About Us
About Little Creek Gardens
Donna Denison and Dale Ziech moved to Little Creek in 1984. Located on the west shores of Okanagan Lake, the property has been in the Denison family for more than 60 years. Over the years, the couple cleared the forest and created Little Creek Gardens became Certified Organic in 1991. Dale grows a variety of gourmet mixed greens, tomatoes, baby vegetables and edible flowers. Little Creek Dressing was created by Donna in 1995 as a "value-added" product to complement the salad greens grown by Dale. The dressings are produced on site in their certified kitchen. Each recipe includes farm fresh ingredients and country vinegars made at Little Creek.
The Time is Ripe for an Okanagan Cuisine.
Whether it was the advent of the 100-Mile Diet that started it, or the migration of "slow food" from Europe to North America, or even our growing frustration with the perils of processed food, something is cooking right here in the Okanagan.
Farmer's markets are rising in popularity, our wineries have emerged from a place of vineyards to homes of fine cuisine, and pressure is mounting on local stores to bring in local, and organic. Our food is in transition.
On Thursday September 11, 5 pm at the Bohemian Café the Okanagan Institute Express series of public events examines these issues in Farm Forward: The Food Chain in Transition, featuring three experts who have played key roles in energizing our local cuisine. Heidi Noble is a chef, co-owner of Joie Wines in Naramata and author of Menus from the Orchard Table. Donna Denison is the creator of Little Creek Dressings, and Dale Ziech is a board director with the North Okanagan Organic Association and co-owner of Little Creek Gardens.
Ziech was among the first in the valley to "go organic" back in 1984 when traditional farmers scoffed at the idea. How times have changed.
"You could call it the 20 year overnight success story, and I'm quite happy. But even though it's very trendy and in the news, the conventional food industry has really still got a hold on what we do and eat and consume," he says. "There are more and more regulations coming down under the guise of protecting us and what's occurring is a fight between big business and small business."
Little Creek is one of those small businesses that has had to struggle with some big regulation - in particular the new label requirements and nutritional analysis. The original labeling regulations stretched from eight pages to 200 pages, and yet there are no requirements to reveal the use of radiated or genetically modified products.
Whether we realize it or not, all of these issues play a role in what lands on our table - all the more reason to cultivate a taste for local, argues Noble. Think local and seasonal, and what comes about naturally will be the creation of a distinctive and delicious local cuisine.
"The birth of a cuisine is a form of self-awareness," she writes in her break-through book.