Locally Grown Produce

I just got home from a weekend road trip through the Okanagon Valley in British Columbia, Canada.  It was absolutely beautiful!  We spent a few days driving through the country side and stayed in a couple of little towns along the way.  Both of the towns we stayed in were beside lakes so we stayed in nice motels overlooking the lakes in each town. We spent the first night in Osoyoos and went swimming in the lake the following day.  It was so spectacular!  The water wasn't too cold, the weather wasn't too hot and the water was crystal clear!  And there's something about swimming in a lake that is so refreshing!

The Okanagon is also the Napa Valley of Western Canada so we had to stop at a winery while we were up there.  I'm not kidding, there were dozens and dozens of vineyards along the highway but we settled for a place a few kilometers off the highway up the side of a mountain called See Ya Later Ranch. The place was really cool and we were able to sit out on the patio overlooking the valley and share a bottle of chilled Unleashed Riesling. 

My favorite part of the whole trip though was being able to enjoy and stock up on some great locally grown produce.  The Okanagon valley is very warm and perfect for growing cherries, grapes, peppers, tomatoes, pears, apples, apricots and especially peaches.  I absolutely LOVE Okanagon peaches! They are the sweetest, juiciest peaches you will ever taste!  There's even a town that we drove through on the trip that was named Peachland.  It looked like a pretty nice town too!

       

We also bought some locally grown blueberries and they look so delicious!  Blueberries are loaded full of anti-oxidants and I'll definitely be having them with my Kashi cereal in the mornings for the next few days!

Anyways that's by far one of my favorite things about Summer.. fresh locally grown produce!  I find myself very fortunate to live in a part of the world where I can have such a wide variety of tasty fruits and vegetables available to me.  So if you have a chance before the end of Summer, try to get out there and support your local farmer's market. (man I can't wait till I can sink my teeth into some peaches and cream corn on the cob!)

Diet & Nutrition article by Ben on Monday, August 24, 2009 7:49:56 PM EST