Highway scenery last summer. The weather wasn't as gorgeous this weekend!
I spent the weekend in the Okanagan region of British Columbia. The area is well known for fruit and produce. (The region is also well known for it's wineries, that that wasn't the purpose of this trip). Road side fruit stands line the highways through every little town and big city, from Salmon Arm in the North Shushwap area, down through Enderby, Vernon and Kelowna on Highway 97A, and all along Highway 3 (Hope-Princeton/Crowsnest) through Peachland, Summerland, Penticton, Keremeos and Princeton. Highway 3 is the fruit stand highway. If you come to the Okanagan looking for fruit, make sure you take the Hope-Princeton Highway instead of the Coquihalla (Hwy 1). The route is a little longer and a little bit windier, but it's worth it just for all the fruit stands. Come in the summer for berries (especially cherries), peaches, nectarines and plums and come in the fall for apples, pears, pumpkins and squash.
We stopped at Bear's in Keremeos. It's apple and squash season in the Okanagan. There were a dozen varieties of winter squash, some I'd never seen before. Along with the usuals (butternut, turban, delicata, acorn), they also had some odd looking grey things and some white acorns.
I stocked up on three varieties of local apples but all I can remember is honey crisp - I already forgot the other two varieties! I also picked up a couple butternut squashes, a flat of field tomatoes (more canning in my future) and a carton of peaches (the last of the season)! I also got a jar of local Keremeos Blackberry Honey and a bottle of local Black Cherry Fruit Vinegar.
While in Salmon Arm, I stopped at the famed DeMille's Farm Market and bought three blocks of Farmstead Artisan Cheese produced by The Village Cheese Company in Armstrong, B.C. (original home of the huge Armstrong Cheese company).
Sometime this week I plan to make Butternut Squash Apple soup and I might try to make some dried apple rings in the the food dehydrator. Any suggestions what I can do with the peaches, other than gobble them up whole?
Lovely! I'd do just about anything to mosey on up to the Okanagan right about now.
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