Presenting..... The Edible Valley

Hi all. I wanted to officially invite you to my newest project "The Edible Valley" podcast. My long time friend Jon Frazier(who happens to be the executive chef of Atlas Cafe in Courtenay) and I are teaming up to bring weekly podcast about the food culture of the Comox Valley. Our mission is to bring together chefs, farmers and consumers in one place where we can discuss the wonderful things that are happening in our area.

Jon and I go way back. We have been friends since we were 12, so we have over 20 years of history and chemistry, plus several years of working at the same restaurant and other projects over the years. In recent years we have become strangers. Not that we never talked, we just never got a chance to hang out. We work very different hours, each have a daughter, home lives and other hobbies. Wanting a new project and to reacquaint with my old friend I got an idea. I had been listening to Podcasts religiously for about year, my favorite being "The Sprocket Podcast". It began with two friends with a love of bicycling and alternative transportation and decided to record one of their conversations. It has now grown and they have fantastic guests and very interesting content as the show matures. I liked the format and thought "Why not"

I approached Jon with the idea last fall, and he was gung-ho to be involved. Neither of us had any skills or knowledge of how to make a podcast, what equipment we needed, how to publish it. So many questions, so little answers. But with much more time than money we plugged away over the winter learning how to get an episode online. Much frustration followed but we persevered and eventually had success. We are now five episodes in and they keep getting better.

We hope to keep bringing new episodes weekly as our time works and as guests are available. I hope to talk to a wide variety of people. We see the potential for so much growth for us personally in learning more every episode. We hope to add video in the near future and we have many more ideas that are incubating. I am pondering a big commitment for next year based on Edible Valley. I will save that for a later blog.

The Comox Valley holds so many possibilities for food lovers. Our farmers grow basically any kind of vegetable and meat that one can wish for, from pheasant to bison, kohlrabi to wasabi, it is all here. We are a national leader in shellfish aquaculture generating the majority of product farmed in B.C. We have exciting young chefs and farmers, value added producers and cutting edge wineries. We even have a scotch distillery! Fresh salmon, halibut, prawns, and Dungeness crab are available for purchase at the Comox Marina. The Comox Valley farmers market grows in size every year, with the prospects of a permanent location being constructed. Several food festivals take place at various times of the year, including B.C. Shellfish festival, Mt. Washington Alpine Wine and Food festival, and new for this year, Flavour the North Islands gourmet Picnic.

Stay tuned for updates on the Edible Valley facebook page, follow us on twitter @ediblevalley, or email ediblevalley@gmail.com. I thanks you for supporting my blog, and hope that can carry onto the next phase.