This article  was in the New York Times in April. It’s well worth the read. One of the reasons we do what we do is because how people are treated in order to bring their food to us matters so much. Globally it needs to matter more.

As consumers we get to wield a fair amount of power. We can make choices about who we buy our food from.

Our hazelnuts are from the Fraser Valley in British Columbia. We love that it’s one of the few nuts we can get that are grown in Canada in large enough quantities for us to buy. And that we are supporting the growth of an amazing industry right here.

The hazelnut industry in British Columbia was all but destroyed a few years ago because of the Eastern Filbert blight. Many farmers had to rip out their trees and burn them. Farmers lost their farms as a result of it. It’s been a number of years and new trees have been planted and we are now seeing the come back of the hazelnut in Canada.

Within a few years we will be able to buy large enough quantities of certified organic hazelnuts locally. At this time that’s not possible. But we are able to get hazelnuts grown without pesticides, and they are so delicious.