Part of Golden’s Producers: Small Batch, Big Roots, a three-part series on the small but growing food and beverage manufacturing cluster in Golden, BC.
Sheniz Wilkie didn’t move from Edmonton to Golden to grow a food company. She moved to raise her son in the mountains. The company, Noorish Foods whose products are sold in roughly 150 stores across Canada, came along for the ride.
For Sheniz, food has never been just food. Her parents were born to East Indian families on the East African coast, and she grew up in Canada surrounded by those layered traditions. “Food equals love in our culture,” she says. “It’s such an important part of community, connection, and a sense of joy for our family.”
In the early 2000s, a 10-day Vipassana meditation retreat with her brother transformed Sheniz’s passion for food into a deeper sense of purpose. Returning to Edmonton, they struggled to find the kind of conscious, plant-based food that aligned with their values. So, they decided to create it themselves.
In 2011, they opened Noorish Conscious Eatery, a vibrant raw food and vegan restaurant complemented by a yoga studio and a retail shop offering hard-to-find superfoods such as maca, raw cacao, and goji berries.
But Noorish was more than a restaurant. It was a living expression of their commitment to conscious living, community, and connection to the land. The venture also included a farm where Sheniz, a certified Master Gardener and permaculturist, cultivated fresh, seasonal produce for the restaurant.
For Sheniz, growing food was only part of the vision. She wanted her team to experience firsthand the care, effort, and intention behind every ingredient they prepared. Each employee spent time working on the farm, cultivating a deeper appreciation for the journey from soil to plate. Every tomato, stalk of kale, and green onion chopped in the kitchen carried a story of the land, the labour, and the love that brought it to the table.
It was a community hub, she says “kind of like an urban eco-village.”
When the restaurant closed during COVID, Sheniz lost that community. But watching people struggle with isolation, mental health and immune issues, she saw a new way to reach them.
“The birth of the product line was really a response, sticking a hand out into the universe to connect with people,” she says. “In my mind, the vision was: how can I give people a hug in a mug?”
— Sheniz Wilkie
In 2020, she built and tested the recipes in her home kitchen and sold the first jars by word of mouth. A local illustrator designed the first packaging. Industry contacts from the restaurant years opened doors at natural grocers. The line now includes Sunshine in a Cup, an immune-boosting honey blend, and the adaptogenic Cocoa Sun Ritual and Cocoa Moon Ritual sipping chocolates. These products are crafted with premium superfood ingredients, intentionally-sourced to support regenerative agriculture, and are available in numerous shops in Golden and across the country.
Today, Noorish runs on a decentralized model that makes location a choice, not a constraint. The online store makes products available across Canada. With manufacturing partners in Alberta and BC, a distributor in Delta BC and a fulfillment warehouse in Calgary, Sheniz can continue business as usual from her mountain headquarters in Golden.
She says, “I quarterback all of the ordering, labels, jars, ingredients and production from my remote office in the woods. The rest of the operations of the company are out-sourced to experts who do what they’re good at in the industry – from manufacturing, to marketing, to distribution.”
The move to Golden was initially inspired by a desire for a different pace of life: raising a child surrounded by mountains, spending more time outdoors, and embracing a deeper connection to nature. But Sheniz soon recognized that Golden offered something more: the opportunity to grow a business in a vibrant, evolving community.
“Golden is a growing town. While neighbouring mountain communities like Revelstoke, Canmore, and Banff are facing increasing limitations on growth, Golden still has so much room to evolve. There’s a real sense of possibility here.”
Beyond its economic potential, Golden felt like a natural home for Noorish. Rooted in wellness, conscious living, and a connection to nature, the brand reflects the very lifestyle that draws people to this mountain community.
“Golden embodies so many of the values we care about: spending time outdoors, connecting with our food sources, and building meaningful community relationships,” Sheniz says. “It’s this incredible natural playground where you can jump into a lake, climb a mountain, ski, explore, and immerse yourself in the wild. Living in a place that reflects the lifestyle our brand represents is incredibly inspiring.”
That sense of connection extends to Golden’s local business community, which welcomed Noorish with open arms. Today, Noorish products can be found in several shops throughout town, reflecting a growing network of relationships built on shared values and mutual support.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have arrived as a newcomer and been embraced by the community so quickly,” she says. “There’s a beautiful reciprocity here. By offering locally made products, we’re helping other businesses diversify their offerings, and in turn, they’re helping us grow. We’re all contributing to each other’s success.”
For Sheniz, supporting local businesses is about much more than individual transactions. It’s about strengthening the fabric of the community. “Community, nature and economic resilience are all interconnected” she says.
“When we choose to buy local, we keep more of our dollars circulating within our community. We build stronger relationships between small businesses, support one another’s livelihoods, and create a more connected, resilient local economy. That’s something I deeply believe in.”
Sheniz has served as the Chair of the board of the Golden Food Bank for three years and is now the Executive Director of Local Food Matters, which works to grow the economic potential of food producers across the region, something she notes has long been overlooked. Shared infrastructure for processing, storage and distribution are in the early stages of development, and she sees Golden as part of a larger regional food network stretching through the Okanagan and the Kootenays.
For new food processors and farmers in the region, that gap presents an opportunity. Food businesses, she says, are something “we definitely need more of in Golden.”
Noorish is currently developing a new honey blend using ingredients from the region, and her advice to other food founders is straightforward: keep it simple.
“Pick three food concepts, or three SKUs, and really nail those,” she says. “Perfect the recipe. Perfect the branding. Perfect the shelf stability. Do a few things really, really well.”
It’s the same approach she’s brought to Golden — a few things done well, rooted in a place that shares her values.
Golden’s Producers: Small Batch, Big Roots is a series from Golden Community Economic Development.
