Summerland Sauce Project is raising $20,000 to purchase crops from Okanagan farmers affected by the Bald Range wildfire and turn the produce into sauces and preserves.
Okanagan-born chef Ned Bell and farmer Thomas Tumbach launched the project after road closures, cancelled markets and fewer visitors left local growers with ripe produce and limited ways to sell it.
The idea is fairly straightforward. LocalMotive Farmers Network Cooperative purchases available crops directly from farmers, then local chefs donate their time to turn the ingredients into food that can be frozen and used later.
The first goal is to produce 500 litres of sauce over several batches, using approximately 1,000 pounds of produce that may otherwise go to waste. Funds will pay farmers for usable crops and provide direct support to growers whose fields or harvests were damaged by the wildfire.
Bell’s first batch is a Tomato Sugo made with Okanagan tomatoes. It can be warmed for pasta, cooked with ground beef for a quick ragu, spooned over eggs for shakshuka or mixed with cream and seasoning for tomato soup.
Future batches will depend on what farmers have available. That could mean more savoury sauces or preserves made with seasonal Okanagan fruit.
Each campaign support level includes a one-litre container, and extra containers are available for $25. The frozen products are currently offered for pickup at LocalMotive Low-Waste Market at 1848 Main Street, Unit 150, in Penticton, subject to availability.
Donations can be made through the Summerland Sauce Project fundraiser. Supporters who do not need sauce can still contribute to the fund for affected farmers.
LocalMotive is a non-profit cooperative made up mainly of growers and food producers in the South Okanagan. Thomas and Celina Tumbach founded the network in 2005, and it became a cooperative in 2025. The organization operates a CSA home-delivery program and the LocalMotive Low-Waste Market.
The cooperative is working on the Summerland Food Hub, a facility where farmers and other food producers will be able to process and store larger amounts of local food. Every Summerland Sauce Project donor will be recognized on a donor wall at the hub.
Bell has spent more than 20 years working in Canadian food and sustainability. He founded Chefs for Oceans, previously co-owned the Naramata Inn and works as a creative advisor for Okanagan College’s Centre for Food, Wine and Tourism. He was named to the BC Restaurant Hall of Fame in 2026.
The Summerland Sauce Project provides an immediate market for food that farmers have already spent the season growing. Instead of losing that produce, the campaign turns it into something useful and puts money back into the hands of Okanagan growers.