Okanagan Pt.2

So the next day post-game (germany wins) we decided to drive to Vernon and visit a spirits distillery for a change of pace. On the way up we swung by Caramelis cheese, an Israeli goat’s cheese maker. They make many different kinds of cheese, most of which are high quality. They also make goat cheese gelato, which is something I’ve never seen before. Also a family business mostly, the father is the cheese maker, the mother also does cheese making and makes all the gelato and helps run the shop, as well as give unsuspecting tours to random cooks who happen to come around long after the tours are over and haven’t called in advance. After we asked enough questions, she was happy to show us around and even let us into the cave of cheese they have beneath their house. Their cheeses, though all made with goat milk, are also more varied than one would usually suspect from a goat cheese maker. Salt spring island definitely pales in comparison to the array presented at Caramelis. They have a variety of both hard and soft cheese, and others in between. Most of their hard cheese have a pure state and a state in which they’ve been spiced of treated. For example there is a cheese called lyon, which is a nice hard cheese, then a special edition aged with black pepper and bay leaf. Another way to add value, but it also adds a lot of flavour. The cheese shop was opened in 2002, burnt down in 2003 along with much of the surrounding area. When questioned on that, our impromptu tour guide said with a shrug “ I’m from Israel, bad things happen”, and that was that. It was really nice to be shown around by someone who knows what is going on with the cheese and we’re thankful to Carmelis cheese for the tasting and the welcome. We hit a couple of wineries after that, then decided it was time to actually get to our destination. By the time we got to Vernon it was dark, so we pulled up into Kalamalka park for a rest. Its a monstrosity of a park and we had a parking area where we could cook and stay overnight. We made popcorn and hung out, talked to two gentlemen who were on the lookout for trails and went to bed. In the morning we woke up for a run through the park, which entailed a massive hill I wasn't expecting and felt for days after, and then took off to Vernon. We executed our plan, which was really only to visit the Okanagan Spirits Distillery. Little early for booze, but the distillery really makes some of the nicest spirits with the cleanest flavours and mouthfeels I’ve ever tasted. Amazing products as well as an extremely advanced and beautiful facility. The pot still they use to make everything is wood fired, and is a complex machine that would look at home in a mad scientists lab. They are Canada’s only master distillery, with a German master distiller at their head. It is unbelievable what they execute with very few ingredients. While chatting with the marketing and sales guy at the front, he mentioned a wild game meats farm and even got us a contact for it. We called ahead and set a time, then went to watch the soccer match at a local pub. After the match we split off to the farm, which specializes in wild boar and fallow deer. Richard, the proprietor, is a huge proponent of local food and agriculture. He is extremely dedicated to the cause, and in this region, it isn’t difficult to see why. The area around his farm boasts a variety of farms, chicken, beef, quail, vegetable gardens, massive fruit orchards, and many others. He is so adamant about keeping things local that he recently invested nearly half a million dollars in a slaughterhouse on his property to keep it up to government specs, which are designed to shut down small scale operations. With the help of two employees, he now does most of the slaughter and butchery for the region. Its great to see someone with their head and their heart in the right place about local food, and who is really acting upon the principles he holds dear. The best part? He doesn’t want to become rich, because in agriculture “you can only do that by taking money from other people”, he’s happier to be making a living, have his neighbors making a living, and have the people buying his product making a living as well. I know it sounds like just the right thing to do, but not many people stick by their guns when it comes to that kind of talk, so much respect to Richard for his ethics and follow-through. In the spirit of his cause, after showing us around his farm a bit he sent us to a butcher in salmon arm who deals with his products. This butcher goes by the name of Viktor, used to work for Oyama meats, and is a general all around maniac.


Viktor and his wife Veronica run a shop called Sedo International Meats, out of a small town in the northern Okanagan. They both used to work for Oyama, which is arguably the most successful meat operation ever to come out of the area. Oyama now operates out of the Granville Island market, and makes great charcuterie. It is uncommon to see their shop without a throng at least 2 deep around the entire counter. Viktor was the sausage maker for Oyama for 7 years before deciding to go out on his own. He got to chance to buy some equipment from Vernon, and decided to jump at the chance. He now has a massive variety of sausages, loaves, headcheeses, salamis and cheeses in his shop. When we arrived we spoke briefly with his wife, and she introduced us to him. He is insanely energetic and feverishly passionate about what he does. It’s contagious. Once he starts talking about something you feel the need to try it, and ask questions, and get jealous that he knows how to do all this amazing stuff. After a mouth watering tour of his back facility, which is gorgeous and clean, yet still feels lived in and personal, not cold and clinical, he took us out to the deli and started slicing all sorts of things for us. He is an amazing butcher with loads of talent and to boot, a really generous guy. I wish he lived wherever I end up living. I would spend some serious time with this guy trying to learn everything I could. We nabbed a bunch of our favorites, and hit the road again. A great buy that we got here was Weisswurst, which is a white sausage speciality from Munich. It’s meant to be eaten with sweet mustard and while drinking Hefeweizen, an unfilitered German wheat beer. According to Fabian, it cannot hear the church bells strike noon, or else bad things will happen. Basically that means in Munich you have to visit the beer halls in the morning to eat your white sausage. He says you can always spot tourists because they eat and drink weisswurst and hefeweizen after noon. We didn't eat it right away, so pictures of that come later. All in all, an amazing day of meeting really generous and sharing people. Each place we went sent us to someone else in the area, and the progression felt natural and linked from place to place. In closing, pretty sure the sunset over Kalamalka rocks your socks.