To the editor:
This years 7th incarnation of the Osoyoos Oyster festival (on now until April 28) is highlighting the need to “Slow the fork down” and think about where our food is coming from and why.
The new festival organizing committee has strong roots in the slow food community here in the Okanagan, and is keen to make the fishers and producers the stars of the show.
The slow food concept is a grassroots campaign that started in northern Italy more than 20 years ago and challenges its supporters to follow the principals of “good clean and fair.”
Slow fish is an offshoot of this movement, all about creating and maintaining sustainable small scale fisheries so that consumers can enjoy seafood that is both highly nutritious and very affordable.
It also encourages reducing waste, encouraging the use of undervalued species, and connecting consumers with their fishers in a quicker and more direct way.
One of the key sources for this year’s festival is the Outlandish Shellfish Guild, a group of like-minded producers who got together to market and distribute their amazing fresh product across Canada.
By harvesting twice a week, processing in their own small scale facility and being available to talk shellfish to their customers and even show them around their growing stations dotted around the idyllic and pristine Discovery Islands, Outlandish have for years been at the forefront of quality shellfish on the West Coast.
If you plan to attend the festival, you can meet some of the Outlandish crew who will be shucking oysters and telling their story at Convivia Restaurant, 74th Avenue in Osoyoos, starting at noon on Saturday, and at the Seafood Soiree in the Watermark Beach Resort later that evening.
For more information about the festival online go to www.osoyoosoysterfestival.com
Jon Crofts
Kelowna
