By J. Dennis, farmer at Zaklan Heritage Farm

Have you noticed local farmers selling CSA shares and wondered what they are all about? CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture and it is a partnership between farmers and community members who wish to support local sustainable agriculture. The idea is that community members buy a share of the harvest before the season begins and they receive their share in the form of a weekly box of vegetables (or sometimes grains, fish, eggs, fruit, meat) over the course of the farm season.

CSAs help farmers by providing revenue at the beginning of the season before there are crops to sell, but there are many input costs such as seeds. CSAs are also great for farmers as it is a guarantee that a certain quantity of product is sold and helps farmers plan what to grow. CSAs are one form of direct marketing, which means that farmers are able to sell their produce directly to a customer. This direct link between the farmer and people eating the food they grow is an essential component of CSA programs as well as farmers markets. Connecting customers with farms and farmers is a way for people to learn about where their food comes from and for individuals to support the creation of more sustainable food systems in their communities. As with farmers markets, community is an important aspect and CSAs bring community members and farmers together through food and farming.

Now is the time of year that many small-farms are selling CSA shares for the coming farm season. Zaklan Heritage Farm is a small-scale farm that practices ecological agriculture and grows a wide diversity of vegetables in Surrey. We are a vendor at the New West Farmers market and have a CSA program that is open to people in the Surrey and New West communities. Members who join our CSA can pick up their share either at the New West Farmers market during opening hours (Thursdays 3pm – 7pm) or at our farm in Surrey (Saturdays 10am-2pm). We have weekly share options or biweekly share options with the option of adding on eggs from our laying hens and fruit from an organic farm in the Okanagan. We also have three season options: spring, summer and fall programs. You can register for one, two or all seasons. We are growing our CSA program this year and are looking for new members to join us.

If you are interested in signing up for Zaklan Heritage Farm’s CSA Program you can find full program details and register on our website: http://zaklanheritagefarm.com/csa/

Meet Michelle and Kathryn of Kiki’s Kitchen!

Q: How long have you been in the soup business?
A: We began at home in January of 2015 and started the commercial kitchen in January of 2016.

Q: What’s your future plans?
A: We want to offer home delivery service and expand to more farmers’ markets that are located further afield. Also moving into a brick and mortar store in 2017.

Q: Where is the kitchen located?
A: In North Vancouver in the Northshore Auto Mall.

Q: What’s your favourite soup?
A: Michele’s favourite is the roasted corn and potato. chowder (sorry – it’s offered during the summer only!)
Kathryn’s is the lentil.

Q: What excites you about your business?
A: We buy directly from farmers or from discovery organics. We’ve had the opportunity to meet and support female farmers. We also get to pick some of our own stuff to make the soups!

Q: Do you have a company mascot
A: Dogs! We have two ridgebacks and a Scout [RCFM note – Scout is a dog, not a breed!]. All soup is dog approved!

Check out their instagram for some great foodie-porn pics as well as some Scout and ridgeback photos!

They also have a website and you can follow them on Twitter and Facebook.

Meet Noella and Aaron! They are the farmers behind Ossome Acres located in the Fraser Valley, between Abbotsford and Agassiz.

Q: How long have you been farming?

A: Since 2010. It’s a family farm and we decided to try to make it work. Aaron was previously a welder and together we would make bread to sell at farmers markets.

Q: What’s your favourite to grow?

Noella: Nothing is my favourite to grow, but kale is my favourite to eat. I put it in a smoothie every morning.

Aaron: I like to grow kale. It’s low maintenance, it’s healthy, and you plant it once and it keeps coming.

Q: Do you have a farm mascot?

A: Llamas, cows, dogs, cats, chickens, and roosters! We have lots of animals on the farm.

Q: How can we learn more about your farm and keep in touch?

A: We have a newsletter and Facebook page and you can check us out on Pinterest for some awesome recipe ideas.

Check out their website at ossomeacres.com and say hi to Aaron and Noella at the next market!

The Board of Directors for the Royal City Farmers Market has made the difficult decision to cancel the market scheduled for this coming Saturday, January 7.

When we moved our winter market to an outdoor location, we were quite prepared for the usual west coast winter weather we experience. Rain and light snow are not a huge concern for us. We have rain pants and are prepared to wear them. However, we’ve seen a great deal of snowfall accumulate in our community, probably more so than in neighbouring communities. Some parts of New West have received more than 30 cm of snow in the last few weeks, and very little has melted away. It is very icy.

Environment Canada has predicted that snow will begin falling Thursday night and continue off and on until Sunday. Belmont Street is not an arterial road, or even a main road, and as such will quite understandably not be a priority to be cleared by the City of New Westminster the morning of the market. We completely understand. RCFM lacks the resources to clear it safely ourselves; ice requires a different approach than simply shovelling and our crew, while dedicated, is small and about 99% volunteer.

We understand it is frustrating when events you are looking forward to get cancelled, and believe us, cancelling one of our few winter dates is the very last choice we wanted to make. The safety of our staff, volunteers, vendors, and customers is of the utmost importance to us, however, and we believe our best course of action is to cancel this market. This is the very first market we have had to cancel in nearly ten years.

We are hopeful that Mother Nature will send some warmer temperatures our way and that we will be back to singing in the rain at our next market on January 21.

We want to take this opportunity to thank our supporters and we can’t wait to see you on Belmont Street again.

Sincerely,

Jen Arbo
President
RCFM 

info@newwestfarmers.ca