December 2nd, 2011
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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April 16th, 2011
“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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April 4th, 2011
Welcome to
BowFEAST in a Box!
On a recent chilly Saturday, Kim Howden and I warmed up near the wood stove in Clemencia Braraten’s kitchen to talk veg. We gathered at the table next to a small grove of Goji Berry bushes recuperating from a rat attack. Clemencia plied us with steaming hot Sanka while she patty-caked together some homemade tortillas, flattened in a Mexican empuje (looks like a Medieval torture device). These, she served slathered with her own salsa. What a treat! It seems—after months of discussion—unlikely that I only discovered at this gathering that we won’t have too much produce in May, but that was the case.
Yep, May will be sparse; I suppose that’s what it means to eat seasonally.
What to expect in May?
You can count on salad greens, lettuces, Asian greens, spinach, rhurbarb, herbs and, everyone’s favourite, kale. That said, I’ll be calling around to secure other goodies from my Bowen back-up growers—namely, asparagus! And there is nothing tastier than sweet, tender, grassy, young asparagus. (Did you know it grows so quickly that you can actually almost see it coming up?) We will do our utmost to deliver $25 worth of produce in your weekly box; failing that, I will refund any shortcomings at the end of the month. In June, things will be ramping up, should be in full swing by mid-June and hit spectacular in July.
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Pick-up Location
We’ve planned box pick-up for Monday evenings from 5-7pm beginning May 2. The pick-up is at the crossroads, at the old gas station, which is now serving as artist Stacy Beamer’s workshop. If you can’t pick-up your box for any reason, please arrange for a friend or neighbour to get it.
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Vacation?
We will donate any unclaimed boxes to the United Church food bank. This is also an option when you are on vacation. Please check your e-mail each Monday for any last-minute box pick-up announcements. On a holiday Monday, we will move pick-up to the Tuesday.
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Extras. We’ve invited Bowen producers to sell “extras” at our box pick-up locations when they have it. I will e-mail you all a note with something like: “This week’s extra is a box of juicy raspberries. Bring $5 cash if you want ‘em.” Daphne Fargher of Foxglove Farm has offered us a featured jam or chutney of the month—May is strawberry-rhubarb. Do we want to include this in our box once a month? Please weigh in!
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This week’s harvest box:
Here’s where we’ll tell you what to expect in your box…
i.e.,
a pint of strawberries
a bunch of basil
a pound of potatoes
etc.
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What’s in season now?
Here’s where we’ll help you eat seasonally—food tastes better, of course, when it’s fresh and at its peak. What’s in season in April in BC? Apples, asparagus, chives, pears, rhubarb, rosemary, sage, spinach. Courtesy of the BC Farmer’s Market Association (www.bcfarmersmarket.org).
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Recipe
Arugula—A True Salad Savior
Arugula is a member of the mustard (brassica) family. It has a mild nutty taste with a little hint of spiciness to it. Add some leaves to your normal salad for some contrast. Or… use just the arugula leaves with some walnuts, fresh Parmesan cheese, olive oil and black pepper. A real Italian treat! From my harvest box inspiration, Farmer Monte in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
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November 2nd, 2010
BowFEAST in a box—call it the 10-mile-diet
*buy direct from a co-op of Bowen Island farmers & growers!
*get a weekly box of produce for 26 weeks during the growing season!
*support the local economy!
*eat fresh, seasonally and healthfully!
What is a CSA, anyway?
Community Shared Agriculture (also Community Supported Agriculture), or CSA, is essentially a co-op that delivers fresh, locally-grown produce and ag products direct from growers to consumers. It supports local agriculture and small family farms by connecting farmers with consumers.
How does it work?
Sign up and join the co-op. You buy a “share” in January—thereby sharing the risk of locusts or aphids or drought with the farmer—typically around $500. Then from May through October, you receive a weekly box of just-been-harvested, sustainably-grown, pesticide-free produce each week—for 26 weeks during the growing season.
What do I get?
The box will have a variety of fruit, veggies and greens, perhaps eggs, plus a recipe-of-the-week and newsletter with reports from the field about what your farmers are up to.
Who’s growing the food?
Five Bowen Island farmers and growers who are forming a co-op CSA.
What if I can’t eat all that produce?
The box will typically supply a family of four for its produce needs for the week. If you can’t eat that much, just split a share with a friend.
Will I just get a big ol’ box of kale?
No. We will work hard to ensure your box has a tasty array of goodies each week.
How do I sign up?
If you’re interested, just e-mail us for more details at elle.glave@BowenAgAlliance.ca.
When can I get started?
BowFEAST in a box is slated to launch in January 2011.
Here’s what Wikipedia says about CSAs:
Community-supported agriculture (in Canada Community Shared Agriculture) (CSA) is a socio-economic model of agriculture and food distribution. A CSA consists of a community of individuals who pledge support to a farming operation where the growers and consumers share the risks and benefits of food production. CSAs usually consist of a system of weekly delivery or pick-up of vegetables and fruit, in a vegetable box scheme, and sometimes includes dairy products and meat.
Community-supported agriculture began in the early 1960s in Germany, Switzerland and Japan as a response to concerns about food safety and the urbanization of agricultural land. In the 1960s, groups of consumers and farmers in Europe formed cooperative partnerships to fund farming and pay the full costs of ecologically sound and socially equitable agriculture. In Europe many of the CSA style farms were inspired by the economic ideas of Rudolf Steiner and experiments with community agriculture took place on farms using biodynamic agriculture.
CSAs generally focus on the production of high quality foods for a local community, often using organic or biodynamic farming methods, and a shared risk membership-marketing structure. This kind of farming operates with a much greater degree of involvement of consumers and other stakeholders than usual—resulting in a stronger consumer-producer relationship. The core design includes developing a cohesive consumer group that is willing to fund a whole season’s budget in order to get quality foods. The system has many variations on how the farm budget is supported by the consumers and how the producers then deliver the foods. CSA theory purports that the more a farm embraces whole-farm, whole-budget support, the more it can focus on quality and reduce the risk of food waste or financial loss.
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