Kootenay Harvest Revival: Nelson, BC, Canada

Harvest Party Celebrates Fruitful 1st Year Grain-Growers Initiative

Sep 12, 2008

The Slow Food Movement works together with Community Supported Agriculture. Creston CSA grain growers are throwing a huge party to celebrate their 1st year CSA success.

What better way to celebrate a successful harvest than with a party? On September 19, 2008, the Kootenay Harvest Revival, celebrates the successful achievement of Creston Valley graingrowers in the West Kootenay region of BC, Canada, to harvest their first community supported crop. It hosts an evening of entertainment at the Capital Theater in Nelson, described as "a narrative and theatrical history of harvesting food in the Kootenays, plus the current and future state of Kootenay Food." This will be followed on September 21 with a delicious brunch at the famous All Seasons Café, a meal which will use their grains: oats, spelt, and hard spring, khorasan and red fife wheats.

What is Community Supported Agriculture?

Consumers deal directly with farmers. They put up the money for the crops, and consult about the type of food which will be grown and the risks involved. Once the budget is resolved, the crop is sown and the rest is up to nature (and the farmers.) This year, nature cooperated with those farmers.

Ask someone in the south of France about slow-food and they will probably shake their heads. Isn't that the way food has always been grown, sold and prepared? In much of North America, however, that went by the wayside ages ago: a long, slow disintegration which began with urban migration and the end of the farm market, and ended with the rise of industrial agribusiness monopolies. These entailed or included:

Food is harvested unripe, and designed to meet packaging standards, rigours of shipment and long shelf-life, all of which affected flavour, nutrition, cost and range of available food. The introduction of biofuels as a noncomestible product in the grain commodities market has raised the spector of food security. So Community Supported Agriculture brings food back to the local level, ensuring that there is a supply and that farms are kept in the business of growing food.

"With this CSA project, I'm now considering encouraging my grandchildren to take over my farm because now I see a future in farming," says Keith Huscraft, a 4th-generation Creston farmer.

Who's throwing the Party?

The show at the Capitol Theater is the brainchild of Matt Lowe, an activist who organized the Kootenay Grain CSA and Jon Steinman, the host of Kootenay Coop Radio's incredibly popular, international broadcast "Deconstructing Dinner."

Actors, historians, and writers, Richard Rowberry, Eileen Delehanty Pearkes, and Luanne Armstrong will speak. Musicians, Earl Hamilton and Bessie Wapp of Heavy Shtetl will perform. There will also be narratives by Russell Precious, the co-founder of Capers Organic Market, and farmers, Keith Huscroft, Roy Lawrence and Gregory Hemming (on Wendell Berry.) Last but not least, is Abra Brynne, who is described as a "Foodshed Animator."

The Kootenay Harvest Revival Evening Celebration takes place at the Capitol Theater: 421 Victoria Street, Nelson, BC, Canada on Friday, September 19, 2008 at 7 pm. Tickets are available at the door for $7.

And the Harvest Revival Brunch?

The All Seasons Café is renowned for its delicious, original menus, so line up early.

Sunday, September 21st, 2008 from 10 am to 1 pm at 620 Herridge Lane (in the Alley between Hall and Josephine Streets), Nelson, BC, Canada.) Tickets: $40 at All Seasons Café

The copyright of the article Kootenay Harvest Revival: Nelson, BC, Canada in Food Trends is owned by Simone Keiran. Permission to republish Kootenay Harvest Revival: Nelson, BC, Canada in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.