As he toured me around his five greenhouses, Dan Ferguson of Dragonfly Farms, kept handing me kale leaves to munch on. "This is the first cut," he added. "It's so crisp and flavourful." As if I needed any encouragement. I was already so excited just to take a moment out of my day to tour his farm firsthand and to understand the intensive labour and skill it takes to grow and harvest his beautiful salad mix.

Despite the cool start to summer, I was amazed to see how well his tomatoes were doing in the greenhouse, tucked neatly under black plastic and slowly working their way up string supports. There were pepper seedlings and more kale in raised beds outside.

What struck me the most perhaps was Dan's excitement to show off his farm. Though he has been in the business for many, many years, it seemed to me his joy in growing food had not waned one bit. Like a proud father, Dan even showed me his new flock of guinea fowl chicks, tucked into a corner of the barn.

Dan's non-certified organic kale, salad mix and spring onions were served up at Cowichan Green Community's AGM on Tuesday evening. The kale was sauteed and served in a warm pasta salad with currents, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The mesclun mix was tossed with peppers, cucs, nuts and cheese for a delicious, fresh salad. The spring onions went into our egg salad.

We are grateful to Dan for donating his produce to our event. The food was thoroughly enjoyed by all those who attended.

Farmers are hungry people apparently.

Last Thursday, over 80 farmers attended the Cover Crops Workshop led by Dr. Jill Clapperton, expert in the field of soil microbiology and former researcher with Agriculture Canada's Lethbridge Research Station for 16 years and now the principal of EarthSpirit Land Resource Consulting.

The workshop was part of an educational opportunity funded by the CVRD, and co-hosted by the Cowichan Agricultural Society and CGC.

The audience displayed a voracious appetite for learning as they sat captivated by Dr. Clapperton. After lunch, Dr. Clapperton abandoned her slides in favour of addressing the continuous show of raised hands. Participants were grateful for the opportunity to ask very specific questions, pertinant to their own farms.

Lunch was no exception for big appetites either.

Once again, the Cowichan Green Community Catering team delivered a top-notch local fare lunch featuring a variety of Valley-grown foods.

On the menu:

- Coconut curry butternut squash soup (featuring butternut squash from Makaria Farm, garlic from Maple Groove Farm and apples from CGC's FruitSave program)

- Maple syrup-apple BBQ sauce chicken wings (featuring free-range, organic chicken from Terra Nossa farm)

Going to Vancouver last Friday felt like country mouse meets city mouse.

On our way to make a community project pitch to students at the Sauder School of Business UBC in the hopes of soliciting their help, Judy and I were also in the big city to check in on Quest Food Exchange, a food exchange program assisting low-income individuals and families in the Lower Mainland to overcoming their barriers with dignity and encouraging self-sufficiency.

After several hours of ferry, buses and skytrains, we found ourselves in the heart of East Van, one of Vancouver's neediest neighbourhoods and the home of two Quest stores.

We walked into a brightly lit, long room, with shelving, a few freezers, and a cooler. In the middle lay a narrow strip of produce. It didn't feel like a store at all, more an aging warehouse with the ambiance to match. There were a few shoppers and several staff bustling about. "Welcome to Quest's poorer cousin store" joked one of the staff. Thanks to my navigational instincts, I had led us to one of Quest's satellite locations. We hadn't stopped at the main headquarters where we would have found offices, a warehouse and a much larger shopping space.

In the last of the season's Wild Walks, Roger Foucher took a small but determined group of would-be foragers along the Trans Canada Trail in Lake Cowichan to experience the bounty of the Fall forest. Though we travelled less than a mile, Roger transported us worlds away as we sampled clovers, hairy cat's ear and other leafy greens along the trails' edge.

Last Thursday evening, Quamichan Middle School opened the doors for its annual meet and greet back-to-school BBQ. Students, parents and staff mingled over the usual burger fare but lo and behold, there was something different on people's plates that night.

"This is gourmet!" the crowd was murmuring.

"Strawberries picked last night?" they cried in disbelief.

It was a hazy and muggy start to our day but as Wild Food Walk guide Tim Kulchyski led us up into the cool depths of Mount Tzouhalem, even the steep inclines didn't seem so challenging.