Categories

• BC Wines
• Beer
• Beijing Bulletin
• Chef Eric Pateman
• Cooking Classes
• EBC Retail Review
• Events
• Fraser Valley
• General Comments
• Okanagan
• On the Road
• Press Releases
• Retail Store
• Stefan Posthuma
• Stephanie Yuen
• Vancouver
• Vancouver Island
• Whistler
• Winespeak

Categories

• August 2010
• July 2010
• June 2010
• May 2010
• April 2010
• March 2010
• February 2010
• January 2010
• December 2009
• November 2009
• October 2009
• September 2009
• August 2009
• July 2009
• June 2009
• May 2009
• April 2009
• March 2009
• February 2009
• January 2009
• December 2008
• November 2008
• October 2008
• September 2008
• August 2008
• July 2008
• June 2008
• May 2008
• April 2008
• March 2008
• January 2008
• July 2007
• June 2007
• March 2007
• February 2007
• January 2007
• October 2006

SWIFT AQUACULTURE IN AGASSIZ

July 21st, 2008 Write a Comment  Print This Post

Our friends at Slow Food Vancouver tipped us off to Swift Aquaculture, a beautiful, 5 acre piece of farmland in the district of Kent near Agassiz. Within their quaint farmhouse and 2 barns on site lie an undiscovered treasure of feisty crayfish, spicy wasabi plants, peppery watercress and silky fleshed farmed coho salmon. Swift Aquaculture comes with an incredible story of one committed, passionate cultivator. His name is Bruce Swift.

Bruce and his wife, Mary Lou, are both food scientists. Mary Lou specializes in dairy sciences and Bruce has committed most of his post secondary education to studying the Coho salmon. Using his specialized knowledge, Bruce has created an enviro-friendly, land-locked, sustainable system that links the salmon to the wasabi, the watercress to the crayfish. The water from the tanks of the Coho is used to fertilize the crops of wasabi and watercresss, and the algae pools formed from the planting of the watercress and wasabi is used as food for the crayfish.

Swift Aquaculture is featured on this year’s Slow Food Cycle Tour Agassiz, taking place on August 9th.  At Swift, cyclists will get the opportunity to sample a fresh wasabi leaf. It has a clean, slightly bitter flavour, like that of arugula, but with the punchy finish indicative of wasabi. It makes a spectacular salad green. You will also sample Bruce’s Coho that is hot smoked. According to Bruce, “there is a negative stigma to farmed fish because consumers assume that all farmed fish have antibiotics”; this is simply not the case. The feed he uses for his Coho does not contain any drugs and he controls the size of the fish by adjusting water temperature and amount of light exposure. Bruce has a passion and commitment to sustainable farming practices with a drive for developing creative processes to bring innovative food ingredients to all foodies’ tables.

Makes sense to us – see it for yourself and sign up for the Cycle Tour!