Local Grain Revolution

Part VII of The Local Grain Revolution series featured a full episode on the sailing of locally-grown grains from the Creston Valley of British Columbia to the City of Nelson. A fleet of four boats transported 5,000 pounds of the grains. Shortly after the grains were unloaded in Nelson, sailor Jay Blackmore embarked on another journey, however, this time, on-line. He was keen to find other intrepid communities who were too exploring the practice of sailing food...Dave spoke to Deconstructing Dinner over the phone and shared his exciting business model of a fossil-fuel free distribution system for zucchinis, tomatoes, and many other fresh vegetables.

Since March 2008, Deconstructing Dinner has featured The Local Grain Revolution - a series tracking the evolution of Canada's first community supported agriculture (CSA) project for grain. On this eighth episode, we listen in on a workshop hosted by a member of the CSA, Lorraine Carlstrom. Just as the project has already spawned involvement from many individuals and businesses in the region, Lorraine recognized yet another gap needing to be filled... education in the kitchen. When the 180 CSA members received their 80+lbs of whole grains in December 2008, many members were left wondering what to do with them. Lorraine stepped forward to offer classes to teach members how to use their grains. Among those offered, Deconstructing Dinner recorded one of her first... sourdough waffles.

Since March 2008, The Local Grain Revolution series has been following the evolution of Canada's first Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) project for grain.

The project has inspired a wave of support from the communities of Nelson and Creston, including support from the Kootenay Lake Sailing Association. In September 2008, a group of sailors approached the CSA and offered to sail as much of the grain as they could from the Creston Valley to Nelson along Kootenay Lake. In less than a month, four sailboats had committed to the weekend excursion and Deconstructing Dinner's Jon Steinman joined the crew of the Kelpie so that listeners could, at the very least, take an audible part in the exciting fossil-fuel free mission.

On Part III of the Kootenay Harvest Revival recordings, we listen to Deconstructing Dinner Host Jon Steinman address the audience of 270. On day 2 of the event, the success of the Creston Grain CSA was celebrated at the All Seasons Café where presentations were made by CSA co-founder Matt Lowe, CSA farmer Roy Lawrence and board member of the West Kootenay EcoSociety Russell Precious who read some passages by poet and essayist Wendell Berry.

On this Part II of the Kootenay Harvest Revival recordings, we hear from author and farmer Luanne Armstrong who spoke on finding one's sense of self through place. "In this day and age, we need to think about where we live, not only where we live and how we connect to it but how we look afte rit so it can look after us," says Luanne. She also described what the word "farmer" means to her.

On Part IV of the series, we explore the first in a three-partseries of recordings from the Kootenay Harvest Revival - an event hosted byDeconstructing Dinner, the Nelson-Creston Grain CSA and All Seasons Café.Day 1 of the event heard from a series of speakers who shared the history offood production in the Kootenay regions of British Columbia. By exploringwhat was once possible to grow and produce in the area, it was hoped thatthe event would inspire visions of what the soil is currently able toprovide both now and into the future.

Host Jon Steinman visits with some of the players lending their support to Canada's first community supported agriculture (CSA) project for grain. Supporters such as David Everest - who will provide milling services to CSA members, and Jay Blackmore - one of four sailors who decided to sail the grains from the Creston Valley of B.C. to the city of Nelson along Kootenay Lake (a 56-hour fossil-fuel-free journey).

On this exciting part II of the Local Grain Revolution series, Host Jon Steinman travels along with the first grain CSA tour of Canada's first grain CSA. Members and farmers met for the first time, and members were given the opportunity to see the grain that would soon become their bread, cakes and pasta.

In this episode of Deconstructing Dinner, we explore the creation of a market for local grain using a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. We also hear from a grade 4 student sharing some shocking information with his classmates on factory animal farms.