Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/728142
16 BCA A .COM FALL 2016 Barb Sligl, The Wildcraft Forest, Anna Fournier Photography STAR PRODUCERS Where to savour even more North Okanagan flavour Wildcraft Forest. Don Elzer is passionate about the process of "wildcrafting, " or gathering native plants to make food, tea, medicine and crafts. His Lumby plantation produces teas made from wild herbs and botanicals – like burdock, Oregon grape and rosehip – gathered from his own 50-hectare plot, and the neighbouring Monashee Mountains. Visit to shop, or take a course and learn to wildcraft for yourself. wildcraftforest.com Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillery. This Vernon operation pioneered craft distilling in BC, winning Distillery of the Year and World Class Distillery at the 2015 World Spirit Awards. Its "farm to glass" spirits include brandies made from local fruit, Canada's first genuine absinthe and an acclaimed small-batch single malt whisky. The distillery expanded to its current space on 24th Street last year, adding a tasting room, along with North America's tallest copper pot still. okanaganspirits.com Marten Brewpub. Stefan and Pearl Marten opened this, Vernon's first brewpub, last year on the corner of 30th Street and 30th Avenue. The taps are always changing, but look out for small-batch brews such as Rough & Dirty Red Ale, a caramel-malt flavoured masterpiece, and Just for the Helles Lager, an amber brew with a floral hop aroma. Order your suds with a burger or get a growler to go. martenbrewpub.com The Village Cheese Company. This long-time family-owned business in Armstrong, BC, makes handcrafted cheeses from Okanagan-only dairy products. Pay a visit to its Smith Drive location to watch cheesemakers in action, taste the wares or have a bowl of borscht at the café. villagecheese.com Terroir Artisan Cheese. This Armstrong dairy farm and cheesery produces raw- milk, GMO-free cheese from a happy herd of Montbeliarde-X and Jersey cows that eat only grass and hay grown onsite. This means Okanagan "terroir" is detectable in every bite, from the French Gruyère to the Stilton-style Continental Blue. terroircheese.ca DESTINATIONS Northern Harvest Then there's the new crew, like 20-something Naomi Fournier of Birdsong Farm. Fournier is a first-generation farmer who raises Jersey cows and Nubian goats, and teaches a popular cheese-making course she calls "From Cow to Curd." Her passion started at 13 with Blossom, a nine-month-old heifer her family got when they moved to the Okanagan, near Enderby. "I'd cared for Blossom since day one and had fallen head-over-hooves in love with her, and that was the start of my cheese-making career," says Fournier. She has since had generations of cows, making cheese with milk from Blossom's granddaughters, and welcoming Blossom's first great- granddaughter, Jasmine, this past spring. I meet other young trailblazers at the Vernon Farmers' Market, one of the oldest and BC's largest, with more than 140 vendors. Like charming Frenchman Olivier Petit, the "Master Crêpeman" who makes and sells crêpes out of a food truck, and Austin Frie, a tattooed 26-year-old producing wood- fire-roasted coffee beans – the first and only in Canada – under his Smokey Castle Coffee Company banner. Daisy the cow produces milk for Enderby's Birdsong Farm; (opposite) Ratio Coffee makes its home in Vernon's historic train station, serving up excellent java and to-die-for doughnuts.