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Flying Gecko Gardens

Flying Gecko Gardens

 

248 Saint Paul Street, Kamloops, BC, Canada

Description of Business 

       Flying Gecko Gardens sells honey, canned goods including sauerkraut, along with a variety of gluten free baked goods. During the summer Flying Gecko Gardens sell every Saturday morning at the Kamloops Farmers Market. They also have a small webshop on Localline at the moment and you can find the link on their Facebook page. During the winter, they prefer people to contact them via Facebook or email. If you are interested in checking out their products go visit their stand at the farmers market and follow them on Facebook.

Email: kristina@theflyinggecko.ca

Facebook: www.facebook.com/flyinggeckogardens.

 

What is your production process?

When making honey the bees do most of the work (one bee makes about half a teaspoon of honey during her lifetime). Around July or August we remove frames and/or boxes that contain honey. We work with an extraction board to get the boxes free from bees (it’s kind of a one way exit board we put under the boxes), and after 48hrs most bees have left, and gone back into their hive instead. The honeycomb is then uncapped with a knife, and extracted with a hand crank extractor that holds two frames. From there we pour the raw honey into a bucket with a gravity filter on top. The next step is to fill jars with the help of a bucket that has a spout. We currently have 5 hives that made overall 200lbs of honey this year, which is a good year in our area despite the smoke and drought. 

To make sauerkraut we grow our own cabbages, and process them directly after harvest. The cabbage gets sliced very thin, and the shreds are kneaded by hand with some pickling salt, then layered tightly into a big crockpot. The shreds are covered with a large cabbage leaf that is weighed down with a plate. If necessary, we top the last layer with salt water, then store the crock in a dark cool place for 5-6 weeks. After that time, we drain the kraut, then cold pack into jars and top with a hot vinegar and sugar solution. The jars are then processed in a water bath, preserving the current state/crunchiness of the kraut and stopping the fermentation. The jars are then shelf stable and ready for sale. We only make about 205 jars each year. 

To make our Gluten Free Sourdough I have an 8 year old gluten free sourdough starter that is the base of all our sourdough breads. The starter is based on rice flour, and gets ‘fed’ every 1-2 days with new flour, as needed. To make the bread, a portion of the starter is added to a gluten free flour blend, and some water is added. This mixture ferments overnight (up to 3 nights), then the loaves are shaped and baked in the oven. We produce gluten free sourdough breads year round in small batches, so maybe around 250-300 loaves a year in total.

 

What raw materials do you use? 

For the Honey our bees live year-round in the same spot, which means there has to be plenty of flowers for them to source the nectar from. They forage in the vicinity of our gardens in the North Thompson, from fruit trees, garden flowers, surrounding forest (e.g. saskatoon flowers) and clover/alfalfa fields. Every year the honey is different in colour or taste, depending on forage sources and weather conditions. In 2021, we got golden honey and white honey, both very thick due to drought conditions.

To make Sauerkraut the cabbages are our own, and the pickling salt and vinegar are sources from the store.

The gluten free Sourdough Breads use certified gluten free flours that unfortunately come from far away. We have about 30 different types of flours in stock, the most important being Rice flours that are sourced from Asia, Tapioca Starch from Thailand, Potato starch from the Netherlands, Almond flour from California, Teff flour from Ethiopia or Africa, Buckwheat from the US, and many more. 

 

How do you handle waste management? 

In the Honey making process we produce beeswax, which is a by-product of the extraction process. From the rendered clean wax, we make beeswax candles, and some cosmetics and household products, the latter for personal use.

The cabbage rests from making sauerkraut go into the compost pile.

 

Do you have multiple products? 

Currently we sell white, golden and ‘naturally creamy’ (crystallized) honey, in different sizes: 250, 500 and 1000 grams. We also sold some honey with natural comb pieces in the jar this year (sold out already). 

We have one Sauerkraut product.  

We make many different kinds of bread with dark, medium and white grains. We also have Sourdough Pretzels, which we sell at almost every market, and other bread-like products like baguettes, and bagels.

 

Do you have a product recommendation or best seller? 

When it comes to honey taste is an individual preference, of course. Our white honey is more fragrant and light than the golden, which is more full and sweet in taste. And the creamy honey has its own fan base due to the candy-like texture.

Our ‘German’-style of kraut is very popular and usually sells out within 2-3 markets.

Our white sourdough bread and the very dark (Teff) sourdough bread seem to be most popular, along with the sourdough pretzels.

 

When did you start producing your fermented products? What made you want to start? 

The decision to have bees came naturally with our market garden, which we started in 2014. We have lots of fruit trees and bushes that need pollination, and some garden crops (melons, cucumbers, pumpkins) depend on bees as well. Plus, beekeeping is a really interesting hobby! Honey is a great product that stores well, almost indefinitely, and can be used in baking.

As a native German, when I see cabbages, I think Sauerkraut! We keep quite a few jars for ourselves as well, and have been making it since 2014 (selling probably since 2016). 

My Gluten free Sourdough starter originated in Kamloops, where we lived before we got the farm. I was selling gluten free baked products at the market, and always looked for an opportunity to improve the texture and taste of the breads which are notoriously difficult to make. After several trials to make a palatable starter, I finally succeeded, and have used it ever since (2013).

 

Any fun/interesting history from your business? Could include background on producer or company 

We started our business in 2012 after immigrating to Canada from the Netherlands (we, that is myself and my hubby Ernst). We started selling gluten free baked products at the Kamloops Farmers market, and after moving to our own farm in Darfield (north of Barriere) we started adding fruit, vegetables, honey and preserves to our market stand. Flying Gecko Gardens is still a 2 person operation, where we grow everything naturally, bake gluten free products from scratch, and strive for as little waste as possible (the preserves were originally a way to cope with any surplus from the market garden).

 

Any health benefits? 

We only sell raw/unpasteurized honey, which is still intact in terms of enzymes, antioxidants etc., so still supposedly has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, both when ingested and as topical application to cuts and wounds. To us the biggest benefit is the taste though: after tasting our own honey, we can never go back to store-bought honey. The difference in taste is enormous!

 

Sauerkraut Fermentation Process: 

       Sauerkraut is made through the combination of chopped up cabbage and salt that are combined in a covered container and left to ferment for a few weeks. Sauerkraut undergoes lactic acid fermentation, where sugar is converted to energy and lactic acid by lactic acid bacteria from genera such as Lactobacillus, or Pediococcus. Lactic acid bacteria can tolerate high levels of acid and salt and have the ability to digest simple sugars into lactic acid, essentially turning sweet into sour! Lactic acid bacteria is found naturally on the cabbage, and performs fermentation in the absence of oxygen. 

 

Sourdough Fermentation Process: 

The fermentation process of the starter consists of flour and room temperature water mixture fermenting in a covered/partially sealed jar for 5-6 days. The wild yeast and lactic acid bacteria contained in the flour will break down the starch using amylases. The starch becomes maltose which the lactic acid bacteria convert into glucose, CO2, and lactic acid. The yeast then metabolizes the glucose and produces ethanol and CO2. The acidic environment produced within the jar prevents unwanted bacteria from growing and provides the bread with its characteristically sour taste. The fermentation process of sourdough bread can range from 8-144 hours (about 6 days). The fermentation process occurs in a pH range between 3.4-4.9 and at a temperature that is around 25 °C. The CO2 produced by the yeast will get trapped in the gluten molecules of the dough and cause it to rise. 

 

Honey Fermentation Process:

Forager bees fly around and use their long tongues to suck out nectar from flowers blossoms. They collect the nectar in a separate stomach from their food called the honey stomach. They store it in this separate compartment until it is full and then they fly back to the hive. Within the stomach the nectar mixes with the bee’s digestive enzyme. Upon returning to the hive the forager bees pass the nectar by vomiting it into the mouth of a worker bee where they chew it for around half an hour. During this time, the nectar mixes with their unique digestive enzymes before it is passed down the line through multiple bees. Passing of nectar from bee to bee helps reduce water content within the nectar until it concentrates the sugars to its final form which we know as honey. Complex sugar chains within the raw nectar are turned into monosaccharides (simple sugars) like fructose and glucose when mixed with the digestive enzymes in the bee’s gut. The nectar is slowly turning into honey as this occurs and once the process is complete it is stored in a cell of honeycomb. At this stage the honey is wet, so the bees use their wings to fan it until it dries out a bit, and then they seal it with a cap in the comb with wax. The exact process in which the nectar turns into honey during the bee vomiting chain is unclear. However, it is believed to involve fermentation by anaerobic microbes.

References:

Gänzle, M. 2014. Enzymatic and bacterial conversions during sourdough fermentation. Food Microbiology. 37: 2–10. https://sci-hub.zidianzhan.net/10.1016/j.fm.2013.04.007   

Lee FJ, Rusch DB, Stewart FJ, Mattila HR, Newton IL. 2015. Saccharide Breakdown and Fermentation by the Honey Bee Gut Microbiome. Society for Applied Microbiology. 17(3): 796-815. https://sfamjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/1462-2920.12526.

Sauer M, Han NS. 2021. Lactic acid bacteria: little helpers for many human tasks. Essays in Biochemistry. 65(2): 163-171. https://portlandpress.com/essaysbiochem/article-abstract/65/2/163/228109/Lactic-acid-bacteria-little-helpers-for-many-human

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