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Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1498118
OKANAGAN HAD A FARM With a moo-moo here and a pop-pop there (that's the sound of uncorking a wine bottle), the Okanagan is home to some of B.C.'s best farmland. One of our editors took a summer trip and lined up a few very special spots: here are three amazing places worth visiting on your next OK getaway. By Alyssa Hirose A Farm for the Foodie Klippers Organic Acres 725 Mackenzie Rd., Cawston, B.C. klippersorganics.com The realities of farm life can't be as roman- tic as the storybooks would have us believe, right? But Klippers Organic Acres feels like a true countryside paradise—so much so that it has me seriously daydreaming about aban- doning my high-maintenance city life to frolic among tractors and chickens. The family-owned farm in the Similkameen Valley has grown from five to 60 acres since the Klippensteins first founded it in 2001. Kevin Klippenstein takes us on a walking tour, stopping every once in a while to pull a beet from the ground or pluck a Padrón pepper from a nearby plant (most are mild, but about one in every ten is very spicy, he tells us). Those same Padrón peppers are served at Row Fourteen, the onsite restaurant (they take farm-to-table extremely literally). They are done simply, fire-roasted with canola oil and flaky salt, and I "lose" the pepper roulette: the very first one I taste burns in my mouth and nose. But it's also delicious, as is every- thing else: warm bread with a soft smoked butter, beets with whey cream and plums, cider sausage atop rich romesco sauce. All produce is picked with intention from just outside the restaurant's sweeping windows, and that mindfulness comes through in the ultra-fresh menu. A Farm for the Family Covert Farms Family Estate 300 Covert Pl., Oliver, B.C. covertfarms.ca Covert Farms Family Estate appeals to the young and the young-at-heart: try not to smile with childlike joy as you bounce around the property in the back of a little red pickup truck. The yellow jumping pillow (think tram- poline, but marginally safer) begs to be skipped across. There's waddling ducks, talk- ative sheep and giant bristly pigs—but, to me, the cows are the highlight. Unlike those farms that keep livestock in feedlots, Covert integrates their animals with their plants: planned grazing keeps the crops under control and manure helps the plants grow. So, right in the middle of the fruits and veggies, there are fuzzy cows. Emo-looking caramel-coloured cows with sassy bangs, giant cream-toned cows walk- ing with elegant purpose and brown-and- white splotchy cows that look deep into my Klippers Organic Acres The Feast Let the chef pick your meal with the multi-course harvest lunch menu ($50 per person) at Row Fourteen. The Shop Grab a bottle of Untangled Craft Cider's black plum basil cider ($19) from the in-restaurant gift shop. The Photo Op Just down the road from Row Fourteen is the Klippers Marketplace and Café—snap a pic basking in the hammock chairs while you refresh with housemade peach-leaf ice cream. G a rl i c S h ed Am o ng th e rows of vegg i e s at Klip p e rs i s a tiny b u il d ing fille d with g a rli c (ye s , it s m e ll s we irdly d e li c iou s in s i d e). Alyssa Hirose LOCAL G ETAWAYS O K ANAG AN FAR M S 50 BCBUSINESS MAY/JUNE 2023 Alyssa Hirose