Showing posts with label Gabriola 100 mile diet. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gabriola 100 mile diet. Show all posts

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Red Roaster - A fresh cup of coffee

Recently, we were greeted with a pound of fresh roasted coffee and we were pleased, we thought you might want to know about one of Gabriola's new businesses. If you send us an email with "red roaster" in the subject line we will enter you into a draw for a pound of coffee on December 7 2009.

Here's what Red Roaster had to say about their new venture:

"Darrin and i have always wanted to do some sort of business together. Over the years coffee roasting has come up many times. Darrin originally started to research the idea in 1994 and by the time we were together in 1998 he had also travelled and explored some coffee growing regions in the world, which further inspired him.
This past summer we were on the sunshine coast, with a contract job for Darrin and when we came back we were VERY happy to be home. We were energized and wanted to keep the momentum going, as well we wanted to branch out into the community some more. Having a small child and both working from home, was more socially restricted than what we were used to prior to baby and Gabriola life. It seemed like the perfect time to start the coffee roasting that we had long since discussed. It all came together quickly as Darrin and I have been following the coffee industry movements and trends for so long. I have said this before.....red roaster had a very long gestation period and a super quick birth!
All of our beans are always certified organic, fairly traded and ethically sourced. Our packaging is 100% biodegradable (vs. the foil bags most competitors use that are petroleum based). And we stamp the "roasted on" date on every bag. We don't want our customers to hold on to their beans-they are meant to be consumed fresh (preferably with in about a week+). We are all about the true fresh roast.
We will be offering a home delivery service, where roast to order the night before. There will be 3 sizes of bags to choose from, so you can best suit to your households weekly coffee consumption. We have chosen to do the home delivery for a number of reasons. This way we will have more direct dialogue with our customers and we can then work with them to customize blends/roasts that produce the perfect cup for their individual needs. Gabriola is small enough for us to be able to do door to door deliveries and this will ensure that everyone is getting fresh fresh fresh roasted coffee. Also, by skipping the middle man we are able to do more fundraising for the community.
We are working with community groups to generate fundraising from every pound of coffee we sell. This is very exciting to us, as it was initially and still continues to be the community here that makes Gabriola so special for us. We are excited that red roaster will be giving back to our local community directly and we are also committed to giving back to the coffee growing communities in the world as well, through profit percentage donations.
Red Roaster will be at the GES xmas fair (dec. 5th), with bean samples, bags of beans for sale, sign up sheets and tons of information on us and how you can donate to the local community cause of your choice, from your weekly coffee beans purchase."


Contact info for red roaster is:
http://www.redroaster.ca/
info@redroaster.ca
250.325.3250

(Submitted by: Tina Lynch)

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Local BC Fruit & Veggies for the kids at School!

This year the Gabriola Elementary School has been selected by the BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation to take part in the BC School Fruit & Vegetable Nutritional Program. All kids and school staff that wish to participate will receive a fresh BC fruit or vegetable snack twice a week every other week. This will help their health and improve their concentration, with only 20-25% of children in BC eating the recommended daily minimum of 5 fruits and vegetables this seems to be a critical step to better nutrition for our future generation. To learn more about this program or to get an application for your school please visit : http://www.aitc.ca/bc/snacks .

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Buy Local, what the heck !


Well one of the perks of shopping at the road side stand, versus something that you might pick up at the big box stores from half way around the world, is the character that goes with it. When I stopped by to check out the stand at the corner of Thompson and South Road, I found the discount sign. I would have been happy to pay 50 cents for my new Greek Oregano seedlings, but thought the marked down price of 25 cents was great. I wasn't really planning on any more herbs for the garden, but what the heck ! I got a free laugh out of the deal as well and thought it was a great marketing approach.