After a challenging summer, the food, wine and brewing industries came together at the 14th Annual Okanagan Feast of Fields in West Kelowna on Sunday. Niche Wine Co. hosted the prestigious gourmet harvest festival just over a year after the winery was damaged in the McDougall Creek wildfire.
“Almost five days after we returned from evacuation we had a visit from Farm City Fold asking about the farm. I feel like we were still in shock from the fire and said yes, and now we have 800 close friends visiting for the day,” Niche co-owner Joanna Schlosser explained as she surveyed the large crowd enjoying beautiful, sunny September afternoon. Feast of Fields is Canada’s largest and longest-running local food celebration, hosted by BC’s largest food and agriculture charitable non-profit.
FarmFolk CityFolk supports regenerative and climate-friendly agriculture in livestock and crop production. Some have been taking part for years, like Chef Rod Butters of The Okanagan Table and Sunny’s. “I think this is my 26th now in the province,” said Butters.
“I started in Vancouver, (then) Vancouver Island and, of course, here in the Okanagan. And it’s amazing. What a day!” Others are new arrivals to the Feast of Fields family, Like Brielle Walsh of The Lazy Batch cookie company.
She moved to the area from the Lower Mainland about three-and-a-half years ago. “When I first moved to Kelowna I heard about this event, Feast of Fields, and I was like, oh, that’s so fun! I would.