Episode 12: Chef Aaron Rail

Tonight we had a wonderful visit with Chef Aaron Rail from Avenue Bistro. Aaron and Jon have been executive chefs at sister restaurants Atlas Cafe and Avenue Bistro and have worked on various event together over the years. Aaron has worked as a chef, baker, brewer, pastery chef and began his career in the industry at age 13 flipping burgers at a fast food establishment. Thanks for sticking to it Aaron, you have made a great addition to the Edible Valley.
I wanted to elaborate on our pre-game meal. We were lucky to have sausages donated by two different vendors for us to try. Heather McWilliam from Tanadice Farm wanted us to try their new blue cheese and pear pork sausage. I found the blue cheese very mild and it combines nicely with the pear. Thank you Tanadice Farm. Greg at Butchers Block sent Jon home with chorizo sausage, breakfast sausage and turkey kielbasa. All were delicious. I love sausage, and Jon also picked up a few varieties of Natural Pastures cheeses. An easy, local meal. Please support these and other local producers. These are our friends and neighbors, co-workers and customers. Keep it local.
Mt. Washington Food and Wine Festival August 25th
The Comox Valley Exhibition at the Fairgrounds in Courtenay
Chefs Day at the Farmers Market September 8th. Come cheer Jon on as he helps to create from the bounty of the market.
September 23rd- Flavour the North Vancouver Island Gourmet Picnic. Visit the beautiful grounds of Coastal Black Winery and sample products from dozens of chefs and farmers from around the Comox Valley. Once again, Jon will be wearing many hats at this event. Blayne will be walking around and eating, what he does best! Island Soda Works will also be dishing out samples at this wonderful event.
The Comox Valley $100 dollar challenge. Join our initiative and help to keep dollars in the local economy.
Of course the Comox Valley Farmers Market twice weekly Saturday 9-12 at the Fair Grounds on Headquarters and Wednesday from 9-12 at the Comox Bay Farm.
Thanks for listening to our podcast. For suggestions or feedback please contact us ediblevalley@gmail.com, "like" our facebook page and follow our twitter feed @ediblevalley
And the Campbell River Salmon Festival August 10, 11, and 12th. Visit Ray at the Fanny Bay Oysters display

Episode 11: Island Soda Works

This week we introduce Mandolyn McScandalot to Edible Valley. She is the proprieter and head Soda Jerk with Island Soda Works. She wows us with her knowledge of fermentation, lacto-bacteria and unique flavor blends. She brought four flavours into the studio for us to sample. This soda is a wonderful mix of a delicious beverage, healthy tonic and a vitamin rich alternative to sports drinks or other so called "vitamin" drinks. When mixed with alcohol her soda will ward off hangover and will give an energy boost when you want an alternative to caffeine. We at Edible Valley have been big fans of Island Soda Works for several months now and we encourage you to support her exclusive blends of soda and avoid the unmentionable ingredients in the mass produced soft drinks of North America. I know none of them have "love" as one of the ingredients.
Thanks Mandolyn for the soda and the fantastic conversation.
Upcoming Events

Episode 10:Ray Silvey from Fanny Bay Oysters

An old co-worker of Blayne joins us in studio for this episode to talk about oyster farming. Ray Silvey is the sales manager of Fanny Bay Oysters, and has been an employee since 1994. Ray is a very informed and educated guest with a mountain of knowledge in the industry. Come along and learn something about a delicious, sustainable product grown right in our own backyard.
We had a microphone problem that we didn't know about until the episode was finished, so Ray's voice is pretty faint. Listen close because there is a lot of interesting content that Ray shares with us.
Upcoming Events
Filberg Festival and Nautical Days August 3-6th.
Comox Valley Farm Cycle Tour August 11th and 12th. For a list of participating farms check this link
Mt. Washington Food and Wine Festival August 25th
Chefs Day at the Farmers Market September 8th. Come cheer Jon on as he helps to create from the bounty of the market.
The Comox Valley $100 dollar challenge. Join our initiative and help to keep dollars in the local economy.
Of course the Comox Valley Farmers Market twice weekly Saturday 9-12 at the Fair Grounds on Headquarters and Wednesday from 9-12 at the Comox Bay Farm.
And the Campbell River Salmon Festival August 10, 11, and 12th. Visit Ray at the Fanny Bay Oysters display
Thanks for listening to our podcast. For suggestions or feedback please contact us ediblevalley@gmail.com, "like" our facebook page and follow our twitter feed @ediblevalley

Episode 9: Tree Island Gourmet Yogurt

Blayne, Scott and Jon
This episode we welcome Scott DiGustini of Tree Island Gourmet Yogurt, the Comox Valley's own artisan cultured dairy. We had an educational conversation about yogurt and the exciting things that are to come from Tree Island Gourmet Yogurt.
Coming Events
August 3rd to 6th-Comox host Nautical Days to celebrate B.C. day, and the Filberg Festival at the Filberg Lodge.
August 11 and 12th-The Comox Valley Farm Cycle Tour. Sign up for a fun day or days of bicycling in the beautiful countryside of the Comox Valley and meet the farmers who grow your food. I already have my ticket, do you?
August 25th- Mount Washington Food and Wine Festival.
September 8th- Chefs Day at the Farmers Market. Come and cheer on the chefs as they create wonderful dishes from foods available at the market. Come and say "Hi" to Jon.
September 23rd- Flavour the North Vancouver Island Gourmet Picnic. Visit the beautiful grounds of Coastal Black Winery and sample products from dozens of chefs and farmers from around the Comox Valley. Once again, Jon will be wearing many hats at this event. Blayne will be walking around and eating, what he does best!
Of course the bi-weekly Comox Valley Farmers Market
We would also like to extend an invitation to join a growing movement, the Comox Valley $100 Challenge. A facebook based community within a community. Join and help us keep some of our grocery dollars with our local producers.
Thanks for listening to Edible Valley. Find us on facebook, follow our twitter feed @ediblevalley, and email us for suggestions, comments or any other feedback you wish to give. Keep it Local.

Episode Eight: The New Hope

I played on the title of a famous space opera that molded our collective childhood. Our podcast has been graced with a new hope or opportunity with the offer of recording at the Jet FM studio in Courtenay. Our audio quality and consistency should be much better now. We hope to have a new website up in the next little bit and some other fun things. Here is a list of what is coming up in the Comox Valley.
July 21st- Market Days Downtown Courtenay
August 3-6th The Filberg Festival at the beautifully preserved grounds of the Filberg Lodge in Comox.
Also that same weekend in Comox the B.C. Day festivities happen at the marina park. There is sure to be some great food vendors there as well as a beverage garden and many other activities.
August 11 and 12th. The Comox Valley Farm Cycle tour. Pick from three seperate routes and get out for some fresh air and exercise and see where your food comes from. Bring your children!
August 25th Mount Washington Wine and Food Festival. Buy your tickets online.
September 25th Flavour the North Vancouver Island Gourmet Picnic. An event that both of us at Edible Valley are very excited about. Come out and sample the best that the Comox Valley and the north Island has to offer. See you there!
Of course the Comox Valley Farmers Market is every Wednesday and Saturday from 9 until noon.
Email us with questions, suggestions on topics or to let us know how we are doing to ediblevalley@gmail.com. Like our Facebook page and follow our twitter feed. @ediblevalley
Thanks for tuning in and stay tuned for great guests and content.

Episode Seven: The Comox Valley $100 Challenge

Russ Mahy joined us for an interview. He came up with the concept of the $100 challenge, a initiative to shift $100 of your monthly spending on local products. It could be food, wine, art, or music. He feels like we need to grow a local economy and this is a great way to start small and build the momentum. Shopping locally is an adventure in diversity. If you are interested, please like the Facebook page and be prepared to keep track of your local spending to share with the group. He hopes to have 1000 families and individuals signed up by August 1st, and have a tally in a year to see how much money stayed in the valley. Please participate and spread the message, this is a wonderful way to build community and support those that work so hard to feed, entertain and clothe us locally. We also encourage getting your children involved. If they learn this lesson early, it will follow them through out their lives.
The Facebook campaign: Comox Valley $100 dollar challenge
Follow on twitter @Cvalley100
We also mentioned the Comox Valley Farm Cycle tour. I encourage many participants in this fun event. There are loops for every skill level of rider. I will be participating, meeting riders and farmers. It is the best of both worlds for this "cynical cyclist"
I want to apologize for the some what poor audio quality. We are still learning, and for some reason it did not sound as good for this interview as some of the others. We are currently looking to upgrade our audio equipment. If you have any knowledge or equipment that you could sell I would like to hear from you. Thanks.

Episode Six: Commercial fishing family

This episode we had the opportunity to pay a visit to Theresa Noot and her daughter Kyla Savage in "Gum Boot Country" at their home in Merville BC. Theresa and her husband Tim have been commercial fishing for salmon, halibut and tuna for over 30 years. Kyla was raised in the industry, and worked seven consecutive seasons on the "Titanium" with her dad. We were able to be educated on the ins and outs of how commercial fishing licensing works, where to find tuna in BC waters and how many gumboots they own. It was a great informative visit, and we were graciously gifted with romaine lettuce, kale, basil, garlic scapes and some tasty, perfectly ripe raspberries.
To contact Theresa or Kyla to purchase frozen at sea salmon call their house at (250)338-0587, or email Theresa at tnoot@shaw.ca
The strawberries are ready at Ashberry farm in Royston. I was busy this weekend getting a good pile in my freezer. I feel so good to put local organic ingredients in my storage.
The Comox Valley 100 dollar challenge is an initiative started by Russ Mahy, friend of the Edible Valley. It is a Facebook based challenge where his dream is to get 1000 Comox Valley familys to shift $100 dollars of their grocery budget monthly to local producers, thus injecting 1.2 million dollars into our hardworking farmers pocketbooks, and away from the multi-national faceless corporate run food system. Please have a look and consider joining up. If you are already supporting local agri, we want you too. Help spread the word.

Episode Five: Halstead Farm

Edible Valley had the privilege to visit Chris and Megan at Halstead farm in Merville B.C. for a tour of their operation, to see the organic farming process up close and personal.  We visited the chicken house and watched the birds play and eat grass and bug, viewed the Berkshire hogs being a family unit in the forest and the ewes and lambs in the field with more forage than any herbivore could ever want. Thanks to this lovely couple for their hospitality and to teach us about organic farming, animal husbandry and gum boots.
Halstead Farm website: halsteadfarm.ca
To purchase Halstead Farm product, visit them at the Comox Valley farmers market or contact through the website to buy from the farm.

Episode Four: Welcome back

Finally after two months away we were able to get together and record another episode of "Edible Valley" Blayne is all done school and Jon has cleared his books for the summer so we hope to be able to bring you some great guests and content over the next few months.
We are excited for this event. Come and see us at the show and taste some of Jon's wonderful creations. Click the pictures for links.

Coastal Black Winery will be hosting this wonderful event

See you at the Comox Valley Farmers Market
Follow us on Twitter (@ediblevalley) or on our Facebook page.
Email your questions, or show ideas at ediblevalley@gmail.com
Visit Blayne's blog "The cynical cyclist"

Guest Brian Mccormick

After a wander through Brian garden, we sit down to discuss his various food related endeavours, gardening, home processing and making ham in your garage. Thanks for being our first guest Brian, it was a lot of fun and inspiring what can be grown in ones back yard.
Also, this weekend, the Comox Valley Farmers Market moves outdoors. Visit them from 9 until noon at the Exhibition Grounds, Headquarters Rd, Courtenay.
Please forward on your feedback to the Edible Valley. Email ediblevalley@gmail.com, follow us on Twitter(@ediblevalley) or like us on Facebook. Thanks for stopping by.