There’s still time to secure your share of locally grown organic grains from the Creston Valley and have them delivered by sailboat on October 20.
Sailboats have been plying the waters of Kootenay Lake long before 2008 when the Kootenay Grain CSA (community support agriculture) first began. For three of the project’s six years, the Kootenay Lake Sailing Association has participated in a three-day journey to transport those grains from the south end of the lake to Nelson. The fossil-fuel-free journey has recently been featured as part of the locally-produced television series Deconstructing Dinner, which broadcast across Canada on September 30.
The harvest was successful this year and farmer Roy Lawrence indicates that there is still quite a bit of grain available to purchase. The crops available this year are yellow peas, oats, Red Fife wheat, spelt, hard red winter wheat and soft white winter wheat. There is a small amount of green lentils as well.
The Lawrences are encouraging people to send in their order forms as soon as possible to secure a space on the sailboats for the October 20 delivery date.
Order forms can be downloaded at kootenaygraincsa.ca and the Lawrences can be contacted at 250-428-7556.
Deconstructing Dinner’s Jon Steinman has also launched a co-ownership flour mill this year in Nelson and is inviting members of the CSA to contact him to become a co-owner. While some members have purchased counter-top flour mills for their own use, the co-ownership model enables members to access a flour mill at the fraction of the price to purchase your own.
“As I learned while producing the Deconstructing Dinner TV series, freshly-milled flour is the best way to ensure our grains deliver the highest level of nutrients and the most flavour,” says Steinman. He can be contacted at jon(at)deconstructingdinner.com
You can watch Deconstructing Dinner’s wheat episode at deconstructingdinner.com. A five-minute video has also been produced about the grain sailing journey and is available on the web site.