Blooms fresh for picking

Take your pick

A growing tradition lies in picking fresh flowers at Hanna and Hanna Orchards Farm Market.

The flower garden has been there for longer than employees can remember, says store manager Irene Campbell.

“It’s been going for a really long time, years and years.”

Campbell said the garden has hundreds of different perennials and some annuals that people can come and pick, and none are over $1 a stem.

She said the flower collection boasts sunflowers, roses, dulcineums, baby’s breath and many others.

“There’s just too many to list... Whatever is blooming in season.”

She said there are also self-guided tours for anyone who would like to come and see the apple orchard.

Hanna & Hanna Orchards Farm Market is at 3181 Trans Canada Hwy. NE.

Restoring health

Local medical options have been expanded with the opening of an osteopathic practice at the Shuswap Acupuncture Centre.

“Osteopaths acknowledge the body has an ability to go back to a state of homeostasis,” said osteopathic practitioner Cameron Moffatt.

He said he attempts to find what is inhibiting the body from getting back to that natural state of health.

“Allopathic medicine tends to wait until you’re sick.”

Moffatt said allopathic practice treats the symptoms only, usually by prescription.

“We’ve all seen the consequences of that, there’s horrendous side effects.”

He explained that the founder of osteopathy, Dr. Andrew Still, was a physician who had gotten tired of current methods and started looking at the body in terms of instilling health.

Moffatt said becoming an osteopath involves a four year, part-time program in Canada. The program requires entrants to already be part of an existing practice, such as massage therapy, chiropractic or as a doctor.

His practice is starting up with referrals from the acupuncture clinic, when patients have a manual problem that osteopathy would be better suited to treating.

“The type of work I do is very complementary to Chinese medicine.”

Moffatt said when he first started out he saw a lot of younger people who were simply interested in improving their health, but now he is seeing a larger number of older patients who were raised in the generation of ‘the doctor is always right,' and are interested in treatment that doesn’t involve just taking a pill.

“People are getting really frustrated with the current paradigm of medicine right now.”

Moffatt started out as a massage therapist who dealt with muscle injuries, but quickly became frustrated because he would see the same patients returning with the same injuries, and so he turned to osteopathy as a practice he sees as helping solve deeper medical problems.

He said if after three or four sessions, a person is not feeling a difference in their injury, osteopathy is not for them, and he would recommend other methods.

Moffatt’s practice is in the Shuswap Acupuncture Centre at 140 Harbourfront Dr. NE.

Dinoflex changes

Dinoflex Manufacturing is changing owners, but will be continuing its work of recycling vehicle tires into indoor and outdoor surfacing material of all kinds.

The Salmon Arm manufacturing company has been purchased by the Pender West Group of Vancouver.

The company uses vehicle tire rubber to make surfacing tiles for commercial floors, golf courses, sports facilities and many other purposes.

“Our commitment to protecting the environment through sustainable products and processes has been in place since our business began,” wrote CEO Terry Macleod in a news release.

“We were ‘green’ before green was popular. We intend to demonstrate to our customers that we will continue to be as dedicated to quality products, outstanding customer service and sustainable manufacturing as we have ever been.”

The company will be renamed Dinoflex Group LP.