Bobs and Lolo performing New Years at Rocky Mountain Flatbread

Bobs and Lolo are coming to celebrate an evening of family New Year Festivities at Rocky Mountain Flatbread.

Eco festive Parties at Rocky Mountain Flatbread

Chef Oliver has put together delicious festive menus.  And when you book your party with us we promise it will be eco-friendly ... your meal will be carbon neutral and use lots of B.C. produce PLUS:

$1 for each meal ordered will be donated to World Vision.  Our aim is to raise enough to buy a stable full of animals to help a community in Africa break the cycle of poverty.

A frozen pizza for each meal ordered will be donated to the Portland Hospital Society, supporting the homeless in East Vancouver.

Share what eco-festive party things are your doing this christmas.

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education & Bike Innertubes = Dog Collars & Belts

We want to hear your ideas of what you can do with bike inner tubes and even better send us photos of your ideas in action.

When working with grade 5 students at Lord Tennyson school they have a great idea of transforming bike inner tubes to dog collars and belts!  Our prototypes are looking pretty good.  Watch here for the finished look.  

ROCKY MOUNTAIN FLATBREAD CELEBRATES VANCOUVER URBAN GARDENERS

This is a picture of Ward from City Farm Boy one of the many fantastic urban gardeners in our Vancouver area.  

Ward grows thousands of square feet of fresh veges from early spring to the later winter months selling his produce at Riley Farmers Market.  

His picture and many more experienced and less experienced urban gardeners can be found on our restaurant walls.  Sharon Hanna, urban gardener for over 20 years & consultant for growing your own food from Hotbeds; Justin Tilson, urban gardener for over 5 years; Tim Higgs, who used to supply John Bishop with all of his fresh herbs when his restaurant first opened...  And the list goes on.

Their reasons for urban gardening are hugely diverse:  Love of gardening, food security, personal nurtrition, taste and environmental reasons.

And their wealth of knowledge for gardening tips is amazing.  One thing every urban gardener said was make sure your use soil full of nutrients and use lots of compost every year - it is black gold!!!  

So if you know of any urban gardeners in Vancouver with great gardening tips we would love to hear about them.

Canmore Educational Society

This fall the Canmore Educational Society is back in full swing. We have started two programs this term, the Local Heroes Program (grade 7 class, Exshaw school) and the Responsible Entrepreneur Program (grade 2/3 class, Our Lady of the Snows Catholic Academy). Both programs are going well, and we are looking forward to the pizza party at the new Canmore Co-op (www.canmorecoop.ca) with our local heroes on November 20th. We are still looking for a photographer to take photos on the hereos, if you are interested please contact me. For our responsible entrepreneur program, the grade 2 class is making prototypes this week of potential Christmas inspired products to sell. Look for us at Safeway and Sobeys on Sat. Dec. 6th, and at Stonewaters on Sat. Dec. 13th.

Spring at RMF

Hey Vancouver! Spring is finally here and the staff at RMF would like all to beware the random pizza delivery! It seems to be the best way to spread great word of mouth is to ambush local business along with regular people on the street with samples of our great product. So if you are in Kitsalano this spring/summer don't be surprised if one of our wonderful staff offers you a complimentary sample of our pizza. We will be out in full force this spring and summer spreading our pizza story throughout the community. For those of you who have experienced the random pizza delivery, don't worry. We'll be back to see you as well. Keep checking our RMF blog for in-store info and menu changes as well as the highly anticipated return of our red and white sangria just in time for the patio. Stay cool Vancouver. Happy spring everyone!

Going Green Students - Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Program

Another project completed with students at Canarvon School, Kits, Vancouver - hooray!

Students and we (Suz and Isabel) learnt all about some of the horrors of household products we use everyday - candles, cotton, toothpaste, soap, face soaps.  All of these products contain man made chemicals and petroleum based products which lead to an increase in allergies, asthma, cancers and are polluting our waters and soil.

We also discovered how easy it was to make all natural alternatives which are kinder to ourselves and kinder to nature.  Toothpaste made of baking soda, glycerine, a touch of salt and peppermint.  Face soaps made of orange and rose water.  Candles made of beeswax.  Friendship bracelets made of hemp.  Thanks to all of the students who participated in our program and of course our beloved program leader Noreen - who makes all these after school programs possible.  Suz and Isabel.

Canmore's Responsible Entrepreneurship Program

The Gr. 7 Enterprise and Innovation class and the Gr. 8 Leadership class from Lawrence Grassi School created

Nature's Natural Soap Package

"The Soap from the Past for the Future!"

Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Society partnered with locally owned Rocky Mountain Soap Company to develop this project. The objective for the students to learn was to create, design, name, market, brand, assemble and sell a product which creates a financial, social and ecological profit.

The students learned the importance of the 3 P's People, Planet and Profit when developing a business. Students also learned how natural soap benefits the environment, employees, and customers which creates a positive, environmentally friendly product. Students now understand that good quality products can be made out of materials that they actually have heard of and are not toxic and not harmful to people and the environment. Students designed effective labels giving them the opportunity to market their product.

Gr. 7 Teacher at Lawrence Grassi Middle School Mr. Schrama says it best:
My students were exposed to a real life opportunity to make a difference and to actually sell something. They went through the whole process of examining a cause, developing a business plan to meet the needs of that cause and fully implement that plan. Some students had never sold anything before! In this program they were able to design the products, design and create the labels, package the product on an assembly line and finally sell the product! They were also involved in all aspects of the financial plan, right down to deciding what to do with the profits! The best part was that they got to do this during school time! Without this program, many students would not be aware of the process. They have had the opportunity to experience a real world situation at this young age. “What a great opportunity for students to experience a hands on real life experience” stated one customer. “I fully support this!” Thanks for the opportunity to have my students to be involved in a great program.

10 inch or 13 inch - That is the Question

With over 12 different flatbreads to choose from, deciding which pizza to order is never an easy ordeal. Next step - 10” or 13”? Generally, we recommend a 10” for one, and a 13” to share. This simplified recommendation doesn’t truly answer the sizing debate but two guests, Keo and Stan, shed some light on this difficult choice while dining at the Vancouver RMF earlier this month.

Curious to know whether the price increase over the 10” was worth the extra money, Keo and Stan calculated the exact area increase of a 13” pizza from a 10” – answering the very question that boggles customers when faced with how much pizza to order. With only a borrowed pen and a scrap piece of paper, Keo and Stan calculated that a 13” pizza is a 69% increase in area to a 10”, with a price increase of 63%. What does this mean? It is in fact better value to “upsize” to a large pizza to take full advantage of value for money. Also, a 13” flatbread has less crust and more of the good stuff – yummy, all natural toppings. Better yet, a half-and-half can only be ordered on a 13” pizza which offers guests the chance to enjoy a couple of different flavours. And, if you’re just not hungry enough to finish one off, left over pizza is never wasted and can be taken home in a biodegradable pizza box made from potatoes!

Recipe - Organic Greens with Basil and Blackberry Salad Dressing

Customers have continually been asking us for the recipe for our amazing salad dressings.  So today is you lucky day - here is the recipe to one of our most popular salads - basil and blackberry dressing - have fun and enjoy!

8 cups of organic greens

1 tsp crushed garlic

2/3 cup fresh blackberries or thawed frozen

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

2/3 cup olive oil

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

3 tbsp liquid honey

5 big pinches of salt

3 big pinches of pepper.

Place all the ingredients (except the salad greens) in high bowl and use a hand blender to mix together.  Once blended, pour into clean recycled bottle and refrigerate.

Just before serving pour over mixed greens.  For added flavour add chopped tomatoes, brown mushrooms, mango chunks, roasted red bell peppers and seasonal sprouts.  Serves 6. Yum, yum.

Beeswax Candles Are Awesome!

We've been working with Canarvon Elementary after school club to help teach kids about sustainable alternatives to everyday things, and we've been teaching ourselves a thing or two on the way as well.  The first week we made beeswax candles as a healthier and green alternative to paraffin candles.  Rolling the beeswax was super fun and easy and smelled so good, I reckon anyone from 5 years up cold do it with a little help.  The kids got really creative with decoration and we had hearts, spirals, stripes, all sorts of things.  Great success.  Plus they got to take their candles home and tell their mums and dads why they are sooo much greener than paraffin candles.  Isabel and Suz doing their thing for Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Society.

Some of the Facts About Bees Wax Candles:

100% pure beeswax is non toxic, clean burning and hyp0-allergenic.  This is because the negative ions attach to the positive ions that hold in dust, smoke, odor, molds, germs and bacteria.  Once attached, the positive ions and weighted down and this drops both the ions and the contaminants to the ground to be swept or vacuumed away!  Soooo cool.  And they burn 3 x longer than paraffin candles.

Some of the Facts About Paraffin Candles.  

Traditional paraffin candles which contain petroleum burn soot and toxic compounds that are carcinogenic and can lead to poor air quality and increased allergies.

The artificial vanilla fragrance, found in many scented candles, is actually piperonal, which is a lice killer.  Breathing these synthetic fragrances damages the receptors in our nasal passages that detect scent, diminishing our ability to smell!  Evil stuff.

Gr. 7 Exshaw Students Create Eco-Cleaning Kits

The latest story from the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Society... The Responsible Entrepreneur program was implemented at Exshaw school in December and it was a success, thanks to the Gr. 7 students and Anne-Marie. The Gr. 7 class worked hard and long to create Nature's Non-Toxic Cleaning Kits. The students created the name, produced the environmentally friendly cleaning supplies, packaged the product and used their magnificent sales skills to sell all of the kits for Christmas in one day. Nature's Non-Toxic Cleaning Kits included environmentally friendly laundry soap, window cleaner, all-purpose cleaner, abrasive tub and tile cleaner and lavender laundry bags. The Gr. 7's donated half of the money earned to the Biosphere Institute of the Bow Valley.

Did you Know?If we replaced a 48 oz bottle of petroleum based laundry soap with a natural product in every household we would save 96,000 barrels of oil every year, enough to heat and cool 5,500 houses in Canada each year.

The Responsible Entrepreneur program teaches kids how to develop a business in a way that enhances a positive contribution to society while minimizing negative impacts on people and the environment. The students learned about the 3 P's to think about when developing a business, People, Profit and Planet. Special thanks to Canmore's local businesses that made this happen: Home Hardware, Sobeys, The Lavender Store, Safeway, The Great Canadian Dollar Store, The Rocky Mountain Soap Company, Polar Pin, Nutters, Mountain FM and The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company.

Join us for Dine Out 2008

Hello all! So January has come and December is to only be remebered by that nagging feeling of unpaid credit card bills finding there way to you via Canada Post. Don't be glum chum, Rocky Mountain Flatbread is excited to be a fresh new participant in a yearly Vancouver tradition. Dine Out 2008 begins on Jan 16th and lasts through Feb 3rd. The Staff at RMF are busy preparing and array of dishes to entice your taste buds. From Salads to Curry Lasagna, there will be options to please all of our guests (including pizza and dessert of course!). We are filling up fast as Vancouverites seem to know where to go when they've heard good things. Our 3 course offering will be exceptionally priced at $15 with optional wine pairings for those of us who enjoy the vino. And remember...Sunday and Monday are family nights and later bookings are recommended as the restaurant becomes family friendly from 5pm to 7pm. Come and enjoy a unique Dine Out 2008 experience at Rocky Mountain Flatbread . Hope we see you!

Good Bye To Lindsay Loo - At Least For A Little While

Lindsay-Loo, undoubtedly the most familiar and most well-loved face of the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co., has left us to catch up with her family back home in the Philippines. It is with heavy hearts we see her go - but have no fear she will return to us in three months - and we will count the days until she returns to her second family here in Vancouver.

Going home to a beautiful new-born niece, Lindsay has packed her bags full of gifts she picked up at the Natural Pod Toy Sale held at the RMF in the winter of 2007, including the coveted Ergobaby carrier and the Organic Bamboletta Blanket Doll from Bridget’s wonderful line.

Aside from catching up with her family and a 30-Day Bikram yoga challenge, Lindsay plans on developing her own children’s line, Lindsay-Loo. Inspired by the green revolution, and the ever-growing demand for quality, beautiful and mindful children’s products, the Lindsay-Loo line will feature natural children’s accessories, including hand-painted wooden jewellery.

Aside from being an exemplary server, providing friendly and knowledgeable service to every customer who walks through our door, Lindsay has been a great friend to each and every one of us and will be thoroughly missed.

Counting the days till her return… TOO MANY!

"Recycle, Recycle, Recycle!"

Isabel and I (Suz) have been working with the brilliant and talented Grade 5 teacher Suzanne Lapierre and her students at Lord Tennyson School on their latest campaign - "recycling." Recycling is a simple way to save trees, sea creatures, precious metals, water and lots of carbon - yet it is still not being done by most of us. 75% of all of our trash can actually be recycled - paper, yard waste, food waste, metal, glass and plastics are all ending up in our land fills.  So the Grade 5s have taken this issue to heart and are educating fellow classmates on easy ways they can reduce trash created at school.  This month the Grade 5s are focussing student's attention on litterless lunches!  This is one of the very important projects being facilitated by Rocky Mountain Flatbread Education Society to encourage "responsible citizenship" amongst our young leaders of today.  Go Grade 5ers go!