Category Archives: BowFEAST

Dec 02 NO comments
BAA Organization, BowFEAST, Event, Newsletter, boxprogram

Bowen ag in 2012!

The growing season for this year is behind us, and soon it will be time to start thinking about seeds and spring gardens. We wanted to update you on what the Bowen Ag Alliance (BAA) has been up to this year, and our exciting plans for 2012.

2012 events:
We’re just now planning a series of BAA events for the New Year. We will be back in touch soon with confirmed dates, but this is what we’re discussing… If you have any ideas, or interest in leading a workshop, please let us know!
Jan/Feb – for beginner’s: planning a simple veggie garden—how-to
January 12 – food safety workshop (community offering, see below)
January 14 – seed exchange & sale with BICS student garden kids
March 10 – BAA AGM—all welcome!
April – soil amendment workshop
June to October – BowFEAST monthly community farmers’ markets
mid-August – BowFEAST annual local eating celebration in the cove
Fall – canning workshop

community news:
-Food Safety Planning Workshop:
For food processors, an introductory food safety planning workshop. Learn some basic HACCP theory and, practical monitoring procedures, plus info on employee hygiene and practices. It’s also an opportunity to network and access info that will help enhance your bottom line in these changing economic times.

Jan. 12 (8:30 am to 4 pm, registration fee $20, includes lunch and coffee breaks). At BICS Multi-Purpose Room. Info: www.ssfpa.net/foodsafety
contact: Jane Kelly, 1-866-619-7372, fssi.outreach@ssfpa.net

-Seed bank video:
A fascinating video about the Millenium seed bank:
http://www.nextworldtv.com/page/5829.html

2011 BAA recap:
-BowFEAST farmers’ market:
BAA put on six BowFEAST community farmers’ markets this year from May to October in partnership with BICS, Bowen Community Recreation and the Municipality—five at BICS and one on the library lawn. We had a great turnout, lots of beautiful produce and an enthusiastic community response. Nearly all the growers at our mid-August farmers’ market/local eating celebration sold out. Thanks to First Credit Union for donating the spiffy new tent.

-Harvest box program:
BAA launched a seasonal harvest box pilot project with two Bowen growers, “BowFEAST in a Box.” The program delivered a weekly box of fresh, locally grown produce to 10 customers from May to October. Despite the less-than-ideal spring growing conditions, the program proved a bit hit, and we enjoyed strawberries, plums, asparagus, tomatoes, potatoes and greens galore. Stay tuned for info on the 2012 harvest box program.

-Cheesemaking workshop:
With partner Artisan Eats/Tuscany, BAA presented two fall cheesemaking workshops with artisan cheesemaker and farmer David Asher of Mayne Island. These two popular sessions attracted 16 participants at each and proved lots of fun. So much so, that BAA plans to host another in the New Year.

-BICS school garden:
Despite the rain, BICS students in grades K-6 braved the weather to take part in the annual school garden seed harvest this past fall—including a load of plump potatoes. The harvest marked the end of the “Grow to the Market” program, and the start of our “Farm to School” program. Part of the Farm to School program means that the 12 lbs of potatoes we harvested will be included in the ingredients for the Friday Lunch program as we work towards the goal of having 15% of our school meals include local ingredients. (from Sarah Haxby at BICS)

-Bees on Bowen:
Bowen’s beekeeping group continues to flourish with a dozen active beekeepers throughout the island and a growing number of newcomers planning on getting started this spring and summer. “BOB” greatly benefited from the mentorship of Bruce Dobinson — a long time beekeeper from the North Shore — culminating in a successful queen breeding project this summer. Having rebuilt from the unfortunate loss of bees across the island (and much of coastal BC) in 2009/10, Bowen’s bees are looking healthy and ready for what we hope will be a productive pollinating and honey-producing season in 2012.

BAA board news:
BAA wishes to thank outgoing Board of Directors member Bruce Howlett for his enthusiasm, service and excellent berry jam! We’ll miss you, Bruce. Thanks again! If anyone is interested in joining the BAA board, please contact us. We could especially use an individual with excellent financial, bookkeeping and accounting skills.

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Sep 30 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event

last farmers’ market: this Sat., Oct. 1!

Bowfeast-October 1 farmers mkt

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Jul 25 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event

BowFEAST 2011

Coming Saturday August 20, 2011 …

Bowfeast 2011

Add this event to your calendar:

ics Original

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May 23 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event

BowFEAST Farmers’ Market

Come out, rain or shine, to the second in the BowFEAST farmers’ market series: Saturday June 4, 9 am to 12 pm at BICS (note time update).

Farmers market poster - June

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Apr 16 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event, Initiative, boxprogram

New! BowFEAST farmers’ market goes monthly starting May 7, harvest box program launches featuring Bowen-grown produce.

“Can’t we do this more often? Pleeeeease!” That was the constant refrain at last year’s mid-August BowFEAST local eating celebration and farmer’s market. Well, this year, the answer is… yes!

Farmers’ market
Starting May 7, we at the Bowen Agricultural Alliance Society (BAA) are expanding our popular BowFEAST farmers’ market from once-a-year to monthly. From May to October 2011**, we’ll host the market on the first Saturday of every month, 10 am to 1 pm, at the Bowen Island Community School (BICS). It’ll be on the blacktop undercover area near the playground. Tables for vendors are $5; for kids, free. Set-up is at 9 am.

Everyone from bonafide farmers to backyard gardeners are welcome to set up a table and sell plants ‘n produce. (Anyone selling preserves, eggs, meats or baked goods, please contact me beforehand, thanks.) Also new this year: BowFEAST SLOW-food-style cooking classes highlighting local ingredients. BAA is seeking charitable donations to help support both projects.

**Note: In August, the market will move to the library lawn for our usual BowFEAST celebration, Aug. 20.

Here are the farmers’ market dates:
May 7 market #1 @ BICS

June 4 market #2 @ BICS

July 2 market #3 @ BICS

**Aug 20 BowFEAST celebration (market # 4) at Bowen Island Library lawn

Sept. 3 market #5 @ BICS

Oct. 8 market #6 @ BICS

Harvest box program
Yep, we’re busy this season. We’ve also launched (May 2) our “BowFEAST in a Box” weekly harvest box program, a BAA pilot project. The 10 season subscriptions sold out in just one day in March!

Supplying the veggies and fruit are two island growers: Clemencia Braraten of Primrose Farm and the Ruddy Garden/Kim Howden. The program will supply a weekly box of Bowen-grown produce to subscribers from May to October, plus deliver an e-newsletter with tips, recipes, farmer profiles and notes from the field. Pick-up is every Monday night from 5 to 7 pm, beginning May 2, at the crossroads (old gas station) and workshop of Stacy Beamer’s Bowen Island Metalworks. We will be selling “extras” for cash from time to time—so feel free to stop in!

In its first year, the harvest box program will serve 10 customers who purchased a season’s subscription for $845. The program is based on the CSA (community shared agriculture) model in which consumers commit to buying a season’s produce in advance and share the risk with their farmers.

The growers wanted to start small to make sure that they could supply a bountiful box every week filled with an inviting mix of just-been-harvested fruit and vegetables. We’ve lined up three back-up growers to keep the supply constant. And we hope that next year we can grow the program to accommodate everyone who wants to join.

BowFEAST is a project of BAA, in partnership with BICS and the Bowen Island Municipality. BAA is a registered non-profit society and grassroots community organization working to increase the viability of small-scale agriculture, promote local eating, and advance food security on Bowen. For more info, see www.bowenagalliance.ca.
For info on the BowFEAST farmers’ market or BowFEAST in a Box, please contact project manager Elle Glave at elle.glave@bowenagalliance.ca.—Elle Glave

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Aug 25 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event

What a feast it was! BowFEAST 2010. What did you serve?

Thanks to the growers and to all who made our BowFEAST 2010 local eating and harvest celebration a smash success! (Please see OFFICIAL THANKS, below.)

Despite the sweltering heat, we had upwards of 600 folks come through the Saturday morning farmers’ market on the library lawn Aug. 14, and most vendors sold out. It was also just lots of fun! There was some great live music, beautiful displays and a festive vibe. Kids made “seed balls” with bee-friendly wildflower seeds; kids sold lemonade and cookies; we hosted some educational workshops on ag topics such as beekeeping and raising chickens. And there was some handsome produce, preserves and lavender sachets. Did anyone see Aubin van Berckel’s enormous cabbage?

On Saturday evening, we had a feast for 22 starring mainly Bowen-grown fare in our garden under the arbor James built. The evening was balmy, with twinkling lanterns, crickets chirping and meteor showers. We were treated to pulled pork sandwiches, roasted root vegetables and potatoes (from our garden), bruschetta, Gulf Island goat cheese, quiche, hearty beef stew, Indian-spiced vegetables, a refreshing cucumber cocktail, apricot-lavender smoothies, blueberry kuchen, blueberry crumble, blackberry mousse, strawberry pavlova, BC wine and some home-brew port. We added some Cocoa West Bowen blackberry truffles as a chaser. Whew!

Laurel Wickberg Bailey reported: “We had local wild salmon in a homemade apple cider and pineapple-sage sauce, roasted yukon gold potatoes with leeks and fennel.”

What did you serve at your BowFEAST? Any recipes to share? Just post in the comments here!

OFFICIAL THANKS:
Thanks to the growers for braving the hot sun and bringing some handsome produce: Marion Moore and Jean Jamieson, Marg McConnell and Drew Burgess, Rosie Montgomery MacDonald, Daphne Fargher, Susan Proctor, Clemencia Braraten, Suzan Phillipe, Julie Cree, Eva Kepasova, Kim Howden…Thanks to islanders for showing up and buying locally-grown food. Nearly everyone sold out! Thanks to the folks, especially Reidun van Kervel, who donated their produce proceeds to the BICS school garden—we raised upwards of $80!

Thanks to the fantastic musicians for lively music: Sarah Haxby, the Chill Billies (Lorraine Ashdown, Susan Munro and Liz Watson), Prudence and the Bear, (Sarah Haxby and Gerald Morrisseau) and Jordan Barnes Crouse on electric water bottle. Thanks to the library for lending us the lawn. Thanks to the speakers who presented educational ag workshops.

It’s a great community event, but a lot of work to put together, so we want to especially thank all the folks who made it happen: Julia McCaig, Jen McGowan, Stuart Cole, Ellie Mackay, James Glave, Sabrina and Duncan Glave, Sally Freeman, Bruce Howlett, Leah Walker, Cathy Bayly, Paul Tenant. Thanks Jim Clark of Blackbear Transport for the truck—not sure we would’ve made it without you. Thanks to First Credit Union for the tent. Thanks to Tim Hausch for hanging the banner. Thanks to all the Bowen retailers who joined in, especially Artisan Eats/Tuscany, the Bowen Island Cold Beer & Wine Store and The Ruddy Potato.

And finally, thanks to Bowen Island Community Recreation for supporting and to Bowen Island Municipality for the generous grant.

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Jul 29 NO comments
Beekeeping, BowFEAST, Event, Initiative

BowFEAST & BAA invite you to “Bee Offensive”

Bumblebee enjoying phacelia flowers

Bumblebee enjoying phacelia flowers

“How are the bees?”

It’s an innocent, simple question I’m often asked while out and about, presumably about the handful of hives we take care of. If they’re lucky, they’ll get a quick “Doing fine, thanks,” or, “A little wet for their liking.” Less fortunate well-wishers will endure a 15-minute explanation of bee pathology and challenges bees on Bowen and around the world now face. As part of a co-promotion of the August 14 BowFEAST event, the Bowen Ag Alliance is putting one fix to honeybee woes literally in the hands of the human population.

Many Bowen Islanders will know that we suffered a complete wipe-out of honeybee colonies over the 2009/10 winter season. While we can’t rule out beekeeper inexperience as a contributing factor, our losses echo the recent cataclysmic die out experienced in other parts of the province and episodically around the world.

Given that bees are widely credited for pollinating a third of the food on our plates, reasonable follow up questions are “What’s happening to the bees?” and “What can we do to help them?”

Parasitic mites (which in turn carry viruses that weaken bee colonies) have become a relatively new but endemic problem worldwide. Add man-made pitfalls like pesticides, climate change and monoculture farming – imagine trying to get all your daily nutrient requirements from just one food source day in and out – and on a macro, international level we have a situation that makes simply being a bee a tougher proposition than it was 25 or 50 years ago.

Here on Bowen, yes we must contend with mites, but barring an unwelcome visit from a transient bear, chief worries for Bowen beekeepers include erratic weather and the relatively limited diversity of significant nectar sources. A green oasis Bowen may be, but the nectar and pollen rich flowers that help grow and sustain healthy hives are in shorter supply than you may realize. Without a more sizable agriculture base and with limits on gardening imposed by the abundant deer population, the major “nectar flow” on Bowen comes from blackberry blossom. When blackberry vines blossom during a drought period (as they did in 2009), the result is reduced nectar availability and ultimately weaker bee populations.

Enter the “Bee Offensive”, a multi-phase initiative aimed at increasing the diversity and volume of bee-friendly nectar sources on the island. To kick off the initiative, BAA and BowFEAST will be offering free packages of a flower seed mix that will make bees buzz with anticipation. The idea is simple: sow the seeds in a sunny spot that is currently lacking in the wildflower department. (While many of the seeds should overwinter in our mild marine conditions, you can also wait until early spring to sprinkle the flowers-in-waiting. Or hedge your bets and do a little of both). If you’re really keen, consider harvesting the seed from next years crop (if only our financial investments had the same astronomical rate of returns). It’s a small step but one that even non-gardeners can participate in.

Look for the BowFEAST / BAA bee forage packages at a Bowen retail outlet over the next couple weeks. Get them while supplies last!

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Jul 17 NO comments
BowFEAST, Event

BowFEAST farmers’ market: August 14!

Ladies and gentleman, gather your tomatoes, blackberries and zucchinis! BowFEAST is coming August 7 to 14, with the farmers’ and growers’ market on Saturday, August 14 from 10 am to 1 pm on the library lawn.

3823851355_0bf5b417fc_mThere’s something different this year. We are now officially a program of Bowen Community Recreation. So that means, folks who want to sell at the Saturday farmers’ market have to register in advance for a table at the Bowen rec office (at Bowen Island Community School x 2216) and pay $5 for a table. Registration is now open—join us! (Anyone is welcome to show up and sell their backyard goods at the community table and we invite you to donate proceeds to the BICS school garden.)

If you’ve haven’t heard of it, BowFEAST is a week-long celebration of local eating, honouring our island farmers and the harvest, in mid-August that culminates in the community farmers’/growers’ Saturday market. For that week, we’ll be challenging all Bowenites to eat as locally as possible, together!

Last year was a humdinger, and we’re hoping this year will be even better. We’ll have tables for folks selling produce, herbs, flowers, preserves, baked goods, tasty vittels from the butcher; a table for the Bowen Agricultural Alliance; a kids’ aggie fun table; beekeepers; plus info on garden composting, veggie growing, wildcrafting/foraging and recipes using local ingredients. We’ll have a set of half-hour worksops this year as well, where budding ag enthusiasts can share info on mason bees, chickens, and more. And we hope as many Bowen retailers as possible will join the fun as well.

We’re suggesting everyone gather together friends and family and feast SLOW-food-style—each at his own house, in his own way. If you can, put a 100-percent-from-Bowen dinner on the table. If you can’t, do your best: maybe a Bowen apple crisp and roasted chicken, with squash, beet salad and Okanagan Pinot Gris. Cocoa West Chocolates are a decadent dessert. Try to get it all from the island; if you need to get some menu items from the mainland, go for it; go B.C. or regional. If the weather cooperates, move the table out under a tree and take in the last scents of summer.

For more info stay tuned to the Bowen Ag Alliance website or e-mail BowFEAST organizer Elle Glave.

Related

Here’s what to expect at this year’s BowFEAST farmers’ market:
The stars of the show: our farmers!
* Daphne Fargher of Foxglove Ranch will be selling her jams and jellies.
* growers Aubin and David van Berckel with artichokes, fennel, berries, figs, herbs, vinegars (apple cider and raspberry), pickled nasturtium “tastes like capers.”
* the Ruddy Garden’s Kim Howden with produce
* Clemencia Braraten of Primrose Farm with purple potatoes, beets, carrots, greens, lettuce, garlic…
* Collinsia Farm’s Marion Moore and Jean Jamieson are coming with their famed greens and other produce
* the girls from the EFC (Environmental friendship club) will sell produce from their gardens and some homemade/baked goodies as a fundraiser.
* Jane Ferguson of Ferguson Farm with shiitake mushrooms and mushroom kits, herb pots, green pepper plants and small flower pots.
* Suzan Phillippe, Dane Willow Farm, with canned Bowen peaches from her property and vinegars, plus some produce.
* Bowen Brook Farm’s Marg McConnell & Andrew Burgess, with tasty produce
* gardener extraordinaire Reidun van Kervel with her own kale, arugula, herbs, lettuce and zucchini, among other produce.
* farmer Rosie Montgomery and Peter of Home Farm with lavender dried, sachets and fresh eggs.
* grower Susan Proctor, the Gardenmaker, with produce, preserves and cut flowers.
* The talented Eva Kepesova with homemade pies, jams and cakes.
* selling local burdock w/ recipes on how to prepare will be Deanna Adams and Charmaine Heffelfinger, also offering lettuce, chard and green beans, if ready to harvest.

On the retail side…
* The Ruddy Potato green grocer will be featuring locally grown produce in the store. Just look for the special signs.
* With a table or three at the farmers’ market, Tuscany/Artisan Eats cafe’s Julie Cree says: “There with MUCH bread, seasonal fruit tarts, Bowen basil pesto, and basically, we’ll try to make a bunch of baked goods with produce we find on the island.”
* Says Paul at the Bowen Island Cold Beer & Wine Store: “This weekend Aug 13-15 is our annual BC wine tasting in conjunction with BowFEAST. Lots of great wines to try between Friday evening and Sunday. We also have a truly wonderful draw prize for all tasters to enter for. Full details with wines, times, deals and prize click on the Bowen Wine Blog. This is our largest tasting of the year so do drop by, different wines each day.” Cheers!
* Phoenix on Bowen is featuring local food and ag books in the store.
* Carlos and Joanne at Cocoa West Chocolatier, are offering their popular “Bowen berry truffle” starring island blackberries.
* You can buy locally roasted coffee from Gino’s Happy Isle Café at the farmers’ market.
* Mik’sa restaurant will have an info table at the market.


NEW this year! Don’t miss our FREE foodie/ag workshops, with a new topic each half hour:
10-10:30 am Heather Joan Tam of Bowen Island Museum & archives on history of gardening/ag on Bowen Island
10:30-11 am Shasta Martinuk, Zero Waste Bowen Committee rep, on how local ag can lower our waste production
11-11:30 am Stuart Cole of the Bowen Agricultural Alliance on mason bees
11:30 am-12 pm Charles Robicheau, Ea Claire Farm, talks on buying and raising chickens for beginners
12 pm-12:30 pm Karen Wristen on community gardens and Bowen’s community garden efforts
12:30-1 pm – rep for Urban Grains, a local co-op: what is it? How to join?
1-1:30 pm Vivian Pearce on buying and raising laying chickens: you’re already up and running — how to take your operation to the next level?

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