Isabelle Ranger stays rooted to her craft with Thérroir Tisanes™ growing in Pemberton, B.C. & TeaCrafting the world’s finest Single Origin Import Teas in Whistler,B.C. Her love of Herbalism began as a child & in 1993 after moving from Ottawa, ON to ride Whistler, she fell in love with the lush foraging bounty of the WestCoast. She studied Herbalism with reknowned Medical Herbalist Rowan Hamilton & Shamanic Herbalist Don Ollsin at Langara College in 1998. Isabelle & Don discussed plans to found a Herbalism Farm School on Saltspring Island where Isabelle would craft medicinals for the apothecary & Don would continue teaching. Plans changed quickly & almost evolved into an Herbal Apothecary on Main street in Vancouver but a calling to go back up north on the reserve in Mt.Currie was the chosen path.
Isabelle founded a co-op style Herbal Dispensary & Clinic with Organic Juice Bar called The Herbal Emporium where a variety of Healing Arts would be offered affordably to the surrounding communities in 2000. She basically set-up shop to learn & share her love of Herbs in the most ancient, simple, affordable & healing form : Tea. Isabelle also made botanicals extracts for years macerating wildcrafted concoctions with her BC grain alcohol license in both Mt. Currie & Whistler, B.C. During this time Isabelle met her life & business partner Cédric. This is where she honed her Teacrafting skills by making totally unpalatable bitter & astringent roots into wonderful healing teas loved by her local & international clients. Since her family was living in Asia for many years she started plans to import direct trade teas, handcrafted ceramic teapots & silks for her shop with her first shipment of Ancient Tree Teas arriving from Vietnam in 2004.
Isabelle felt the foodservice & grocery was in need of amazing Thérroir Tisanes™ crafted in BC with the finest import Single Origin & Fair-Trade Teas. She founded Namasthé in 2006 to grow organically, craft & serve BC’s finest establishments, organic grocers & cafés. The focus would be on what grows here in BC & hand blend in micro mélanges with Heirloom varietals of Teas from around the globe. Isabelle likes to bushwack for exotic botanicals right in her backyard, weed all summer on the farm & TeaCraft on demand the freshest Thérroir Teas for her growing list of clients.
-Speaker bios courtesy of Vancouver Foodster and foodtalks.ca
Food Talks is an evening of expert speakers from the Vancouver Food community.
To hear more speakers from Food Talks please visit geoffmobile.com/blog/category/food-talks-vancouver
or foodtalks.ca
Food Talks Volume 5 was held in Vancouver BC Canada on December 4th 2012.
Presented by Richard Wolak, twitter.com/VanFoodster
vancouverfoodster.com
As featured on geoffmobile.com
Presented by Foodtalks.ca and vancouverfoodster.com
Videography by Geoff Peters of Birds in the House Productions birdsinthehouse.com
Filmed at the Stanley Park Pavilion, 618 Pipeline Road, Vancouver BC Canada
www.stanleyparkpavilion.com
Closing music by Laundryman laundrymanmusic.com used with permission.
