Events

The Sixth Annual Oregon Truffle Festival is inspired by the rich, beautiful palette of Italy, with friends from Mondo Tartufo, photographer & filmmaker Douglas Gayeton, author of Slow: Life in a Tuscan Town and more than a dozen of the Northwest’s most acclaimed chefs preparing sumptuous truffle feasts paired with gorgeous Oregon wines.

January 28, 29 & 30, 2011

www.oregontrufflefestival.com

On Monday, October 25 2010, at 6:30pm the British Columbia Hospitality Foundation (BCHF) will host "Dish and Dazzle", a new fundraising event and cocktail competition at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Grab a glass of sparkling wine and groove to live entertainment while you rub shoulders with the city's finest. Taste samples from the hottest wineries and chefs while you cheer for your favourite mixologist as they compete for cocktail glory. Tickets are $250 plus HST, benefitting the BCHF.

For tickets, information, or how you can be a sponsor visit www.bchospitalityfoundation.com or contact Alan Sacks at 604-984-8649 | asacks@bchospitalityfoundation.com

OPEN CINEMA and Food Roots are collaborating on a special screening event of “FRESH: new thinking about what we’re eating”.

On Wednesday, September 22nd, OPEN CINEMA Season Eight launches with the Victoria premiere of “FRESH: new thinking about what we’re eating” followed by open forum discussion.  The event starts at 7pm, the discussion will start around 8.30pm and the evening will wrap-up by 10pm.

Food Roots is also hosting a Canning Workshop: Time to Preserve the Harvest.  It takes place on Wednesday, August 18th form 6:30 - 9:30 pm at the Fairfield-Gonzales Community Centre Kitchen (1335 Thurlow, east end of Sir James Douglas School).  Register by Tuesday, August 17th by sending your name, email address and phone number to Lee Fuge, leefuge[at]pacificcoast[dot]net or call 250-385-7974 and leave the requested information.

Come celebrate the 13th annual Feast of Fields, Sunday September 19th at Parry Bay Sheep Farm in Metchosin. As one of the largest & longest-standing food & wine festivals on Vancouver Island, Feast of Fields celebrates the very best of British Columbia- from chefs to food artisans, farmers to forgers & vintners to brewers from around the Island. Feast of Fields is a gastronomic journey towards a sustainable, local food system. (www.feastoffields.com).

Burgundy 101 Seminar

A sit down tasting with Allen featuring classic examples of all the major appellations of Burgundy, with a few hidden gems thrown in for good measure. Allen will guide us through each wine as he speaks about the appellation, producer and recent trends and developments affecting Burgundy.

Date: Saturday, September 18th, 2010

Time: 2:00-4:00pm

Location: Terminal City Club - 837 W. Hastings, Vancouver - Business casual attire

Cost: $99 per person

Bistro Pastis Lunch

Start your Sunday in a leisurely fashion by join us for lunch at John Blakely's Fourth Avenue fixture, Bistro Pastis. This meal will feature the wines from some of the lesser known Burgundy appellations with a sprinkling of more recognizable names included for good measure. As you happily eat and drink away, Allen will discuss each wine and grower, while providing an overview of Burgundy.

Date: Sunday, September 19th, 2010

Time: 11:30am-2:00pm

Location: Bistro Pastis - 2153 W. 4th Avenue, Vancouver

Cost: $99 per person (all inclusive)

To order tickets for these events people contact the store at 604-684-0445.

The 6th Annual Wine and Culinary Festival will take place Saturday, September 18th – Sunday September 19th. The Festival offers an assortment of the area’s best wines and ciders, unique farm-fresh delights from organic farms, live entertainment, green Earth seminars, and hand-blown glassware. During the festival, purple ‘wine route’ roadside signs will make it easy to find participating properties. All the exquisite festival locations will offer at least one complimentary activity or tasting. To download a map of the participating venues and for more information, visit www.wines.cowichan.net.

Saturday September 18th, from 6pm-7pm, the Saanich Fairgrounds will host the Peninsula Harvest Supper, a family oriented and delicious celebration of local harvests, local producers and local processors. For more information, contact rlthompson@shaw.ca. 

Every September, some of the best cooks in the city gather, showcasing their culinary skill. Local performers including musicians, singers, dancers & comedians display their talents on stage while the local brewmeister from Fernie Brewery, along with a sommelier or two, provide refreshments. Fri September 17, 2010 - Sat September 18, 2010 at CP Station Square, Fernie, BC.

Canadian Organic Growers Vancouver Island Chapter (COGVI) meets monthly every third Thursday of the month 7 p.m. at Haliburton Farm, 741 Haliburton Road, Victoria. Thursday, September 16th, 7 pm - 8pm. (www.haliburtonfarm.org)

As municipal governments allow it, more and more people are discovering the joys of keeping their own backyard chickens. These quirky animals not only provide fresh eggs, they also can become pets and provide endless entertainment. In this one-day workshop, “chicken lady” Heather Havens will teach you the simple skills needed to acquire and care for your own backyard flock. Sun, September 12, 1pm – 5pm at Foxglove Farm, Salt Spring Island. (www.foxglovefarmbc.ca)

On Saturday, September 11th over 500 Chefs, Culinary Instructors, Cooks, Apprentices, Culinary Students, Fishers, Farmers and Suppliers from across the country are joining together to effect change by conversing and deliberating on the state of our water ways, their effect on marine life and what constructive steps their industry can build to help improve the health of our oceans.

From Vancouver Chefs Robert Clark and Vikram Vij to Toronto’s Jamie Kennedy and Michael Stadtländer; From the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology Culinary Instructor Michael Allemeier and Quebec’s Pearson School of Culinary Arts, to the Food Networks’ Ned Bell; Director of George Brown College Chef School John Higgins to Michael Bonacini, Executive Chef and co-owner of five of Toronto’s top restaurants, chefs from every part of Vancouver Island and chefs from every Province and every Territory will be in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley for two days of workshops, panels discussions and...some pretty awesome food! The list of chefs participating is unprecedented - the guest speakers and workshops will be compelling, even evocative.

To visit the Canadian Chefs Congress website, click here. 

The Great Canadian Beer Festival has become one of the worlds' must-attend beer events. People from all over the globe seek out Victoria and the GCBF every year; the event attracts brewers from Australia, volunteers from England and beer lovers from all over. 

In support of C-Fax Santa's Anonymous, the GCBF will be held September 10th – 11th, 2010. (www.gcbf.com)

The Beach Club Resort is proud to host Bubbles on the Beach; the Premier Sparkling Wine event for the Oceanside Area! Both the Main Event and Brunch are on Pacific Prime Steak & Chop Restaurant's beach front patio just steps away from Parksville Beach. With breath taking views, enjoy some of British Columbia's best sparkling wines from Sumac Ridge, Summer Hill, See Ya Later Ranch, Gray Monk Odyssey and more! The perfect opportunity to experience local sparking wines paired with a wide variety of fresh local seafood and more prepared by Chef Sean Norris. The Bubbles on the Beach main event is held Saturday Sept 4th, 2010 followed by the Bubbles Brunch on the Beach on Sunday Sept. 5th, 2010. Space is limited and last years event sold out early. 

For more information or to purchase tickets, please contact Reservations: 1-800-760-2008

Event Tickets : Bubbles on the Beach - Main Event

Date:Saturday September 4, 2010

Tickets: $89.00 per person*

Bubbles on the Beach - Sunday Brunch

Date: Sunday September 5, 2010

Tickets: $26.00 per person* 

*Taxes not included

Tuesday evening, August 31 - Friday morning, September 3

Instructors: Harry Burton, Bob Duncan & Michael Ableman

Cost $225 + HST (includes lunches and dinners); On-farm accommodation encouraged

Register on-line at www.foxglovefarmbc.ca. 

This workshop is intended for anyone wishing to start or care for a fruit orchard on a home or commercial scale. Join orchardists Harry Burton, Bob Duncan, and Michael Ableman to learn about site selection, fruit varieties, orchard establishment, soil fertility, grafting, pruning, pest and disease control, harvest, post harvest, and marketing of fruit. From Apples to Quince, a range of tree crops that can be grown in this region will be covered. The workshop includes a field trip to Burton’s wild orchard on Salt Spring Island and to Bob Duncan’s Mediterranean and sub- tropical orchard in North Saanich.

For 12 years, Harry Burton has run Apple Luscious Organic Orchard on Salt Spring Island. Harry’s unique orchard grows over 200 of the best tasting, rare, heritage and connoisseur apple varieties, including over 23 tasty red-flesh apple varieties (the biggest collection in Canada), as well as other tree fruits. Burton’s approach to orcharding is based on permaculture theory, species diversity and soil health. Harry is a well-known fixture on Salt Spring Island, he is the founder the island’s Apple Festival, and he has over 25 years of teaching experience.  

Bob Duncan has over 35 years experience growing tree fruits on south Vancouver Island. He currently operates a demonstration orchard near Sidney, British Columbia, where he specializes in temperate, Mediterranean, and subtropical fruit trees. His orchard includes over 400 varieties of tree fruits including over 200 varieties of heritage, connoisseur and hard to find apples as well as pears, plums, peaches, apricots, nectarines, cherries, quince, medlar, kiwis, citrus, feijoa, figs, pomegranates, loquats, persimmons, olives, jujubes, avocados, passionfruit, pawpaw, and white sapote. Bob’s orchard has become a well known teaching tool to demonstrate various training systems and cultural techniques.

Michael Ableman began his farming career 37 years ago managing Sunburst Farms’ 60 acre apple, pear, and peach orchard, one of North America’s earliest commercially run organic orchards. Ableman went on to develop a propagation nursery that provided over 200,000 avocado and citrus trees per year for the commercial plantings at the Tajiguas Ranch in southern California. Ableman developed and managed Fairview Gardens for 25 years, which produced 100 different fruit and vegetable products including, peaches, plums, apricots, nectarines, citrus, avocados, figs, persimmons, pomegranate, and cherymmoya. Ableman has extensive experience on the commercial side of organic fruit growing both on the production end and in creative strategies for marketing a range of tree crops.

With harvest season in full swing and farmers markets bursting with sun-ripened tomatoes, there’s no better time than now to take a fresh look at local food and sustainable agriculture. Using large-scale photographs Home Grown introduces visitors to the people behind local food. From an inner city Italian backyard gardener, Ennio, to an aerial view of an industrial scale organic hothouse, the exhibit play homage to sustainable farming. Visitors will receive an insight into alternative styles of growing food like house lot farming and farming co-ops, and enjoy the many photos of community gardeners from across the city. Photographer Brian Harris takes us to the city’s rooftops, snapping a beekeeper as he tentatively lifts a tray of bees from a hive atop a skyscraper, and to the new convention centre’s living roof. August 26th 2010 – January 2nd 2011. (www.museumofvancouver.ca)

Oliver, BC….The dates are set and contracts signed for the 2010 Tinhorn Creek Canadian Concert Series. One of the most highly anticipated events in the South Okanagan every summer, the Tinhorn Creek Canadian Concert Series highlights up and coming Canadian bands with the finale concert featuring well known hit artists. And this year the line-up is outstanding. Beginning with Jack deKeyzer, Saturday May 22nd and wrapping up with internationally acclaimed Bedouin Soundclash, Saturday, September 11th. The concerts are a fantastic blend of music, wine & friends set against the South Okanagan Valley.  A limited number of season's passes (4 concerts) will be available for $100 and individual concerts will be $35 each with Bedouin Soundclash tickets available for $75 each. 

The Concert Series Schedule is as follows;

Saturday, May 22nd, 2010  - Jack de Keyzer

Saturday, June 26th, 2010 - The Dudes

Saturday, July 24th, 2010 - Wide Mouth Mason  ***Tickets are sold out until July 1st; an additional 100 tickets will be released then.***

Saturday, August 28th, 2010 - Dustin Bentall

On the first of each month 100 additional tickets will be released for that month's concert.

Tickets are on sale at the winery by phone only (888.484.6467).

Check out the Bedouin Soundclash website for more information on the band (bedouinsoundclash.com).

On the hillside overlooking vineyard, sagebrush, and the old gold mining creek that gave the winery its name, Tinhorn Creek Vineyards is located just south of Oliver B.C., in the famed Golden Mile wine growing district. As the number one winery destination, evoking classic south Okanagan terroir, Tinhorn Creek Vineyards offers an unrivalled visitor experience and wines that rank among the best in the world. For more information about Tinhorn Creek Vineyards, call 1.888.484.6467 or visit the website at www.tinhorn.com