Hello out there in the real world!

This blog entry will take you back a few weeks to our trip through the
Okanagan, where we met some rattlesnakes, farmers, and dangerous plants. And to cap it off, Julia, Kevin and Ella did a Food Planning Session for the Fraser River trip!

Being in wine country was a real treat. Unfortunately the Innkameep
Campsite was filled with poison ivy, but none of us touched it and we all
learned how to identify it quite quickly (for those that are interested,
leaves of three, shiny, bright green. Stay Away!)

We spent a morning at Covert Organic Farms with Gene Covert, an incredibly knowledgeable third generation farmer. While taking us on an intensive tour of his recently converted to organic farm, he answered quite a few Redfishie questions. We learned a lot, but most notable was that he would be out of business if he was still a conventional farmer, and he had been surprised by the productive capacity of his land under organic farming methods.

Later that day we paid an impromptu visit to a nearby feedlot, which was a pretty stark contrast. The cows were silent, but they were very curious about the 21 humans walking past their hot, dirty pens. It was an eye-opener to be sure, and our conversation with the owner put a human face on an issue that we had only read about so far.

After that busy morning, we had Food Planning Session #3! This took place on the beach, post-swim. While it would seem like a idyllic setting, the session was somewhat tainted by a strong wind that blew in some nasty allergens, but didn't quite get rid of the cloud of bugs hovering over our class. Needless to say, it was a quick session. We were a little nervous that we wouldn't have enough food for the river trip, especially since we were now providing for three hungry guides as well as the voracious Redfish appetites, but everyone was impressed by the quantity and quality of the meals on the Fraser. We also incorporated a new shopping approach that put more responsibility in the hands of each cooking group, and less stress onto the shoulders of our lovely instructors, who have been so patient with all our planning pitfalls.

Not to mention, we got a 20% discount at the Penticton Whole Foods. Take that, Mountainberry!