News & Events
Events
2012
Opportunities for you to talk with us in-person and of course taste a delicious selection of Natural Pastures award-winning artisan cheeses!
5th Annual Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival
August 18 in Whistler, B.C.: Natural Pastures Cheese is selected through vigorous testing to produce the special 11-pound Championship wheels of Cracked Pepper Verdelait cheese for the Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival. After racing the wheels down the grassy, steep, mountain race course, the winners get to take home the giant, coveted wheels of Natural Pastures cheese! Between adult races, kids race uphill on the course, or cheese bowl the obstacle course or play cheesey twister. Come also to taste delicious cheeses in the Cheese Market, or win a luxury get-away. Dairy Farmers of Canada have carefully selected and purchased Natural Pastures Cheeses every year of the Championship, as the special wheels of cheeses for the races and grand prizes. Come and taste a variety of the pure, luscious cheeses, and meet Edgar Smith, Vice-President and Mary Ann Hyndman Smith. Read more...
10th Annual Tofino Food & Wine Festival
June 1-3
Main event: Grazing in the Gardens, Tofino Botanical Gardens
Since 2003, Grazing in the Gardens has been dedicated to showcasing local culinary creativity, excellence and professionalism, complemented by British Columbia’s finest wines.
The unique setting of Tofino Botanical Gardens and the exceptional quality of food and wine provided by local producers, chefs and winemakers truly celebrates the marriage of food and wine. A delicious opportunity to taste Natural Pastures cheeses, and to meet Edgar Smith and Mary Ann Hyndman Smith. Highlights of the Grazing include live music, fresh shucked oysters, gourmet bites by local chefs, 100% BC wines and Natural Pastures Cheese. More info ...
Grocery Showcase West
(industry trade show)
Sunday & Monday, April 22 & 23
Vancouver Trade & Convention Centre
Grocery Showcase West is regarded as THE epicenter for growth and development in the Western Canadian grocery industry. 2012 is the 50th Anniversary of the Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers and on April 22nd & 23rd, the "who's who" of the industry will be in Vancouver for Grocery Showcase West 2012 to commemorate this! The main players from the West, of Canada's 50 key independent grocery retailers, will be present and ready to celebrate and do business.
Be sure to visit us there, sample Natural Pastures Cheese and talk to us in-person about your and your customers' preferences. Find out more ...
North Island College
11th annual Third Course Wine Festival:
Toasting 100th Anniversary of the Titanic
Friday, March 16th, 7PM Campbell River
The opulence of the Titanic travel experience is the focal point for Festival ‘passengers’, which includes a live musical trio, door prizes, silent auction, and a complimentary shuttle ride home. Passengers can sample from over 200 wines from BC and abroad,
enjoy hors d’oeuvres and take a wine and cheese tasting seminar all featuring Natural Pastures Cheeses. Find out more ...
14th Annual Winter Okanagan Wine Festival
January 14 – 22, 2012 Sun Peaks Resort
Natural Pastures Cheeses will be sampled at several Festival events,
including an industry-only teaching seminar.
One of the events open to everyone is:
Friday, January 20 12:00PM
All You Need is Cheese & Wine - The Seminar
Explore and discover how Natural Pastures Cheeses pair well with
some of the best Okanagan varietal wines.
2011
Cornucopia – 15th annual celebration of food and wine
November 10th – 13th, 2011 Whistler
2011 event review:
"...wonderful attendance by hundreds of enthusiastic foodies from Whistler
and Vancouver. Natural Pastures Comox Brie, Boerenkaas and Cracked Pepper
Veredelait were sampled and very much appreciated by all that attended ...
events ..." in which Natural Pastures Cheese participated. "It is always a
pleasure to ... promote Natural Pastures cheese!"
Paula Bradner
for Dairy Farmers of Canada
Christmas in November
November 4 - 14, 2011 at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge
Featuring national award-winning Natural Pastures Amsterdammer, and Boerenkaas.
10th Annual Wine Fest 2011
Saturday, November 5th at Crown Isle Resort, Courtenay
Doors open at 6pm
Popular, 10th annual Wine Fest with over 60 varietals of wine to sample
with in-house cuisine featuring Natural Pastures Cheeses. With live music,
this event promises to be even better than previous! Supporting the SPCA,
this sell out event has only 250 tickets. Early bird tickets available.
Call Sarah at 250-703-5000 or visit
Crown Isle Resort
for more info and tickets.
4th Annual Canadian Cheese Rolling Festival
July 23 in Whistler, B.C.: Natural Pastures Cheeses are
selected through vigorous testing to be the Championship wheels of cheese
for the races, all on a grassy steep race course on mountain. Between
adult races, kids race uphill on the course, or cheese bowl the obstacle
course or play cheesey twister. Come also to taste delicious cheeses or
win a luxury get-away. Yes the organizers, Dairy Farmers of Canada, also
purchased Natural Pastures Cheeses as the grand prizes to be awarded to
race winners since the beginning. Come and taste a variety of the pure,
luscious cheeses, and meet Edgar Smith, Vice-President and Mary Ann
Hyndman Smith.
Read more
The Spring Okanagan Wine Festival
May 2011
"...The cheeses from Natural Pastures were VERY well received by event attendees. So many people asking about your cheese and your company! As I have said before, it is such a pleasure to be able to serve Natural Pastures cheese, and really nice to be able to promote a Vancouver Island company.
Best regards,
Paula Bradner
Dairy Farmers of Canada, Western Canada
May 9, 2011
News & Releases
2012
Photograph by: Brian Ceci
Darren Browne, Executive Chef at ORU
June 13, 2012
"I met Edgar Smith probably about 5 years ago, and he was an interesting guy from the first minute.
"I think one of the first things we ever talked about, (other than the fact that he was the only guy in Canada, at the time, making his own local buffalo mozzarella- which is a pretty good opener all on it’s own), was that he ...Read more, photos"
2011
Natural Pastures Smoked Boerenkaas Wins At 2011 Canadian Cheese Grand Prix
Courtenay B.C. April 25, 2011
Smoked Boerenkaas, one of Natural Pastures Cheese Companys three finalist
cheeses, was announced as winner in its category of “Flavoured Cheese with
Added Non-Particulate flavouring” at the Gala awards ceremony for the 2011
Canadian Cheese Grand Prix held in Toronto April 20th. This premier cheese
competition presented by Dairy Farmers of Canada is held every two years
and showcases the excellence of Canadian cheese ...
More Info
2010
Photograph by: Debra Brash, Times Colonist
Cheese with a difference – Mozzarella is made in Courtenay from the milk of water buffaloes
By Eric Akis, Times Colonist June 9, 2010
Enjoy a little taste of Italy without leaving the country, try some
Vancouver Island-made mozzarella di bufala, a cheese whose production is a
result of unbelievable perseverance and co-operation.
Read more…
2009
Comox Brie earns another World Award!
October 2009
Comox Brie earns Silver at the 2009 World Cheese Awards competition, run by the UK’s Guild of Fine Food for 21 years. Staged this year in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria on October 1, it attracted cheeses from 34 different countries.
Over 150 judges from 24 countries, including Mexico, South Africa, Japan and Australia, sampled the 2,440 entries. Guild of Fine Food national director Bob Farrand said: “This was the most international team of judges ever assembled, ... It’s the largest and most cosmopolitan cheese awards on the planet.”
This year’s awards formed part of a wider global event organized by the Guild of Fine Food, including an international cheese conference and the World Cheese Festival which attracted over 15000 consumers to the two-day festival, all eager to taste the winning cheeses.
More about the World Cheese Awards from
The Guild of Fine Food.
Natural Pastures Cheeses are Champions Again!
October 6, 2009
COURTENAY, B.C. Natural Pastures Cheeses are new Champions of the Pacific National Exhibition (PNE) cheese competition, confirming the delicious premier qualities of their world-class artisan cheeses. Earning top awards in each category entered, Natural Pastures was also judged “Overall Champion Cheese” by the panel of experts.
Comox Brie ranked the highest in PNE’s 2009 competition of soft ripened artisan cheeses, affirming Natural Pastures pinnacle World Championship Gold Medal awarded by the expert panel of 22 international judges of the 27th biennial World Cheese Contest (WCC).
More Info
2008
The sweet heat of wasabi gives this B.C. hybrid a polite kick
Globe and Mail, November 19, 2008
...Award-winning hybrid of cheddar, Dutch gouda and Swiss raclette.
Adding the sweet and piquant flavour of locally grown wasabi to this cheese
gives every bite an extra kick. But in true Canadian style, the fire is kept
politely in check.
Verdelait ...is a new style of cheese created ... at Natural Pastures Cheese.
Edgar Smith, president of Natural Pastures, considers wasabi a
delicacy... requires very specific growing conditions. The Smith family
started growing it in the forests on their farm (Beaver Meadow Farms in the
Comox Valley) about 15 years ago, discovering that wasabi loves the West
Coast climate and wet soils. "Wasabi has a little bit of heat to it and it
has a sweetness," Mr. Smith says. "It combines exceptionally well with West
Coast seafood, smoked salmon and oysters in the half shell."
Read more…
Natural Pastures featured on CTV News “Taste of Home” with Tamara Taggart
Watch Tamara’s visit to our cheese plant as our head cheesemaker Paul Sutter
demonstrates how we make our delicious
Mozzarella di Bufala.
Natural Pastures first on the Island to produce a world champion cheese.
Comox Valley Echo – Tuesday, April 1, 2008
The best brie in the world is produced right here in the Comox Valley. “We
start with good milk from the Valley and then we really just put a lot of
effort into making a nice, beautiful cheese.” Photos and read more.
Natural Pastures earns international acclaim
Business Vancouver Island, April 2008 issue. Read more.
Natural Pastures Cheeses are World Championship Gold and Silver Medallists!
COURTENAY, BC – April 1, 2008
Natural Pastures Cheese Comox Brie recently earned the
pinnacle World Championship Gold Medal, in the 27th biennial
Contest (WCC). As the first World Championship cheese ever
produced from Vancouver Island and first WCC gold medal Brie
ever from western Canada, Natural Pastures Cheese Company’s
reputation as a premier Canadian cheese producer is
strengthened. Read more.
2007
Natural Pastures wins Ten New
National Awards!
COURTENAY, BC – December 14, 2007
Expert judges recently conferred ten new
national awards to Natural Pastures Cheeses from the Comox
Valley, including a coveted win at the British Empire Cheese
Competition hosted by the Central Ontario Cheesemaker
Association. Natural Pastures Mozzarella di Bufala is the third
place winner of the Class 12 category, Pasta Filata Type of the
2007 British Empire competition, judged with large, leading
cheese companies’ entries. This is a brand new mozzarella for
Canada, as it is the only mozzarella made from the only
Canadian herd of water buffalo raised at Fairburn Farms in
Duncan. Read more.
Island Fresh – Comox Valley food producers receiving national attention
Times Colonist — September 2, 2007
la nouvelle Provence
BC Business magazine, June 2007
Cheese-maker Smith is much more positive about the Provence message. He was one of the first to raise the idea after Eric Akis, the Victoria Times-Colonist newspaper’s food columnist, described the east coast of the Island as “the new Provence.” “I’ve been to Provence,” Smith says. “We have the same pristine and pure soils, the Mediterranean climate and the coastal, salt-laden winds.” Comox also has a unique terroir, the flavour of the soil that comes through in the food, be it milk or grapes. Smith says it is the terroir that has won his cheeses numerous medals. “What we don’t have is the same relationship between the farmers and consumers,” Smith continues. “Few restaurants buy locally. Little of our produce is stocked on store shelves. Processing of our produce isn’t done locally.”
That is about to change, Read more…
Curdling till the buffalo come home
Cinda Chavich
Special to The Globe and Mail
June 13, 2007 at 7:14 AM EDT
DUNCAN, B.C. — The orb of pristine cheese in Paul Sutter's hand is soft and shiny, the picture of youth in the cheese world.
"It's very delicate at this point," says the Courtenay, B.C., cheese maker, cradling the day-old white mozzarella in his palm like an oversized poached egg.
This cheese is like any good ball of fresh Italian bocconcini, but it's the first artisan buffalo-milk mozzarella commercially made in Canada. It's moist on the inside, with the typical striated layers created by stretching the warmed mass of freshly coagulated curds. It's encased in a tight, thin skin, formed when the cheese is pulled and hand-pinched into a neat round ball.
Read more…
2006
Comox Valley Tourism’s annual Land of Plenty Award
From Comox Valley Tourism, April 4, 2006
Sponsored by the North Vancouver Island Chef’s Association
The winner of the 2005 Land of Plenty Award has done more to put the Comox Valley on the map in recent years than any of us could have ever imagined. They have won awards the world over for promoting the things that many of us take for granted — amazing air, land and water quality that produces high quality artisan food for the world to enjoy.
This company has also been active in promoting agri-investment, agri-tourism and culinary tourism initiatives in the Comox Valley. Through their actions they have encouraged others to embrace locally produced foods as a way to celebrate our community and support the local economy.
They source as many of their ingredients as possible locally and their products have been featured on cheeseboards at the House of Parliament and Rideau Hall. They represent the kind of innovation and creativity that will continue to put the Comox Valley on the culinary map.
This year’s winner of the new Land of Plenty Award is Natural Pastures Cheese Company.
2005
Natural Pastures wins at Royal Agricultural Winter Fair!
COURTENAY, B.C. – Natural Pastures Cheese Company from the Comox Valley has won ten more prestigious awards at the 2005 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto. Natural Pastures Cracked Pepper Verdelait placed first in its open category and is the Reserve Champion of the entire 2005 variety cheese competition.
Comox Camembert and Comox Brie are the 2005 winners of second and third respectively in the soft cheese category of Canada’s largest and well-known Agricultural Fair. Also winning awards in the top of their categories are Cumin Verdelait (2nd), Pacific Pepper (3rd) made with local Paper Lantern habanero peppers and La Scala (5th). Natural Pastures cheeses are winners of five of all eight awards in the open category; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 8th. What a delicious sweep!
These recent Royal Fair awards continue Natural Pastures Cheese’s winning tradition, adding to previous awards for a total of 26 national and international awards 2002-2005. Many of Natural Pastures’ delicious cheeses are gold medal winners of the prestigious biannual Canadian Grand Prix Cheese competitions (2002 and 2004) and Comox Camembert is the 4th place winner of the 2004 World Cheese Championship. You’re invited to savour pure winners!
Read more
2004
Two
1st place Awards at British Empire Show
November
26, 2004 - Another clean sweep for Natural Pastures Cheese Company as
they win two further 1st place awards at the esteemed
77th annual British Empire Cheese Show. On
this occasion it was their Amsterdammer, in the Semi Firm category and
their Garlic and Chives Verdelait in the Flavoured Firm category that
stole the show.
Seven
Awards at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair in Toronto.
Natural
Pastures win several more
prestigious awards at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair
in Toronto. Judging carried out at Canada's largest and well known Agricultural
Fair recognized seven
award winning cheeses crafted by our Swiss Head Cheesemaker.
BCs
Natural Pastures Cheese WORTH ITS TASTE IN GOLD
COMOX
CAMEMBERT FOURTH IN THE WORLD
2002
VANCOUVER
ISLAND ARTISAN CHEESE COMPANY WINS Three Category Champion CANADIAN CHEESE
GRAND PRIX AWARDS
Events
& Marketing Activity
CORNUCOPIA WHISTLER'S FOOD & WINE CELEBRATION
NOVEMBER 913, 2005
Natural Pastures Cheese Company will be participating in Whistler’s most exciting food and wine festival again for a third year, to showcase and promote Natural Pastures’ world-class, award-winning artisan cheeses amidst an exciting lineup of talent, including wine experts and celebrity chefs. You’re invited to sampleand savourNatural Pastures delicious cheeses at Cornucopia’s events.
DAIRY
FARMERS OF CANADA'S FIRST CANADIAN CHEESE FAIR
WESTIN
HOTEL, CALGARY ON OCTOBER 12, 2004
Natural Pastures
Cheese Co will be attending the first canadian Cheese Fair hosted by the
Dairy Farmers of Canada. We look forward to this new event and the opportunity
to showcase our products and meet with influential clientele from the
Cheese Industry.
CANADIAN CHEESE FAIR NATURAL PASTURES CHEESE COMPANY SPONSOR "THE COOLEST CAT IN COMOX"
It seemed
only fitting that Natural Pastures Cheese Company were one of four sponsors
for the new Olympic Tornado "Wine & Cheese". The twin-hull
catermeran was launched on Sunday, May 16, 2004 at a wine and cheese reception
attended by Comox Mayor Jim Brass in Comox. After a traditional champagne
christening by the Mayor, the Olympic Tornado was put through its paces
by brothers Stuart and Andrew Robinson in front of the media and VIP's
who had been taken out in a Comox Valley Adventures Zodiac to get close
to the action. . . read on
VANCOUVER
ISLAND FARMERS MARKETS