Oookanagan!

We are thoroughly enjoying our well deserved rest. Ah, a lazy Okanagan day: tasting wine, treating ourselves to fancy meals, taking in the sunshine and being inspired by the scenery.

So today we’re on our wine tour (de sustainability). Our favourite vineyard, both for the wines and the welcoming hosts, is Ruby Blues. They are a small winery that uses only their own locally grown grapes. The host talked about the advantages of running a smaller operation: you have the luxury to use only your own grapes, which gives you complete knowledge and control of how the grapes are grown. This leads to decisions that prioritize quality over quantity and the production can be more easily adapted to the current season.

Yesteday, we has a great couchsurf with Jarrett, who works for the Forestry department. One of the cool parts of his job is to intentionally set fire to the brush and undergrowth in the forest. This is called a ‘controlled burn.’ It lowers the fire hazard and risk of pine beetle infestation. The biggest challenge with these is to reconcile the need for a controlled burn with people’s concerns about the smoke.

Jarrett also had some interesting job-related stories to share. One time he found out where their bottled water comes from: Bridesville. His crew needed water to extinguish a local forest fire, and they were instructed to grab water from “the spring,” which was in Bridesville, apparently a run-down little town with not much to say for their water source’s cleanliness standards. Lessons learned?! Drink tap water, duh! Considering the regulations for our tap water quality (which do not exist in the bottled water business), the chances are your tap water is just as or even more clean than your bottled water.

Tags: food, forestry, water