This week marks a new section in our blog postings: The Good Planet Company Perspective. Staff will be taking the opportunity to lend their voices to all things sustainable, local, and green. Christie will be taking the lead with her initial posting about local produce in Victoria.

The farms around Victoria have fresh produce all year round!

Last week I took orders from my friends and headed out on a circle route starting at Madrona Farm on Blenkinsop Road.  Madrona has been a family farm for generations. They have fresh produce all winter, and this week I got braising and spicy salad greens, kale, carrots, parsnips and two kinds of cabbage  (The Land Conservancy is raising funds to keep Madrona Farm as farmland forever).

I continued up the peninsula to Michell Bros. Farm at the corner of the Pat Bay and Island View Road. Here I was able to find sweet baby cabbage greens to add to my salads, as well as easy to store local beets, onions, potatoes, cabbage and squash.

I stopped at Mar Farms on Veyaness near Keating Cross Rd, because I have heard that they sometimes have cauliflower. Not this week, but their carrots have always been the sweetest and best keepers.

I could have picked up eggs at a number of places along the way, but wanted to see what was fresh at Dan’s Farm on Oldfield Road. They grow a lot of apples many of which are keepers, kiwis, pears and of course all the storage veggies I saw at Michell’s.

Take my advice and skip the supermarket this week!  Even in the middle of winter, there’s a great array of fresh and flavourful foods available from our vibrant local farms, all the way up and down Vancouver Island, and in your community too!  Check out the Farm Fresh guide for details.

Are you awake?!

via A Wake-Up Story, by Healthy Child Healthy World.

The seven employees of The Good Planet Company have made a donation to The Canadian Red Cross Society to aid the citizens of Haiti following the devastating January 12th earthquake. We encourage our customers, friends, and other Victoria small businesses to do whatever they can to assist in the recovery efforts by making cash donations to support emergency relief.

Did you know that The Good Planet Company has a Kiva lending team? Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

Learn more at http://www.kiva.org/team/the_good_planet_company