Full disclosure, I went over budget.

I tried not to. I tried to stay within the $40 limit, I really tried, but my hands were tied. Tied by a near five-year-old’s stomach’s desires.

Last week I handed over the $40 market budget to my son.

Brave or ridiculously silly, I’m still not sure.

 

As a future dietitian, I try to instil in my son the knowledge of healthful eating, and the empowerment of knowing where your food comes from, how it was grown, and who grew it. In my view, you are never too young, or too old for that matter, to take up this practice.

My son has picked out vegetables and fruits before, but he’s never been in charge of the whole budget.

I gave him a few guiding principles: I told him we had to try and be more healthful than not; I told him sweets were okay, but they needed to be balanced with fresh fruits, greens, and other such vegetables. I also encouraged him to select a protein as well.

 

Oh no.

My brain was fraught with fear. Had my guiding principles gone in one ear and out the other? Were we doomed to be going home with a bag full of pastries, popsicles, pies and cookies?

No, we were not.

With caramel corn in one hand, he ran over to Ripple Creek Organic Farm and shouted with glee: tomatoes!!!! He picked a pint of sweet orange cherry tomatoes that I believe are called sunrise; they were super sweet, although my son liked the reds better. He purposely sauntered over to Zaklan Heritage Farm where there was a huge selection of greens, onions, radishes, and other such produce. Yet, his eyes were fixed on tomatoes.

 

 

 

He also grabbed a bunch of rainbow carrots (the colours win him over every time), he hemmed and hawed over radishes, but in the end determined they were too spicy, and instead grabbed a mini head of green lettuce because it looked “ninja green!”

He searched for the ice cream truck, but – thankfully for me and my desires for more produce – Rocky Point ice cream was not on the schedule.

He walked up the steps of Wild Westcoast Seafoods like he owned the truck. With his fingers curled on the surface of the freezer windows he peered inside to see if he could find anything appealing. We love fish in our house and when Ron pulled out a slab of tuna, the boy took one look and exclaimed “yum!”

When my son was mulling over a $20 container of cherries from the Harvest Direct stand, we were given a valuable teaching lesson. I suggested he look at the market money in his hands and count how much money he had left. At that point we had $6.50. Do we have $20, I asked him. No, he said. Do we have $5, I asked him. Yes, he said. I pointed to the containers of apples, plums, peaches and nectarines and told him that was the selection we were limited to. He grabbed the nectarines and was ready to go to the next stop.

 

We had $1.50 left to spend. I told him the options: we could get 2 zucchinis at Fresh Quality Produce for $1.50, or 2 cucumbers at Ripple Creek for approximately $2, or 2 ears of corn at both Fresh Quality Produce and Mandair Farms for $2, putting us over budget by 50 cents, or a (pretty, pretty, pretty please) head of spiky purple lettuce for $2.50. He flat out said no to the lettuce and the zucchini 🙁

I thought for sure he’d opt for the corn as he LOVES corn, and he almost did. He squeezed in next to the ladies husking the cobs and was about to pounce on the perfect two, when his eyes veered over to the brown box of green beans.

He thought they were peas. I told him they were green beans, which we often have on the barbecue. He looked at the corn, looked at the green beans, walked away from the corn, and grabbed a bag to fill with beans.

I’m not sure if he recognized that he would get more by choosing green beans over corn, but it was pretty hilarious watching him fill his bag – meticulously counting every single bean he placed in the bag. At 20 beans, he went over to the scale. We had 77 cents worth. I told him to grab 20 more. Jeff, the vendor, was howling as he watched him count. He went back to the scale. Gilda, who was manning the cash, told him to run back and grab three more. She told him he could leave the bag with her. He gave her an incredulous look. Are you kidding? No way, nope, he was not gonna leave that bag unprotected. He got his three more beans, giving us 43 beans in total, and we were right at $1.50.

This kid knows budget!

Market Loot

Gary’s Kettle Corn

• 1 small bag caramel corn $3.50

Ripple Creek Organic Farm

• 1 pint sunrise tomatoes $5

Zaklan Heritage Farm

• 1 mini ninja lettuce $2
• 1 bunch rainbow carrots $3.50
• 1 pint rainbow cherry tomatoes $4.50

Wild Westcoast Seafood

• 1 lb tuna $15

Harvest Direct Farms

• 1 container nectarines $5

Fresh Quality Produce

• 43 green beans $1.50

Total spent: $40

Now, while my kid had the budget down, I did not. It was a bit hard for me to give up control. I tried. I really, really did. But I could NOT walk away from a farmers’ market without a bunch of mustard greens and purple spiky lettuce in my hands. They might not be there the next week, I told myself. We would have to buy more greens mid week; the mini head would not get us through, I reasoned. I needed more greens.

When the boy wasn’t looking, I scooted under the Zaklan tent and added to the weekly loot.

Over-budget loot

Zaklan Heritage Farms

• 1 bunch mizuna mustard greens $3
• 1 head purple spiky lettuce $2.50

Total in the red: $5.50

After the market adventure, our hungry bellies went home for dinner. The first thing the boy asked for was a salad of his own that included his green ninja lettuce, his purple carrots, and a huge handful of his tomatoes.

 

Yep, pretty sure that’s a win 🙂

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Originally published on local blog Tenth to the Fraser, The Farmers Market Challenge, written by Katie Bartel (and the odd guest star) seeks to challenge the notice that you can’t get hardly anything for $40 at the farmers market. Each market, Katie explores what’s the best deal, and discovers food she’s never heard of. 

I was under the Zaklan Heritage Farm tent and my $40 budget was fast dwindling. I had $6 allotted to spend on fingerling potatoes. The German butter potatoes of the week before were so melt-in-your-mouth good, we wanted to see how the fingerlings would compare. I didn’t want to go over budget, and I didn’t want to go under. I wanted $6 exactly.

I grabbed a handful of the potatoes and put them on the scale. I was under budget. For two to three minutes more, I kept running back and forth adding one potato at a time. When I surpassed $5, I methodically searched the pile and removed the smallest ones to bring the cost back down. Courtney, the woman behind the Zaklan cash table, couldn’t help but laugh and tease me every time I changed the amount on the scale. She didn’t roll her eyes, she didn’t get exasperated, she thought it was pretty silly, but she was willing to appease me, especially given there were no others behind me.

This is a regular occurrence for me. I’ve done it with English snap peas, green beans, pickling cucumbers, broccoli, and more at various tents.

I would never do this at the grocery store, or even the local mom and pop vegetable stand.

What’s different?

The farmers.

The market is not a quick in-and-out shop for me, and I don’t want it to be. I enjoy the relationships that I have built with our farmers. I enjoy the casual chit chat, and education they give me nearly every week. These farmers are so invested in their vision, it’s not put on the backburner for a quick sale.

They want you to be happy. They want you to be more than satisfied with their products. They go the extra mile. They give you $1.50 worth of green beans when all you’ve got to spare is 60 cents. They round down, not up. They tell you, in depth, about what they’re growing, how they’re growing it, and why they’re growing it in a specific way. They work with you.

They even put up with your odd idiosyncrasies (see above).

It’s not just me they’re doing this for. I’ve seen it done countlessly for others as well. Just last week, a shopper was standing before all the fresh Okanagan fruits at the Harvest Direct stand. She didn’t want a basket of just one fruit, she wanted a little bit of everything. So, she asked. Ask and you shall receive: Param made her up a $10 basket that included apples, peaches, plums, and apricots. He didn’t look put out at all. In fact, he asked if there was one fruit in particular that she’d like more of than the others.

Beyond local, it is service like that that makes me keep wanting to come back for more.

It makes a difference.

This week’s loot:

Zaklan Heritage Farm

• 1 bunch pizzo mustard greens $3
• 1 bunch mizuna mustard greens $3
• 1 bunch radishes $2.50
• 1 bunch rainbow carrots $3.50
• 1 garlic $2.85
• 2.04 lbs fingerling potatoes $6

Ripple Creek Organic Farm

• 1 cucumber $1
• 1 GIANT head red-leaf lettuce $3.50

Harvest Direct Farms

• 1 basket plums $5
• 1 basket sunrise apples $5

Fresh Quality Produce

• 2 zucchinis $1.5
  1 bag of green beans $3

Total spent: $39.85

The mustard greens made their way into 5 dinner salads and 4 lunch salads with leftovers for the week ahead. The red leaf lettuce was so huge, as of Wednesday afternoon, its leaves were still filling the salad spinner. There were six carrots that were used in both salads and snacks. The bunch of light pink radishes, which had a mighty kick, were allotted mostly for side dishes and salads, and were still abundant as of writing this post. The small dark purple plums were a burst of tartness that we ate on their own, in salads, or mixed in berry fruit bowls. The sunrise apples were a combination of sweet and tart, and were the perfect snack-sized apple. We grilled the green beans, zucchini and fingerling potatoes.

When I asked about the fingerling potatoes, I was told they were somewhat similar to the German butter potatoes. And when I heard that, I translated it as being exactly the same.
They were not.

When grilled, the German butter potatoes were a rich, melt-in-your mouth smoothness on the inside, yet crispy with a touch of sweetness on the outside. The fingerlings were not. I felt they were more starchy in taste, and the inside was more of a mealy texture, the kind you get from regular old potatoes.

I guess once you’ve had German butter, no other compares.

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Originally published on local blog Tenth to the Fraser, The Farmers Market Challenge, written by Katie Bartel (and the odd guest star) seeks to challenge the notice that you can’t get hardly anything for $40 at the farmers market. Each market, Katie explores what’s the best deal, and discovers food she’s never heard of. 

We eat a lot of chicken.

In fact, our grocery shopping is often dictated by the store that has the best price on boneless and skinless chicken breasts that week.

Until last week we had shunned Rockweld Farm chicken truck at the market. Too expensive we thought.

We are of no illusion about the chicken we consume. Sure, the food chains may promote their chicken as “grain-fed,” or “free-range,” but anyone who’s ever watched 60 Minutes or W5 knows those terms are often interpreted very loosely.

At Rockweld Farm we’re assured it’s the real deal.

But is it worth the premium price?

Two decent-sized frozen breasts cost us almost $19. Each was individually wrapped and they were placed in a zip-top plastic freezer bag.

When they thawed, the difference from grocery store chicken was immediately apparent; there was no pool of gross, slimy pink liquid pooled in the plate.

For comparison, we also decided to grill a chicken breast from the grocery store.

Each was prepared identically for our peasant’s dinner of chicken and grilled vegetables — a little olive oil, sea salt, garlic powder, sesame seeds and fresh rosemary.

On the plate, the difference between the Rockweld breasts and grocery store breast was still apparent; the Rockweld breasts looked just a little tighter. Cutting into the meat, the grocery store breast flopped around while the Rockweld chicken retained its shape.

But it’s when the chicken hit the mouth it would really count.

The Rockweld chicken had a bit more flavour, but the meat was also drier.

The latter could probably be remedied by adjusting the time on the grill. But, in our opinion, the former wasn’t significant enough to justify the bigger expense, especially considering how much chicken we eat.

I guess it comes down to what you value the most; if you want to know the farmer and have a level of assurance that the chicken you’re eating lived decent lives before they ended up on your plate, the premium price for Rockweld’s chicken is worth it. But in our household at least, we’re going to keep checking those grocery store flyers for the best deals.

Market Loot

Rockweld Farm

• 2 large chicken breasts $18.35

Zaklan Heritage Farm

• 1 head specialty bred salanova green spiky lettuce $2.50
• 1 head purple coloured lettuce $2.50

Ripple Creek Organic Farm

• 2+ pounds German butter potatoes $5
• 1 cucumber $1

Ossome Acres

• 1 bunch of collard greens $3

A Bread Affair

• 1 butter croissant $3.50

Fresh Quality Produce

• 4 yellow zucchinis $3

My mom and my sister accompanied me to the last market. When my sister picked up a few green zucchinis and told me she was going to bake no-noodle lasagna with them, I decided to give it a go too.

But instead of green, I got yellow.

Jeff at Harvest Direct told me yellow was believed to be sweeter than green, but looked somewhat skeptical at the theory. After tasting the cooked zucchinis, I, too, fell on the skeptical side. To me, they seemed more bitter than the green zucchinis I’d had of late.

The lasagna was a mess.

I had tracked down a recipe that had advised me to either grill or sweat the lasagna ahead of time due to its water content. I tried grilling a few batches of the thin slices, but they kept sticking to the pan or falling apart. So then I opted to sprinkle the remainder with salt and laid them flat over a colander for 20-30 minutes to try and suck as much of the water out as I could.

It didn’t work.

The lasagna was more a mish-mashed soup than a put-together, clean-looking meal. Albeit, a super tasty, mish-mashed soup though 🙂

My regrets with this meal was the timing. It’s not exactly soup season, nor is it a time to be turning the oven on – did you see the forecasted temperature for the week??? This was a meal suited more to winter than summer. But the problem is, we have all this super fresh zucchini, right. Well, why not slice it up, freeze it (according to this website, squash freezes well up to 10-12 months) and then a couple months down the road, throw it all together, and voila, a belly-warming soupish dish!

The delight of the shop, hands down, was the cucumber and the German butter potatoes. While the chicken, in my opinion, didn’t serve up enough flavour for the price point, the cucumbers and potatoes most certainly did.

The potatoes grilled were like butter in your mouth! They were caramelized crisp on the outside, and soft, flaky, warm on the inside. It was like eating French fries the way French fries were meant to be!

And the cucumber, my first bite was taken absentmindedly. I had been chopping up various vegetables for the dinner salad, and as is habit, I tasted each of them. When I took that first cucumber bite, the burst of flavour that filled my mouth, was incredible.

It didn’t taste like water, it had a firm texture along the skin, and every subsequent bite was super crisp.

The Ripple Creek cucumber cost $1. A long English cucumber at the local vegetable stand is $1.49, and I can tell you it does not have those same beautiful attributes.

Savings in price. Earnings in flavour. Win. Win.

In total, I spent $38.85 giving me a $1.15 extra to spend this week. The greens lasted 5 days (we eat a LOT of salads). We got two meals out of the potatoes. The collards gave us six individual wraps, that were used for both lunches and dinners. The chicken was one meal between the three of us. The cucumber lasted two days – it was that good! And the zucchinis gave our family about three meals, plus a couple of side dishes. There would have been more zucchini, but the grill catastrophe ate up one of them.

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Originally published on local blog Tenth to the Fraser, The Farmers Market Challenge, written by Katie Bartel (and the odd guest star) seeks to challenge the notice that you can’t get hardly anything for $40 at the farmers market. Each market, Katie explores what’s the best deal, and discovers food she’s never heard of. 

It’s funny what a simple question will do for a conversation.

At the last market I asked Jeff at Fresh Quality Produce why yellow wax beans were called wax. I mean, if green beans are called green, why not call yellow beans, yellow? Honestly, I can’t remember his response, but I do remember him leading the conversation over to strawberries and raspberries and asking why each were called that. We know why blueberries and blackberries have their names, he said, but what about strawberries and raspberries?

Out came both of our phones. Seriously, how did we survive before Google?

According to Almanac.com, there are two explanations for strawberries: some apparently thought strawberries looked like straw (what???) while others believe the name comes from the Old English word strew because when the plant grows it looks like it’s growing scattered along the soil.

Raspberries were a bit more complicated. Their scientific name, Rubus idaeus, means “bramble bush of Ida” signifying the Greek island of Crete where they are believed to have originated. Funnily, according to Greek mythology, raspberries were white until Zeus’ nursemaid Ida (see latin name above) pricked her finger on a thorn and stained them red, thus making them a red berry.

If I were at a grocery store, would I be asking these questions? Would I know the first name of the farmer I was buying from? Would I know the farmer, period? Would the grocer spend a good five minutes laughing along with me trying to find the answers to my oddball questions? I am going to go out on a limb here, not a very far one, and say no.

I do not have a relationship with the big box grocers. But I do have a relationship with Jeff at Fresh Quality Produce, with Gemma at Zaklan Heritage Farm, Aaron and Noella at Ossome Acres, Ron at Wild Westcoast Seafood, Doug at Greendale Herb and Vine, Jasbir at Mandair Farms, Param at Harvest Direct Farms, and so many others that I have met and chatted with along the way.

It makes a difference.

Market Loot

Harvest Direct Farms

• 1 basket apples $5
• 1 basket apricots $5

Ossome Acres

• 3 small pattypan squash (also called scallopini) $1.90
• 4 pickling cucumbers $4.90 ($4/lb)
• Ripple Creek Organic Farm
• 1 bunch broccolini $2.40 ($4/lb)

Zaklan Heritage Farm

• 1 head specialty bred salanova purple spiky lettuce $2.50
• 1 bunch pizzo mustard greens $3
• 1 bunch ruby streaks mustard greens $3
• 2 heirloom tomatoes $1.50 ($4/lb)
• 1 bunch rainbow carrots $3.50
• 1 Spanish white onion $1.25

Fresh Quality Produce

• 1 pint raspberries $4
• 1 bag mix of yellow and green beans $3

Total spent: $40.95

With the contents of this week’s market purchases, I felt like I should be the envy of every shopper NOT going to the farmers’ market.

My salads, oh my goodness, so fresh, so tasty, didn’t need dressing, none. I had experienced this very same thing last year, where I was blown away by all the flavourings in just the greens alone. All winter I had been waiting for this again. And this week, it came.

The purple, spiky lettuce is a specialty breed salanova, the seeds of which came from Bellingham, that produces beautifully spiked individual leaves even after the core’s been chopped. I remember falling in love with this lettuce last year, but had only seen it once at the market. Gemma from Zaklan Heritage Farm informed me it’s a regular feature in their salad mix bags.

Good to know 🙂

The greens are great on their own, but with the market so full of freshness, why not add a few berries, or sliced apricots, or slices of the season’s first apples. You could even grill up a few slices of pattypan squash to give it a nutty flare, or Spanish white onion for a savoury sweetness. There are so many options for your salads right now. You can spice them up. You can sweeten them up. You can make a rainbow of them. Even the most staunchest, anti-salad eater would have a hard time saying no to these beauties.

What kind of salads have you been making?

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Originally published on local blog Tenth to the Fraser, The Farmers Market Challenge, written by Katie Bartel (and the odd guest star) seeks to challenge the notice that you can’t get hardly anything for $40 at the farmers market. Each market, Katie explores what’s the best deal, and discovers food she’s never heard of. 

Tell me our vendors don’t care. Go ahead, tell me. And I will politely inform you that you are wrong.

Since starting this culinary adventure one year ago, I have been shown several instances of care from various vendors. Last market was at the quick hands of Doug from Greendale Herb and Vine.

I was in a perfect storm situation: I have type-1 diabetes and my blood sugars were extremely low and due to circumstances I was without supplies to bring them up. Despite being around a smorgasbord of fresh fruits, my brain had stopped working. I could not, for the life of me, grasp what to do. I was sitting at one of the tables across from the Greendale Herb and Vine stall. My brain was stumbling over a jumble of letters trying to figure out options. Fear was setting in. And then it came to me:

HONEY! Doug has honey!

I rushed over. Doug tried up-selling the honey; I could get 1 jar for $5 or 3 jars for $14, he told me. I looked at him, my words struggling to form: I just need one, it’s an emergency, I told him.

He called it my 911 honey.

With the honey in hand, I again plopped down at the table, but I couldn’t get the jar open. I tried ripping off the plastic, I used my teeth, my hands were shaking like an earthquake. Then, there was Doug running over. He took the honey, swiftly opened it, and gave me a wooden dixie spoon to eat it with.

I am forever grateful for that act of care.

Market Loot

Zaklan Heritage Farm

• 1 bunch purple radishes $2.50
• 1 bunch pizzo mustard greens $3
• 1 bag arugula $4
• 1 bunch (GIANT) purslane $2
• • Harvest Direct Farms:
• 1 container (5) peaches $5 (it was posted as $6)

Fresh Quality Produce

• 1 (CRAZY LARGE) bag of beans $2*
• 1 pint raspberries $5

Greendale Herb and Vine

• 1 small jar cinnamon honey $5

Ossome Acres

• 1 bunch swiss chard $3

Ripple Creek Organic Farm:

• 1 large garlic bulb $2

Mandair Farms

• 1 bag (4 GIANT) red and orange peppers $4
• 1 summer squash $1

Nature Village Farm

• 1 bunch cilantro $1.50

Total spent: $40

Okay, so this market had some unintentional savings as you can see above.

First, Harvest Direct Farms helped me find the perfect container of peaches that would both satisfy the males of my family, who like their peaches quite ripe, and me, who likes my peaches on the firmer side. I pulled out $6 to pay, as per the price on the sign, but Param smiled and said it was $5.

Savings!

I then went up to Fresh Quality Produce and filled a plastic bag of beans. The price came to $1.60, which I paid. As I started to walk away, I was turmoiled with the 40 cents. I knew I couldn’t get anything for 40 cents and it would throw me right off my $40 game. I asked Jeff how many more beans I could get for 40 cents. He took my money and grabbed, I swear, as many beans as I already had in my bag and said there you go. W’oh.

Savings!

Note: This is NOT the first time either of these vendors have given more for less!

I’m not the usual grocery shopper in the house, so I don’t know exactly how much produce in regular vegetable/grocery stores actually costs. But when I saw the red and orange peppers at Mandair Farms, which were about the length of my wrist to elbow, listed at $4, I was sure it was a deal. That’s $1 a pepper. My husband later told me coloured peppers are going for $3.99 a pound at the grocery store, $2.49 at the “cheap” vegetable stand. He assured me the ones I got were indeed a good deal. Plus, they were so much sweeter than I have ever got from the conventional stores.

Savings!

There were also a couple of discoveries this week.

I picked up a large garlic from Ripple Creek with the intention of roasting it on the barbecue. I had previously purchased garlic last year, but none were as big as this sucker. It was so huge and so crazy flavourful. Mind you, it did take a little extra time on the barbecue due to its size ?

I had a choice between red radishes or purple radishes at Zaklan. I asked Gemma how they differed in taste; she said the purple might be milder, but mostly they tasted the same. I don’t hold much love for radishes, but they are a treat for my husband. I opted for the purple simply because I liked the colour. When I was making the salad that evening, I cut up one of the radishes; it was like art. The colour of the purple rind was streaking into the whites of the radish just like an abstract painting.

I don’t know if it was the beauty of this radish, or if it actually did taste different, but I loved them! I think my husband maybe got two of the whole bunch; that’s how good they were!

Every week there is something new and exciting to discover at the market, whether it’s a new food, a new flavour, a new colour, a new size, a new savings. I love these discoveries!

What do you hope to discover this week?