best soap. And I like their floppy ears!”

The goats seem very good-natured, not at all belligerent. “They are very friendly,” Farrell adds. “When we have so many children here I have to make sure that we have animals that I don’t have to worry about. My youngest son will be showing the goats next year with the 4H Club.”

Entering the henhouse, Farrell releases a flurry of clucking chickens outdoors and then checks the laying boxes. “This is where most of the children hang out—I let them feed the chickens. The schoolchildren love coming in here and collecting eggs so I always make sure there are eggs in here.”

Among the regular chickens are some that are distinctly exotic. “That was from the 4H Poultry,” Farrell says, pointing to one particularly unusual looking bird. “My oldest son was showing those chickens—I think they’re called White-crested Black Polish. There’s the rooster, with the funky hairdo! ”

A large goose stands out among the hens. “This is Nibbles, who my son hatched from an egg,” says Farrell. “He thinks he’s a chicken! He won’t go with the other geese. He’s decided he’s not a goose.” Nibbles honks loudly in response. “I have a little sign saying ‘please be careful of your fingers’, but my youngest son carries him around so I know he’s pretty safe.”

The pleasant scent of straw inside the barn gives way to the aroma of lavender outside. “The farm started with pumpkins but we’ve been adding things,” Farrell says. “I love lavender so I started that eight years ago. Then the garlic, then honey of course, because we have the bees for pollination. We’ve put in this apple orchard—60 trees. This is the second year of production—the Kings have done fantastic, Spartans OK. I have a small crabapple from Denman, a heritage type, so we’re sort of going in that direction. It’s just a learning process, like with the pumpkins—it takes time to figure out what grows well here.”

The 700 lavender plants are a favorite of the bees. “I let the children know the bees are the most important workers on our farm,” says Farrell. “I have three hives, they are there full-time. I’m still learning about the bees, but we really need them here for pollination of the pumpkins. We used to just rely on the bees that were around, but about six years ago a neighbor, Gordon Calam, who was a beekeeper for 50-60 years, brought his beehive over, and we put it in the pumpkin patch and we noticed how many more pumpkins we had. So from then on we decided to get our own hives. The bonus is I get beautiful honey because they’re into my lavender. Then when the blackberries are blooming they’re all in the blackberries, then they go to the pumpkins—the bees will go wherever they can.”

The work involved on the farm would be enough to fill a 48-hour day, Farrell acknowledges. “Every year is getting a little busier, but it’s always going to be family-run,” she says. “Everything we sell here is made here. The garlic is grown here, the honey, all the canning is done by me and my friend Ev—strawberry jam, blackberries. Goat’s milk soap is made here with our milk. Then I’ll be selling lavender here. We don’t just do the pumpkins!”

This year the main pumpkin patch is at the back of the property, but on the way there, past a flock of geese, another field with huge orange globes catches the eye. “These are Atlantic Giant pumpkins, the ones that are grown for the biggest pumpkins,” says Farrell. “We saved some seed last year from our biggest pumpkin and planted those, and we always order these Atlantic Giants from seed companies.”

Her biggest last year was about 150 pounds. “I should be watering every day and fertilizing, and having only one pumpkin on the vine, but I tend to run out of time!” she says.

Adjacent to the giants are Fairytale pumpkins, the kind you imagine might turn into a coach by magic. “These are difficult to grow, they take a long time,” Farrell says. “They were planted first but they’re not at all ready yet.”

The still-green, deeply ribbed pumpkins will be “almost a skin color” when they are ripe. They are also good for eating. “We grow four really good varieties for eating—Sugar, Dakota, Fairytale and Rouge vif D’Etampes. This French heirloom variety is the one nicknamed as the ‘Cinderella’ pumpkin. “They’re a little difficult to work with because they’re big and quite watery when you cook them,” says Farrell. “When people want to bake with the pumpkins I always tell them to start with the sugar pumpkins—they’re easiest to handle.”

In the main field, multi-colored pumpkins peek out from a sea of tangled green leaves. “This is our main crop, the carving pumpkins,” Farrell says, lifting the leaves to reveal the ground cover beneath. “We use bio-degradable fabric made from cornstarch to help the soil warm up and help stop weeds. Underneath we lay drip tape to water right at the plant. All this is pulled up and moved every year.”

Farrell names the different varieties. “This row is Gladiator. We’ve got Warlock in here, with bumps like warts all over; there’s Phat Jack in here, they get really thick stems.” The Phat Jack is a beautiful shape, tall and round. Another dark orange-red pumpkin variety has completely different, flat proportions—these are the Rouge vif d’Etampes.

With countless varieties of pumpkins available, it’s a wonder how they choose the 17 different varieties they grow. “I like the ornamental ones more—the Fairytale and the Bat Wing, the Jack-Be-Little. My husband goes more for the big ones,” she says. The names are as colorful as the pumpkins—Prizewinner is a new carving pumpkin; Knucklehead, with warts; Mr. Wrinkles, with a wrinkled skin.

Anyone interested in picking their own pumpkins only needs to bring rubber boots. “You just have to carry them back to the barn—wheelbarrows and carts are provided,” Farrell notes. “All the carving ones are sold by weight because of so many different varieties. Sugar pumpkins are sold per pumpkin-$3.50 this year.”

One of the best carving pumpkins is Old Zeb, a very symmetrical shape, says Shannon. “They have twisty stems and are kind of hollow inside, so easy to scoop out—they’re always kind of perfect looking.”

Shamrock Farms ships to several local grocery stores. “We always send them really nice ones. The stores tend to sell out of whatever we give them!” They ship every weekend in October, and start early in the morning. “My sons have an endless supply of friends that love working here,” says Farrell. “So we’ll get like eight kids to come out and help. We pile up the trailer with the pumpkins, bring them to the barn, then my husband Mike and I weigh them and wash them, and the kids load them back in. We deliver them in the Shamrock Farm crates, so people can see they’re local pumpkins.” Shannon makes sure there are enough pumpkins remaining for the U-Pick however, selling about 60 per cent of their crop to stores and saving the rest for people to search through.

Halloween is the peak of the pumpkins’ year and Shamrock Farm is an enthusiastic participant in the festivities. The barn is set up with a Halloween display, some of which remains year-round. “My husband makes everything—like a bigger-than-life-sized witch stirring a cauldron that smokes with a fog machine, and skeletons up in the loft, with sound effects and scary music. My husband loves Halloween!” Farrell says. The boys dress up in costumes as well, and help answer questions. “I tell them we can scare the moms but not the really little kids!”

At the end of October, Farrell says, “We breathe a big sigh of relief! Then I start making soaps for the winter.” At the house where the soap-making and canning is centred, Farrell introduces Ev, her “number one canning helper”. Ev, a longtime family friend, is available to help at a moment’s notice with the labor-intensive tasks. “I just tell her, all you have to do is holler!” she says.

The aroma of lavender mingles with other delicious scents at the soap rack. “I make 14 different varieties of goat’s milk soap,” Farrell says. “I have ‘Scent of Spring’, which has lavender and grapefruit essential oil; a plain soap for my son who has eczema so he can’t have any soap with chemicals or scents in it; this one has red clover blossom, lavender and ylang-ylang.” The newest soap, ‘Scent of Summer’, has the fruity scent of lemongrass. To complete the collection there is of course a pumpkin soap. “This has organic pumpkin puree in it, plus oil of cloves and pumpkin seeds with goat’s milk.” The amber-colored soap smells good enough to eat—just one more way to make full use of the bounty of the autumn harvest of pumpkins.

Shamrock Farm is located at 2276 Anderton Road in Comox and is open every day in October from 10 till 5. “We’re open in the rain, open for Thanksgiving —our big sign board will be out at the driveway,” says Farrell. “We’ll have pumpkins on all the fence posts in both directions—when people see the pumpkins there they will know we’re open for pumpkin picking!”

For more information and directions visit: www.shamrockfarm.ca

But there’s a lot more to the big orange squash than meets the eye. Pumpkins are a member of the Cucurbita family, which includes squash and cucumbers. They are grown all over the world on six of the seven continents, with Antarctica being the sole exception. They even grow in Alaska.

Pumpkins originated in Central America. Seeds from related plants have been found in Mexico, dating back more than7,000 years to 5500 BC. Native American Indians used pumpkin as a stable in their diets centuries before the pilgrims landed. When the white settlers arrived, they saw the pumpkins grown by Indians and they sent the seeds back to Europe, where they quickly became popular.

Just like today, early settlers used pumpkins in a wide variety of recipes, from desserts to stews and soups. In addition to cooking with pumpkins, they also dried the shells and cut strips to weave into mats.

For your health: Pumpkins are rich in Vitamin A and potassium. They are also high in fibre. Eating a handful of pumpkin seeds has been recommended for men to help avoid prostate cancer. These seeds are full of zinc, iron, potassium, magnesium and essential fatty acids.

While most pumpkins are orange, they are also dark green, light green, white, red, gray, blue and orange-yellow in color. Remarkably high levels of lutein, alpha-carotene and beta-carotene are responsible for the orange coloring and also for transforming Vitamin A in the body.

Did You Know…

• 99% of all pumpkins are sold for decorations.

• Pumpkins are about 90% water.

• Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing snake bites.

• An average pumpkin weighs 10-20 pounds, though some varieties can weigh 600-800 pounds.

• When Howard Dill of Windsor, Nova Scotia—known as the Pumpkin King—sent one of his championship pumpkins to the US for a competition, customs officials called drug agents, not believing there could be a 616 pound pumpkin in the crate.

• Championship pumpkins today are over 800 pounds. These pumpkins grow 10-15 pounds per day.

• Pumpkin halves were supposedly used as guides for haircuts in colonial New Haven, Connecticut, giving rise to the nickname ‘pumpkinhead’.

• Pumpkin takes its name from the medieval French word ‘pompom’ meaning ‘cooked by the sun’

• Pumpkin flowers are edible.

• Halloween evolved, in part, from the Celtic tradition of All Hallow’s Eve. Pumpkin carving came from the traditions of this annual event. But it wasn’t pumpkins that were being carved in these ancient times. Pumpkins are native to America, and were not known to the Celtic people of Ireland. They carved turnips and rutabagas.

• Without pumpkins many of the early settlers might have died from starvation. The following poem is a testament to the Pilgrims dependence upon pumpkins for food:

“For pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.”
Pilgrim verse, circa 1633