Photo: Contributed - (Photo: Courtesy of Tourism Kelowna

Chef Roger Sleiman from Old Vines Restaurant inspects freshly harvested radishes.

Tourism Kelowna’s new 2012 Studio & Farm Tour brochures are now available and they have been met with great enthusiasm in the community. We’re very excited about this year’s Studio & Farm Tour, not just because it has proven itself in the last two years as being a popular and effective visitor tool for helping drive visitor traffic to our wonderful boutique artisan and farm businesses, but also because we have introduced a new element to it this year which will really enhance the visitor’s experience.

One thing this brochure does is help visitors who are interested in seeking out those unique farm experiences customize a tour to several such places. It gives them a chance to meet the people behind the products, which becomes one of those trip-defining “connection moments” that are often the highlight of a vacation. We’re especially excited this year to be introducing the Farm-to-table component of this brochure.

In many cases our Kelowna chefs were drawn to Kelowna in the first place because of the ability to be neighbours with farmers and have that unmatched interconnectedness with local farmers and artisan producers. We are fortunate to live in a tight-knit “foodie” community and this has big appeal to other foodies in our key tourism markets. In short, people who love to eat at restaurants who source ingredients locally are also highly likely to want to visit the farms listed on those menus.

So this year, this Farm-to-table pilot introduces eight of Kelowna’s leaders on the dining scene who source local ingredients so that our visitors can get that “full circle” experience where they come. First they see what our farms and artisans are doing, then they have the complement of restaurants where they can recognize these ingredients on their plates at dinner.

It’s all about enriching the foodie fabric of our community, which is already so well established. If you’d like to have one of these Studio & Farm tour brochures on hand in your home, just stop by the Visitor Centre at 544 Harvey Ave and pick one up for free. They’ll be available at our Visitor Centres (at Harvey and also the Info Kiosk at the Kelowna International Airport) as well as at the participating farms, studios, and restaurants on the brochure.