The Canadian Organic Vegetable Improvement Project (CANOVI) is a five-year collaborative project launched in 2018 by the UBC Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, and FarmFolk CityFolk.
The goal of CANOVI is to contribute to the resilience and growth of Canada’s organic vegetable sector through the characterization and development of varieties that excel in Canadian organic farming systems. Working with regional farming organizations, the CANOVI team coordinates a network of on-farm variety trials in which farmers generate and share data about regional variety performance.
In Ontario, EFAO supports the work of CANOVI through our Seed Program, led by Rebecca Ivanoff, which is funded and run in partnership with the Bauta Family Initiative on Canadian Seed Security, a project of SeedChange.
In 2022, four crops were trialed as part of the CANOVI project: orange carrots, red carrots, radicchio and rutabaga. Growers across Canada participated in each trial.
You can access the results of each of the trials below! 
Orange Carrot
Red Carrot
Radicchio
Rutabaga
Carrot Tastings at the 2022 EFAO Conference Southwestern Regional Gathering
At the Southwestern Regional Gathering of the EFAO Conference, attendees had a chance to taste some of the above carrot varieties and rate them according to their appearance, taste, and texture. The detailed results of the raw orange carrot tasting can be found here, and the cooked red carrot tasting results are available here.
Orange Carrot Tasting Overall Results
Cooked Red Carrot Tasting Overall Results
