Episode 17: Island Bison

As we mentioned last week in the Edible Valley, Jon and Blayne had the opportunity to visit Island Bison as part of the North Vancouver Island Chefs Associations meeting. We had a facinating tour and informative conversation with Mark Vance, owner of Island Bison. Mark, along with his wife Lisa and four children, and mother and father purchased Island Bison about a year and a half ago. With no farming background of this scale, just the dream and passion the farm is running successfully and they are having a great time with this new adventure. Bison are an amazing animal that was brought back from the brink of extinction. While the population is still a sliver of what it once was, it is being successfully farmed as alternative meat source to beef and farm raised venison. Thanks Mark for sharing your story. Check Island Bisons website at islandbison.com and you can find the product at the Saturday farmers market, Seeds grocery in Cumberland and Edible Island in Courtenay.

September 23rd- Flavour the North Vancouver Island Gourmet Picnic.  SOLD OUT. If you did not get a ticket for this years event, keep your eyes peeled for it again in 2013. I do believe the organizers are still looking for volunteers so this may be a way in. Contact them through the site. 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. October 5 and 6-The Foggy Mountain Fall Fair in Cumberland. Come for the pie of the year contest, apple sports, crafts, walking and biking tours and so much more. For more information check this link 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. If you are enjoying the podcast we would appreciate it if you would help us by hitting our donate button. Every little bit helps us to keep our hosting site paid up and maybe sponsor one of our pre-game meals. 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