As avid skiiers the Neills had visited Kelowna many times en route to Big White. They liked the city, so when Michael heard through the grapevine that Mosaic Books was for sale back in 1995, he jumped at the opportunity. They sold their share in Black Bond Books, uprooted their family (including their BookManager company and employees) and moved to the Okanagan.

Now anyone who’s lived in the valley for any length of time knows that Mosaic Books is something of a Kelowna landmark. In fact, the busy downtown bookstore just turned 40 years old back in November. As those of us who also have reached this venerable age know, life begins at 40! Started in 1968 by Rhoda Moss, a daughter of Kelowna pioneer Stanley Simpson, Mosaic Books has had a few owners through the years and a couple of different locations. Thirteen years into their tenure, Michael and Michele Neill seem to have found a winning formula and location.

The bookstore business certainly has its challenges. When you’re dealing with huge numbers of titles which are constantly changing, a huge database of up to 5 million available titles to order from, a variety of suppliers and publishers plus a sometimes finicky public, it can add up to a big headache. But Neill says he’s getting his ordering down to a science. Using a network of 285 independent book sellers, who make educated guesses and predictions about what’s going to be popular, as well as submitting their weekly sales figures, Neill bases his ordering on the accumulated knowledge of many experienced booksellers/booklovers. “That way I don’t have to have 30,000 sq. ft.,” he says, “ I can be more effective.”

As for what makes his bookstore unique, Michael Neill points to Mosaic’s strong community connections, relationships with local schools, and teacher-librarians, their 3-5 day special ordering service, and their great bargain books department. They recently underwent a bit of an expansion/ layout change which saw the removal of the cafe area, and the incorporation of the bargain books into main body of the store. This move was necessitated by more expensive rent which required “more dollars per square foot,” says Neill. Still, he’s confident about the viability of the bookstore: “ I just signed a 10 year lease.” Books have proven to be a somewhat recession proof item. “It’s cheap entertainment,” he says. As a final note Neill reminds shoppers that buying from local independent businesses keeps more of your dollars circulating within your own community. Christmas books anyone?

Once the meal is prepared, we sit down with another glass of wine (white this time– Deep Creek G2, a blend of Gewurtz and Reisling ) and get to chow down on what we’ve watched Chef Dennis prepare. The salmon in wine reduction sauce is tender and flavourful, the cabbage tastier than cabbage has a right to be, the baby potatoes brown and just slightly spicy, the baked grapes and fennel adding a final touch of the slightly exotic. Chef Dennis discreetly slips away as we eat and chat. After a more than filling and fulfilling meal we get our final treat; a dessert of creme brulee and cheesecake. What more could a woman ask for? Some insightful comments later penned by my group: “You pleased 11 women in one night– well done Dennis!” and “Dennis you rock– can we take you home? Your salmon was so much tastier than the peanut butter toast I made for supper last night.” Hey, we’re all busy moms who don’t often get a gourmet meal prepared for us and not have to do the dishes.

Sadly Chef Dennis Lowen has moved on to other challenges since our evening. Cooking duties at the school and the Vine-Yard restaurant have been taken over by proprietor and manager Scott Wilshaw, the brainchild behind the Producer’s Cookery School. Scott has been working in the restaurant business for over 20 years, mainly in large hotels. As a chef trained in Europe he has also run cookery classes for much of his career. So when he ended up in Peachland a few years ago (he has family connections here) and began leasing the restaurant at Hainle winery from owner Walter Huber, he decided to add on the demonstration kitchen. The lease also includes running the wine shop and wine bar, leaving Huber to concentrate on the vineyards and wine-making.

In his spare time Wilshaw pursues his dream of owning his own small, luxury hotel which will be the eventual home of his restaurant and cookery school. This project looks to be coming into fruition with building on Trepanier Manor expected to begin next summer. Meanwhile he plies his culinary talents at Hainle winery, demonstrating a fusion cuisine by mixing the European style cooking of his early training with a West Coast flair. If you’re looking for an entertaining, educational, and delicious night out, check out the Producer’s Cookery school and experience the “best tastes with the simplest ingredients.”

The Heartnut is just one of many unusual varieties of nuts grown here. Appropriately named, you’ll find a beautiful heart-shaped nut inside. The taste is reminiscent of a walnut but without the bitterness. The Buartnut is another curious nut; a cross between a Heartnut and a Butternut and an original creation of Jack Gellatly, nut breeder extraordinaire.

The Gellatly family didn’t begin as nut farmers. In fact, David Erskine Gellatly, patriarch of the clan, was known as the Potato and Tomato King. Originally from Scotland, he arrived in the Okanagan at the turn of the century. The family purchased 350 acres of waterfront land on the Westside, what’s now known as Gellatly Point, and proceeded to turn it into thriving agricultural land. The fruits and vegetables were shipped all over from their packing house at Gellatly Landing Wharf where the steamships picked up their cargo. The family thrived too with 9 children, including the two eldest sons David and Jack who began the Nut Farm story.

In 1905 the brothers were each given 10 acres of the family homestead. Wanting to try something different, David Jr. began growing nut trees on his parcel of land. Soon he was shipping nut trees all over the world and so began the first commercial nut nursery in Canada.. Brother Jack joined him and together they experimented with crossing trees like the Chinese Chestnut and the Black Walnut with hardier local varieties. Luckily, the boys were very successful in this new enterprise. Things weren’t going so well for their father.

David Sr. encountered a string of bad luck starting with a terrible gale that destroyed the family’s 250 ft commercial greenhouse. In 1920 a fire wiped out his barn, machinery, packing house and dock. Although the fire began aboard the S.S.Sicamus which was docked at Gellatly Landing, the family never received compensation from the C.P.R. who ran the steamship. Financial hardship followed. Unable to make their bank payments, the family had to give up the farm they had worked so hard to build.

The remaining 9.88 acres of nut trees represents a last vestige of the pioneer Gellatly farm. In 1997 when a waterfront development was proposed for the property, neighbors and concerned citizens banded together to try to save it from the bulldozers. Ferne Jean, neice of Jack Gellatly, joined the Gellatly Nut Farm Society and worked tirelessly to preserve the farm, raising public awareness and funds. Their efforts paid off when the Central Okanagan Regional District purchased the property, in May 2002.

Gellatly Nut Farm Regional Park opened to the public in 2005, appropriately marking the farm’s 100th anniversary. The park will remain a working nut farm, with ongoing research into rare nut varieties. Visit the Nut Farm on Whitworth Rd off of Gellatly Rd which runs along the Westbank waterfront.

This private car museum could really be said to be a tribute to the expression “they just don’t make things like they used to.” Talk about attention to detail– each bumper, each dash, each body, each paint job is unique down to the aerial knobs matching the dashboards. That certainly could never be said about new cars. Cars have become the workhorses of the family, a means to get from place to place. The Nixdorf Classic Car Museum bring us back to an era when cars were art, one of a kind show pieces and status symbols of the new American wealth.

Garney Nixdorf has been collecting classic cars for about 50 years. His son Tim caught the bug or inherited it in the genes and also began collecting. Between them they own the 100 on display at the museum (a rotating display of 50 at a time) with about 16 more in restoration stage; mostly convertibles and two door hardtops from 1937-1970 with a few muscle cars thrown in. In fact, the most valuable car in the collection is a 1970 Ford Mustang “Boss 429.” In mint condition and one of only 499 made of that model making it extremely rare and collectible.

The museum is managed by Jim Kyluik, Garney’s cousin and also a self-described “car nut.” As he watched his cousin’s collection grow over the years, he kept hounding Garney to display them to the public. They were just too beautiful to keep hidden away. He even offered to manage the museum if it ever happened. Eventually Garney agreed and built the warehouse on his Summerland property, opening three years ago. Jim kept his part of the bargain, semi-retiring from his work in project management to get the Nixdorf collection into the public eye.

The Nixdorf Classic Car Museum is a not for profit enterprise. So far, they’ve been just making ends meet (buying and restoring cars is an expensive hobby). But should there ever be profit from the business, the Nixdorfs plan to donate it to a children’s charity, preferably something helping children with disabilities.

A new part of the business was added this year– wine tours using the classic convertibles. Jim and his wife Joan Kyluik do the tours, tailoring them to the clients’ needs and interests. These have been a great success, even spinning off into a cable series called “Vintages and Vines.” Watch for it on Shaw. And do yourself a favour, stop at the Nixdorf Classic Car Museum at 15809 Logie Rd., Summerland, and be amazed.

www.nixdorfclassiccars.com

The Summerhill story begins when Cipes, a developer and entrepreneur living in Manhattan, visited the Okanagan with his four sons. On the lookout for a lifestyle and a cleaner, healthier place to raise his kids, Cipes fell in love with the valley. He had also done some research on grape growing and found that Kelowna’s climate and soil were perfectly suited to that purpose. He bought the 65 acre vineyard on Chute Lake Rd. intending to pursue organic farming methods to grow grapes for sparkling wine, a drink of which he had become something of a connoisseur.

The organic part was simple: he didn’t want to expose his children to chemical sprays and didn’t want to contribute to water and air pollution. He also believed that the small, thin-skinned grapes used to make sparkling wine were more susceptible to taste contamination by pesticides.

After beginning the five year process to become certified organic. Cipes next step was to yank up the old, hybrid vines that had been the staple of the BC wine industry up to that time. Cipes visited France and Germany, bringing back cuttings of many of their successful vinifera varietals. The vineyard began producing grapes for other wineries. Their first vintage was produced in 1989 after Jack Davis, winemaster at Schramsberg cellars in California, approached Cipes. Davis, who had also been doing his homework, had discovered the unique properties of the Okanagan valley and believed it would be a great place to produce sparkling wine.

Under the guidance of Davis, and operating out of Cipes’ garage, Summerhill produced its first vintage called Cipes Brut, a sparkling wine which is still one of the winery’s flagship products. Since that time, Summerhill has expanded its wine portfolio considerably and built a beautiful facility, including a wineshop, restaurant and, of course, the pyramid. It is now the most visited winery in Canada, receiving up to 1,000 visitors a day at the height of summer.

Part of the attraction, besides the wine, the food and the view, must be the power of the pyramid. Since the founding of the winery, a small wooden pyramid sat behind Cipes’ garage. It was there for research purposes as some wines were aged in it and some were not. Over the years ongoing taste tests confirmed that wine aged in the pyramid tasted better. These results were enough to convince Cipes to build a larger pyramid as a cellar; a uniquely Summerhillian version of the Champagne caves of France.

Modelled on the Egyptian pyramids of Giza, the Summerhill pyramid was build using the concepts of “sacred geometry,” building methods and ideals of proportion based on mathematical ideas well known in the ancient world. The building seems to have a clarifying effect on liquids. Wine aged in the pyramid is said to be smoother, with enhanced flavours. All Summerhill wines now spend at least one month in the pyramid, some stay there for up to a year. The pyramid has become an integral part of their identity and their winemaking process. And the tourists like it too. Visit the winery and see it for yourself.

Front Street, a short run of colourful older buildings near the downtown core, is the perfect home for this funky cafe. The street has character, the building has character, the cafe has character, the owners have character. Debra Rice and Pierre Couture started the business about six years ago. It began, strangely enough, as an import business: Gypsy Heart Casual Imports, bringing merchandise in from Asia. After the Christmas rush was over, they still had a few months on their lease. “We could do a little cafe,” Pierre suggested. He had been in the restaurant business for many, many years so knew what he was getting into. Debra had a health food background.

They ran their “little cafe” for three years, selling their import items downstairs. They started bringing musicians in, realizing that they could be full on a week night if there was music. Jack Velker and Harry Manx were some of the first performers. “The community loved it,” says Debra, “We had a great response.” But it was a very little cafe, only seating 40 people. In order to survive, they had to get a bigger space. When a building across the street became available, they took the leap. After a major reno and community investment in the form of 50 shareholders, Debra and Pierre opened the new, improved Dream Cafe in July, 2004.

The new cafe was designed with the music and musicians in mind. The small stage is at the centre of the space, with tables circling around in layers, making for good sight lines and acoustics. The decor is suitably eclectic, with large stone Buddhas scattered around, colourful fabrics, wall hangings, pictures, candles, earthy coloured walls, huge dragon and butterfly kites staring down from the ceiling, comfy chairs, books left casually around to be leafed through. There’s a warm and friendly atmosphere here, welcoming. This is probably a result of Pierre’s philosophy of “putting the value on the people, not the money.”

The menu is about as eclectic as the decor, featuring a wide variety of tastes from around the world, showcasing Indian, Thai and Mediterranean flavours. “Very fresh with loads of veggies,” says Debra about their food philosophy. “It’s very simple,” says Pierre, “It’s clean food.”

Debra makes most of the desserts herself, including her legendary cheesecake. “ I have musicians all over the place addicted to my cheesecake,” she says. The Dream Cafe also offers a full bar but as Pierre says “ We don’t push the booze…I don’t like drunks.” Drunks are noisy and, as the SHHH notes on the tables state, the musicians are there to be listened to. The attentive audiences, the addictive cheesecake and Pierre and Debra’s welcoming ways, keep musicians and customers happy and coming back for more.

The Dream Cafe
67 Front St. Penticton
490-9012

Looking around, the couple realized there were very few specialty nurseries in the area. They decided to start one, focusing on perennials that would grow and thrive here in the semi-arid climate. As a keen gardener Jacquie decided she also wanted to create a public garden space to showcase the nursery plants and to provide a beautiful venue for weddings. Although she had never created a public garden, Jacquie had a flair for design. She set off on an inspirational tour of English public gardens and came back with loads of ideas. What evolved became a genuinely Okanagan version of those lush, green places.

Jacquie and Katsumi decided on the name Elysium because that was the playground of the gods in Greek mythology. “It’s a little bit of heaven where we work like hell,” Jacquie quips. Leaving quite a few of the original apple trees, which lend the garden a sense of age and maturity it wouldn’t otherwise have, their four acres now features about 2,000 varieties of plants including a huge selection of peonies, an area devoted exclusively to day lilies, a herb garden, rockeries, xeriscapes, lavender lane, apple alley (glorious in blossom time), gazebos, pergolas, benches, a dry river bed, and a Japanese inspired garden. This project, a tribute to Katsumi’s heritage, was designed and constructed with the help of Kunio, a Japanese friend.

“I wanted the garden to be both inspirational and educational,” says Jacquie and so it is. Although they get visitors from around the world, many local people come to buy plants and get advice about what might thrive in their own gardens. Jacquie also offers a variety of gardening seminars throughout the year. Mindful of water conservation, the garden is all hand-watered and only when necessary (there’s no electricity in the garden). “Katsumi got disgusted with all the sprays he had to use while working the apple orchard,” says Jacquie so the couple also decided to maintain the gardens organically.

The whole enterprise is run and maintained by family: Jacquie takes care of the tours, weddings, and most of the gardening (along with her assistant Yuka), Katsumi looks after orchard stuff plus mowing, watering, pruning, and Jacquie’s two sisters Ann and Lynne, work the nursery. A real family labour of love and a paradise in our own backyard. Visit and see for yourself!

For more info., open hours, admission prices etc. please visit elysiumgardennursery.com or phone 250-491-1368.

As snowbirds, Egon and his wife Ursula spent many winters in the U.S., where they encountered electric vehicles firsthand. “I got intrigued about them,” says Ressel. He began wondering if he could make one. “I knew people who had done conversions–taking a gas-powered car, and putting an electric motor in it.” Building one from the ground up was a bigger challenge, one he decided to take on in 2001. “I just wanted to see if I could do it, and get some fun out of it,” he says.

With a background in heating and plumbing, Ressel had some mechanical experience, but not in electronics. So the first step was extensive research (using books and the internet) in order to develop the plans: “I had to get it in my mind first.” The idea that emerged was a light, three-wheeled vehicle built on a V.W. beetle axle. It had to be as light as possible in order to have enough power. The final product weighs around 1,600 pounds, (which sounds like a lot but not in comparison to your average car or truck). The three-wheeled design cuts down on road resistance.

Next Ressel located a company in California to supply the electric motor and electronic controls. They also supplied a lot of know-how and advice. “They helped me to figure out what I needed and how to put it all together,” says Ressel. Of course these became the most expensive parts of the car, particularly since they had to be shipped from the U.S.

Next Ressel purchased an old V.W. Beetle for 50 dollars. Because Beetles don’t have a conventional frame, and are lightweight, they are often used for go-carts and take-apart projects. The rear axle became the base for Ressel’s electric car. He also used the V.W. transmission, adapting it to electric. Then he purchased a Harley Davidson golf cart, from which he salvaged the steering system. The electrical work came next. The car uses a combination of high and low voltage systems working off a 72 volt battery. It charges overnight on household power supply. Two comfy seats came from a Mazda sports car.

At this stage, a test drive confirmed all systems go. It worked! To finish the car, Ressel constructed the body out of sheets of urethane foam, sandwiched between thin layers of fiberglass. It was professionally painted at a west side auto-body shop. The glass work completed the project, and a very spiffy machine it is too!

Ressel estimates that his car will travel up to 80km/hour,, and go 120 km on one charge. Unfortunately, he hasn’t been able to test it properly because of licensing difficulties. In classification, the vehicle falls in a gray zone, between a car and a motorcycle. In other words, the insurance folks don’t know quite what to make of it. A local vehicle inspector said “he’d never seen anything like it.”

Ressel is still hopeful he will eventually be able to use his car around town, cheerfully driving past gas stations in his non-polluting, funky, home-made car.

Herold Mueller, a Polish immigrant and retired millwright has been making instruments (cellos, violins and violas) in a studio of his Lakeview Heights home for the last 25 years or so. His first instrument was a cello. Playing on an old, terrible Chinese cello, and unable to afford a better one, he decided to make himself one. Necessity being the mother of invention, he studied the cello, measured it, figured out how it worked, and referred to a few books on the subject. He obtained wood cheaply from work and he made most of the tools he needed.

“The first one didn’t turn out too well,” remembers Herold. He didn’t give up and went on to make several more cellos. Some turned out well and some ended up in the dump. What was the difference between the ones he kept and the ones he destroyed? “The sound, the sound,” he says with feeling. The music is what matters in the end. He now realizes that he should have started out making violins. “It’s basically the same instrument but smaller,” using that much less labour and materials. Herold doesn’t make many cellos anymore. “It takes a lot of digging,” he says, “and I have a bit of a shoulder problem.”

The digging he refers to is the gouging and chiseling of the wood from a thick slab into the fine, tapered top and bottom of the finished instrument. The wood, after being carved to an exact thickness, sometimes measured in thousandths of an inch, is actually tuned like a string to a specific note; a delicate operation vital to the final performance of the instrument. “Each piece of wood is different and needs to be treated differently,” explains Herold.

Herold Mueller, at age 76, continues to make and repair violins and violas, most of which are sold locally, often to students who’ve outgrown their beginner instruments. Many of his fine, one of a kind violins come with a name: Cinderella, Brown Sugar, The Nightingale. Made of shimmering bird’s eye or flamed maple, spruce, ebony or boxwood, with long, delicate necks, hand-carved scrolls, and backs decorated with inlaid perfoling, these beauties await skilled, and lucky, hands to give them a voice and make their creator very happy.

“Making instruments is a lifetime apprenticeship,” says Mr. Mueller. “Just when you think you’ve learned everything, you find there’s more to learn.”

Greata Ranch was once one of the largest orchards in the Okanagan, boasting an annual fruit crop of 485 tons (cherries, pears, apples, apricots, peaches and plums) in 1949. Water was piped from Brenda Lake up in the hills ; quite a feat in those days. Greata was also one of the more modernized orchards with 75 employees, plus a mechanized packing house and wharf. From the Greata wharf, produce was packed in railway cars and shipped out on the big sternwheelers.

It’s strange that the place is still called Greata Ranch. The George Greata who established the orchard at the turn of the century, only operated it for about nine years. He sold it to John Long in 1910 and it was Long and his sons who farmed the land there for the longest time. They were very successful with this plot of land, producing excellent quality and quantity of a variety of fruits, plus building the packing house and wharf. But to get back to the peaches.

Greata Ranch peaches were of such quality that people would come from far and wide to buy them. Senator Ross Fitzpatrick, whose father owned a packing house in Oliver, remembers coming to Greata Ranch as a boy to buy peaches with this dad. “ They produced beautiful peaches,” he says. They must have been good for buyers to come all the way from Oliver, where one would presume the slightly warmer climate would make for even better ones.

After 55 years of running the Greata Ranch, the Long family, with amazing good luck, sold the ranch just before the devastating freeze in the winter of ‘65-’66.
The poor sod who bought the farm, literally, saw terrible losses and decided to sell instead of replant. That was the end of the glory days of Greata Ranch, at least for a while.

The property fell into decline. The packing house, wharf , and bunkhouse began to sag and deteriorate. Most of the orchard was removed. A condominium development began and failed in the ‘80s. Squatter’s shacks sprung up along the shore. In other words, the formerly formidable family business had become a mess and an eyesore.

When the property again came up for sale in 1994, that young boy who remembered
buying peaches at the ranch was now owner of CedarCreek Winery and on the lookout for more grape-growing property. Since peaches are notoriously tender, Ross Fitzpatrick surmised that the Greata bench land was in something of a warm belt, a microclimate, perfect perhaps for growing grapes. He took a gamble on that and bought the property, also for sentimental reasons, wanting to restore the property to something of its former glory. (Of course the two kilometres of lake frontage didn’t hurt either). After a massive clean-up operation, all the arable portions of the ranch were turned over to vineyard and Greata Ranch was born again–this time as an award winning winery.

Stop in next time you’re driving past. Sip a glass of Greata chardonnay and spare a few thoughts for the history of the place.