Buying local

Upcoming Event | Sustainable Documentary Screening

April 6, 2018 By newwestfarmers

Sustainable Screening Benefitting the New West Farmers Market’s Low Cost Produce Stand

6:30pm – 9:00pm | Landmark Cinemas, New Westminster

Join the New West Farmers Market on April 18 for a screening event of the award winning documentary, Sustainable. Doors will open at 6:30pm with live music and an opportunity to bid on various silent auction items donated by community partners.

Sustainable is a vital investigation of the economic and environmental instability of America’s food system, from the agricultural issues we face — soil loss, water depletion, climate change, pesticide use — to the community of leaders who are determined to fix it. Sustainable is a film about the land, the people who work it and what must be done to sustain it for future generations.

The narrative of the film focuses on Marty Travis, a seventh-generation farmer in central Illinois who watched his land and community fall victim to the pressures of big agribusiness. Determined to create a proud legacy for his son, Marty transforms his profitless wasteland and pioneers the sustainable food movement in Chicago.

Sustainable travels the country seeking leadership and wisdom from some of the most forward thinking farmers like Bill Niman, Klaas Martens and John Kempf – heroes who challenge the ethical decisions behind industrial agriculture. It is a story of hope and transformation, about passion for the land and a promise that it can be restored to once again sustain us.

The film will begin at 7pm and there will be a Q&A session after with partners of the Farmers Market where we will be able to speak more into how food sustainability affects us here in British Columbia.

Q & A Panelists:

Dr. Kent Mullinix

Director, Institute for Sustainable Food Systems and Adjunct Faculty, Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems

Mullinix’s research focuses on ecologically sound crop production, agriculture education programming, sustainable agriculture and food systems, and family-based agriculture revitalization as a foundational and integral element of sustainable society. Additionally Mullinix conceived and led the development of the B.A.Sc. Sustainable Agriculture degree at KPU and is now closely involved in its implementation. He also led the conceptualization and implementation of the Richmond Farm School and Tsawwassen First Nation Farm School. Mullinix is an Adjunct Professor in The Faculty of Land and Food Systems at the University of British Columbia and serves on the editorial board of the North American Colleges and Teachers of Agriculture Journal.

Mullinix attended the University of Missouri where he earned a B.S. in Agriculture, M.S. in Horticulture and Ph.D. in Agriculture Education. He also earned a Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia in Plant Science. He is a Professional Agrologist- British Columbia Institute of Agrologists. Before joining KPU, Mullinix held the Endowed Joint Chair in Pomology and was an Associate Professor, Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Washington State University. Prior he was a fruit crops research specialist for the Universities of Missouri, Minnesota and Kentucky.

Mullinix has lived and worked on a diversified family farm in central Missouri, owned and operated (with his family for 15 years) a pear orchard on the eastern slopes of the Cascade Mountains, and for 14 years provided direct oversight for the planning, establishment and management of a 45 acre organically farmed apple, sweet cherry and peach teaching and demonstration orchard in north central Washington.

Kendall Ballantine

Owner, Central Park Farms

In 2015, after falling for a farm boy, 31-year-old Kendall Ballantine traded her power suits for gum boots, and Central Park Farms was born. Located in beautiful south Langley, they have a goal of helping their community make ethical and sustainable food choices. Specializing in non-GMO fed pasture raised chicken, pasture raised pork, grass fed beef, and farm fresh eggs from pasture raised hens, it’s all about making sure the animals are raised in a positive environment.

Believing in transparency over certifications, they open the farm doors and let consumers see exactly where their food comes from, how it’s raised, and who the farmers are behind it all. Prior to becoming a farmer, Kendall focused her education on Business & Marketing through BCIT. This lead to her becoming a successful blogger, guest co-host on 99.3 The Fox radio station, and allowed her to work with top brands through their social media campaigns.

Heather O’Hara

Executive Director, BC Association of Farmers’ Markets

Heather joined the BCAFM in 2016 and brings over 10 years of experience in non-profit, social enterprise and entrepreneurial leadership to her position as Executive Director. As a social entrepreneur and food lover, Heather believes deeply in farmers’ markets and small-scale farmers as a critical force in our regional food system and farmers’ markets as an important gateway for small business development in communities across BC. She has worked with a variety of business, non-profit and charitable organizations, and loves to bring strategic thinking and entrepreneurial resourcefulness to make creative ideas come to life. For 8 years, Heather served as executive director of Potluck Café Society, an award-winning social enterprise that creates jobs and provides healthy, fresh food for people living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Heather continues to be active in social enterprise and social innovation development and has provided support to multiple social enterprises through the Vancity Community Foundation. Other recent projects include working with CityStudio as its executive producer, co-facilitating a next generation of change makers through SFU Change Lab and serving as tour manager and charity liaison for the Barney Bentall and Cariboo Express concert fundraising tour.

Heather holds an MBA, a BA in International Relations and Native Studies and a Bachelor of Environmental Design, all from the University of Manitoba. To deepen her knowledge of farming, Heather completed the KPU Tsawwassen Farm School program and is an emerging, organic farmer living on a horse farm in Ladner.

Mary Trentadue

City Councillor, City of New Westminster

Mary Trentadue is a small business owner, mother, wife, and an experienced City Councillor who is passionate about her community. Mary Trentadue has spent 15 years as a small business owner. She has volunteered countless hours to various organizations and is passionate about the community of New Westminster. Mary lives with her husband and son in the Moody Park area.

Mary is not new to City Council as she was first elected to a city council position in North Vancouver in 2008. This experience uniquely positions her to address some of the central issues facing New Westminster. She is an advocate for childcare, housing and local business. Mary also helped develop guidelines for new coach house policies, and served on the Heritage Advisory Committee in North Vancouver.

Mary is a Saint Barnabas Daycare board member and has been instrumental in retaining their professional and caring team. As her son transitions from daycare to kindergarten Mary has also joined the Lord Kelvin Elementary School PAC Executive.

Mary is the owner of a small business called 32 Solutions that provides virtual assistance to a range of independent and corporate businesses. Mary also owned a much-loved independent bookstore called 32 Books in North Vancouver. Mary was proud to win the North Shore Chamber of Commerce Innovation Award and to be nominated by the Canadian Booksellers Association for best bookstore in Canada.

Mary has also been nominated for the YWCA’s Women of Distinction Award for her entrepreneurial skills and her extensive volunteer work. Combining her experience with a cause she felt passionately about, Mary established a successful book club with survival sex workers in the Downtown Eastside that ran for six years. She also served on the Board of Directors for PACE for five years and was instrumental in their fundraising efforts.

Currently Mary serves on the following City Committees:

Chair, Arts Commission
Chair, Seniors Advisory Committee
Chair, Arts Strategy Task Force
Chair, Canada Day Celebration Committee
Member, Public Art Advisory Committee
Member, Public Engagement Task Force
Member, Massey Performing Arts Centre Task Force
Director, E-Comm Board

This event is to raise funds for the New West Farmers Market’s low cost produce stand which provides local produce to the community at a discounted cost, making wholesome produce accessible to those in need. We provide a selection of fresh-picked produce grown at a BC farm or community garden at very affordable prices alongside the typical food bank items. So far, the program has been very successful; many are thankful to have access to high-quality fruits and vegetables, and they appreciate their value. The act of choosing and purchasing produce has much more dignity than simply being handed a hamper.

“We’re very grateful for the partnership with the New West Farmers Market to offer and ultra-low cost produce market to our members. Together, we’re able to increase access to healthy, affordable, fresh produce for our members at the New West Food Hub as well as engagement opportunities around food.”

—Zsuzsi Fodor, Community Partnership Manager, Greater Vancouver Food Bank

Greater Vancouver Food Bank Partnership

December 6, 2017 By newwestfarmers

The New West Farmers Market is proud to partner with the Greater Vancouver Food Bank to launch a Low-Cost Produce Stand. This program provides fresh BC produce to our community each week at the Food Bank.

The Greater Vancouver Food Bank provides access to healthy food through community hubs in New Westminster. Our community hub is located at Olivet Baptist Church and takes place each week, empowering clients to nourish themselves by providing access to healthy food, education, and training.

Each week, the New West Farmers Market provides local produce to the community at a discounted cost, making wholesome produce accessible to those in need. We provide a selection of fresh-picked produce grown at a BC farm or community garden at very affordable prices alongside the typical food bank items. So far, the program has been very successful; many are thankful to have access to high-quality fruits and vegetables, and they appreciate their value. The act of choosing and purchasing produce has much more dignity than simply being handed a hamper.

—Zsuzsi Fodor, Community Partnership Manager, Greater Vancouver Food Bank

How can you help?

The New West Farmers Market is collecting produce from farmers and community gardens. Please consider growing an extra row for the Low-Cost Produce Stand! Any funds raised from the program will be allocated to purchasing more produce in future weeks.

It’s important that our community has access to healthy and sustainable food in a dignified manner, and the New West Farmers Market is proud to be able to play a part in providing support in this area.

For more information and to support our program, please contact jennifer@newwestfarmers.ca

Farmers Market Challenge Week 15: The Finale!

October 16, 2016 By newwestfarmers

Oh. My. Goodness.

Wow!

Is that real?

It can’t possibly be bread, it must be cake!

They assured us it was bread.

Chocolate bread!!!

Last week was the final week of the summer market bringing the $40 market-spending challenge to a close. And in proper, good Katie form, I went all out.

Early in the challenge, I would never have purchased an $8 loaf of bread, chocolate or not. My spending was based on a strict budget where veggies took precedent. But, as the summer market started preparing for fall, the veggie selection became less vast, and, well, sometimes you really do need a reward for doing a great job.

I think I did a great job; chocolate bread was my reward.

Sadly, I did not read the ingredients. I did not realize there was orange infused into that bread. I do not eat orange-infused sweet treats; haven’t since I was about five years old and some totally evil person decided to underhandedly slip marmalade onto my toast – blech! In my mind, orange does NOT belong in chocolate.

Sigh.

fm16-chocolate-bread — Plus, we may have overdone the sweet factor: Chocolate French toast, syrup and all. Holy decadence!

FINAL WEEK’S LOOT:

Zaklan Heritage Farm: • 2 bunches of mustard greens: $5

1 mini lettuce: $2
2 purple onions: $2.65
1 bunch parsley: $2

Ossome Acres: • 1 zucchini: $2

Ripple Creek Organic Farm: • 1 garlic: $3

A Bread Affair: • Chocolate bread: $8

Wild West Coast Seafoods: • 1 lb tuna: $16

Total spent was $40.65.

When I started this challenge 16 weeks ago, I didn’t know what exactly it would present. I considered our family on the upper scale of health prior to going in, but admittedly we were a bit stale and stagnant in meal planning, eating the same-old, same-old week after week.

The market changed that.

It gave us new foods, new recipes, new cooking adventures, new menus, new tastes, new perspectives.

This is what the market gave my family:

fm16-collage — A collage of tasty goodness

In my first post of this challenge, I asked if the market was true to its negative stereotype of being “too expensive,” a sentiment I have heard echoed several times by my fellow Food, Nutrition and Health peers at UBC. After 16 weeks, I can handedly say that yes, some of the product is pricier than you’d get at grocery stores. But, and this is a huge but, the quality, flavour and freshness is bar none far superior to that of the chains.

When you know your food was picked that day, when you know your food hasn’t undergone chemical procedures to stall the ripening process, when you know every bite is going to be infused with an intense flavour that tickles your differing taste buds, when you know it’s going to last longer than a few days, as long as a FEW weeks even, that has to be factored into the budget.

When you know how to shop the market, as I quickly learned, when you know how to search out the best deals (two for $5 mustard greens made my list EVERY week), when you know how to plan, when you build relationships with the farmers, when you know how to use so-called wastes to your advantage (onion stems was a favourite discovery), you DO see a savings.

We did.

We stopped going to the veggie stand three times a week; our foods were lasting. We stopped buying salad dressings; the intensity of the greens didn’t require added flavouring. In meal planning, we started looking at multiple ways of using the entire vegetable – limited waste, so an environmental savings as well.

There were challenges. A vegetable one week was not guaranteed the next; something you had hoped would be there, didn’t make the cut that week; if you weren’t there early, chances were the items you wanted were all gone.

fmnopierogies — The week of no perogies!

Our final market meal was a trusty favourite we discovered the third week of the challenge – tuna loin. Unfortunately it had jumped in price since the beginning of the summer; what cost $12 in June, cost $16 in October due to a “crummy” season. It meant fennel was scratched from the list. It meant none of the maybes on the list would get into our bag. But man, that tuna – a drool-worthy, dream-worthy delicacy! Worth every sacrifice. Worth every penny.

fm16-final-shop — Challenge complete. Where oh where to get my mustard greens now?

Dear summer market, so much of you I shall miss.

Luckily, winter is coming!

Winter market starts November 5, and runs the first and third Saturday of the month, uptown on Belmont street.

See you there.

The inaugural Long Table Dinner

October 9, 2016 By newwestfarmers

On September 29, we hosted our first ever Long Table Dinner as part of Tourism New West’s Feast on the Fraser celebration. Forty-five hungry RCFM supporters came out to dine under an open tent in Tipperary Park. The menu was filled with delectable items from our vendors.

We were lucky to have a beautiful autumn day and the tables looked a treat thanks to a donation by the Bloom Bloom Room, a local florist based out of Sapperton. The centrepiece garlands added the perfect ambiance for a harvest feast. The Uptown Business Association kindly allowed us to use their giant tents which set the stage.

Diners were greeted with a glass of local Pacific Breeze wine and shrubs donated by Vancouver-based Mixers & Elixers. Shrubs are drinking vinegars—slightly sweet and slightly tart, we mixed them with soda water. They were served by marvelous volunteers from the New Westminster Youth Ambassadors Society.

The table held an abundance of bread donated by A Bread Affair and butter that was almost too pretty to eat. The Local Churn donated some unique combinations including tart cherry and sherry.

The opening course comprised a Caprese Salad that featured locally grown vine ripened tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and a balsamic reduction. There was also a Hundred Mile Salad with kale, spinach, beets, goat cheese, candied pecans and what I sincerely hope were edible flowers.

Salads consumed, we then moved onto the entrees which included char-grilled, wild-caught BC salmon that was served with a roasted pineapple salsa. If you haven’t yet tried Wild West Coast Seafood’s products we can attest to their top-notch quality. The diners also feasted on mushroom-hunter grilled Rockweld Farm chicken breasts, another generous donation from one of our popular local vendors. This wasn’t one of those either/or situations—everyone got both salmon and chicken as well as mozzarella-ricotta stuffed agnolotti as a side. We also had roasted in-season local vegetables (because it was a Farmers Market event after all) and grilled corn on the cob from the Fraser Valley. We were lucky to be able to purchase ingredients from some favourite market vendors including Zaklan Heritage Farms, Bose + Sons Family Farm, Ossome Acres, and Greendale Herb & Vine.

Unbelievably, diners still seemed to have room for the exquisite goodies donated by Sweet Thea and Delish Gluten Free Bakery. There was a choice of assorted tarts and gluten-free brownies and I do believe more than one person tried both a tart and a brownie (no judgement here!). Unfortunately no photos remain because anyone standing in the way of the dessert table would have been taking their life in their hands.

The Long Table Dinner was an incredible community feast! The generosity of local RCFM vendors + the company of good friends and neighbours + the deliciousness of eating local = the best kind of evenings in our books.

Farmers Market Challenge: Fish, stew, cheese… oh my!

October 7, 2016 By newwestfarmers

Last week’s post was all about summer; this week’s is all about fall.

The air is crisp, the orange, red and yellow leaves are blowing in the wind, children screeching with glee as they scatter through the organized piles, hoodies and winter leggings taking over shorts and tanks, hot chocolate fast replacing ice cream.

Tis the season for belly warming, hearty recipes.

The Bartel menu has officially embraced fall – tortilla soup; quinoa, kale and squash stew; stir fry; and cheesy, cheesy quiche were staples of the week – made all the more comforting by market-fresh goodness.

To be honest, I didn’t know we were going all in with fall, in fact, our market shopping list this week was quite lacking. We had our usual meal-planning session, but both husband and I were stumped as to what to put on it. Meals were suggested, but ultimately rejected – we were not inspired.

So we went in with a list of our staples: greens and a few veggies, and that was it. We left it to the market to decide.

This week’s loot:

Zaklan Heritage Farm:

1 mini purple cabbage: $1
1 leek: $3
1 purple onion: $1.60
1 bag arugula: $4
2 bunches mustard greens: $5

Greendale Herb and Vine:

1 eggplant: $2.50

Country Village Market:

1 basket Brussels sprouts: $3

Golden Ears Cheese Crafters

1 medium-sized chunk of smoked gouda $8

Wild West Coast Seafoods

1 pound petrale sole: $12

Total spent was $40.10.

Of the loot not on the original must-have list were the Brussels sprouts (screams fall), red cabbage, leeks, eggplant, onion, smoked gouda, and petrale sole.

We knew we wanted a fish, tuna to be exact, but unfortunately, due to a “crummy” season, what was $12 for a pound a month or so ago is now $18 to $20. Sadly, out of our price range. Ron “the fish guy” suggested we try the petrale. We were hesitant at first because every time we’ve purchased sole from the grocery store it has significantly shrunk upon grilling.

That’s filler, Ron told us, all water. Apparently most fish sold in chains have added water filler to beef up their appearances!!! Ron assured us it was a tasty fish that would retain its size, and at $12 a pound, it was within our family friendly budget.

Because it’s a lighter fish, we didn’t want to overload it with seasoning – keep it simple, Ron advised.

We splashed it with olive oil, added dill, salt and pepper, wrapped it in tinfoil and threw it on the barbecue, along with tinfoil wrapped veggies, including the eggplant and zucchini from last week.

My only concern with the fish, which by the way, my four-year-old devoured without any prodding, is the bone content – there were a lot of small, fine bones littered throughout. Good thing the boy doesn’t care about appearances of his foods just yet; it was quite mangled by the time I was through with it.

The Brussels sprouts and eggplant were grilled on the barbecue – sooo yummy! A portion of the leeks and cheese were used in the quiche; the remainder of the leek was used in a quinoa stew that also used the delicata squash, tomatoes and tatsoi from last week, as well as the Russian garlic from two weeks ago, and the onion, and purple cabbage. Pretty much I threw everything I had in there!

thumbnail_fm14stew — Essentially, a kitchen-sink stew

The stir fry incorporated the green beans, red pepper and garlic from last week, as well as this week’s onion. And with one more day to go, a little bit of onion and cheese remaining, I am heavily considering making a single-serving French onion soup.

Fall, it’s a beautiful, tasty time of year, don’t you think.

Upcoming Event | Sustainable Documentary Screening

Greater Vancouver Food Bank Partnership

Farmers Market Challenge Week 15: The Finale!

The inaugural Long Table Dinner

Farmers Market Challenge: Fish, stew, cheese… oh my!

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