Great local veg!

For obvious reasons at this time of year, the BC fruit tends to get the spotlight. But I wanted to tell you about all the great BC and Alberta veggies we have on our shelves. The past few weeks have seen a transformation of the veg coolers from Northern US states to almost nearly 100% Canadian produce.

Here`s a photo of Rob`s heirloom tomatoes, straight from the Blush Lane Organic Orchard in Keremeos, BC. The garlic (Red Russian variety) is also from BC, and Art and Lina grew the Roma and cherry tomatoes. This week we also have peppers arriving from them, and below I am linking to the post, back in April, of the starts in their greenhouse. Hard to believe that they are now reaping the harvest of these tiny plants. If you`ve ever grown your own food, you know the gratification of that first, ripe tomato, or the unmatched taste of the first picking of spinach. We`re lucky to have great people like Art and Lina to grow our food for us: it doesn`t get any better than this!
On this wall we have some more great BC and Alberta veg: BC celery, red peppers, bunched beets, cauliflower, and corn; Art and Lina`s eggplant, zucchini, mini sweet peppers and herbs; Parsnips, leeks, and field cukes; Alberta red spring onions, herbs and potatoes from Busy Bea`s Market Garden.

Enjoy it while it lasts; soon enough we`ll be back in March, lamenting the poor quality of the produce, dreaming of this time of year. Somebody pinch me!

I FOUND OUR MASCOT!!

Today, while putting out the White Champagne Peaches in preparation for the Farmer's Market tomorrow, I FOUND OUR MASCOT!!

I must explain: a few months ago, they got me to draw up a graphic of a peach, to use as an alternate logo to represent our company. So, in the photo above you see the peach I drew, which is on our new sign stock. Below it, you see the real-life mascot! It even nearly has a heart-shaped blush!

I guess life really does inspire art!

Peaches! Peaches! PEACHES!

Our Freestone Peaches are abundant, juicy, delicious, and you should buy some: If you buy 3 or more cases, you'll get them for $40 a case. There's only about 3 weeks left of these babies, so get them now and get your preserving done; the price will not get lower this year on these, nor could the taste get any better!

I'll have lots available for pickup at Northlands Farmer's Market this Tuesday from 3:30-7:00, or visit our Aspen Woods store or Calgary Farmer's Market location.

I always say that we have the best peaches in town: I can be confident in that, the way that only a person who has a peach on her business card can be! If you don't believe me, come visit us and try one!

Northland Farmer's Market (Crowchild and Shaganappi Tr NW) Tuesdays 3:30 - 7:00
Blush Lane Organic Market, Aspen Woods (17th Ave and 85th Street SW) Mon - Sat 9-8, Sun 10-8
Blush Lane in Market 17, Casel Marche, (17th Ave and Crowchild) Mon - Sat 9-8, Sun 10-6
Calgary Farmer's Market, (Heritage and Blackfoot) Thurs 11-7, Fri-Sun 9-5
Millarville Farmer's Market (Millarville Racetrack, Hwy 22 S) Saturdays 9-2

Looking forward to sending lots and lots of peachy love your way this week!

Dillon Produce Courier Service

Ever since I moved to Calgary seven years ago, my Mom (who has her own market garden in Manitoba) has been shipping produce with anyone who has the unlucky fortune to let her know that they are going to, or driving through, or going to be anywhere in the relative vicinity of Calgary. I've picked up boxes from all over the city: from the trunks of cars at five in the morning, from people's doorsteps who I've never met, at obligatory visits with relatives from out of town.

When I started working at Blush Lane, I finally had something to send back with those poor souls who had turned into our personal courier service. At this time of year, one doesn't dare mention "Calgary" or even "Alberta" around my mother, who refuses to eat any peach other than a Blush Lane one, and ate so many nectarines when she was pregnant with me that the mere thought of a juicy, sweet nectarine gets me salivating.

She left me an excited message early this week that her neighbour Susan is going to be coming to Calgary for a few days and has "the whole backseat!" available for fruit transit. So, she called again today to see what is available.

Well, poor Susan couldn't have picked a better (or worse, depending on how you look at it) time to drive out to Calgary. We've got ridiculous. That's RIDICULOUS. Peaches. (There has to be a period after it just so you pause and consider what it means for a peach to be. RIDICULOUS.) They are incredible.
We have mini nectarines, which are everything you want from a great nectarine, just mini. Amazing apricots, something you can't truly appreciate until you've had a really, truly, amazing one. Santa Rosa plums, one of which juiced all over the front of my shirt today, and I couldn't even care because my eyes were watering with the deliciousness! Even my favourite, prune plums, such a surprising yellow on the inside and not too sweet. And of course, we still have cherries and blueberries, sweet and flavourful and beautiful.

So, it looks like Susan's going to have a very full car when she goes back to Manitoba, and a few lucky people in Brandon will get to have a taste of our veritable rainbow of seasonal summer fruit. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll get a kohlrabi or a bag of cucumbers in return!

Back in Blush!

Though this is our lucky number 7 weekend back in the Calgary Farmer's Market, it didn't really feel like we were back until the direct shipments from the orchard started, and we were back to wading in Blush Boxes for another season.

I love Blush Boxes. They are the perfect size, they have handles, and there's numerous ways you can cut them and stack them and make them look awesome, en masse. Even my pet bunnies live in them. They look especially great when filled with perfect, direct-shipped tree-ripe peaches.

Why is the product that we receive direct so special, you ask? Anything that we get in direct has typically been picked within hours of loading on to the truck, either from our orchard or one of our neighbours in the Keremeos/Cawston area. Since we are a relatively small local company, we are able to get in the product as fresh as possible and have it in all of our stores usually the same day. That's something that the bigger grocery chains just can't do, due to centralized warehousing and distribution.

Also, one of the owners spends the summers in the Orchard in Keremeos, working on relationships with all the organic farmers in the area, seeing what is being picked, securing quantities, and giving the farmers a fair price for their product.
There's a lot of work that goes behind bringing you a perfect peach, and I'm proud to be part of a company that supplies such amazing quality organic produce to Calgarians!

We're "Back in Blush" at the CFM, 510 - 77th Avenue SE, Blackfoot Trail and Heritage Drive, so come buy your own Blush box of our perfect peaches today!