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Upcoming Event | Sustainable Documentary Screening
Sustainable Screening Benefitting the New West Farmers Market’s Low Cost Produce Stand
6:30pm – 9:00pm | Landmark Cinemas, New Westminster
Click to Purchase Tickets Here
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
Container Gardening in New West
Every Thursday, the first thing I do when I arrive at the farmer’s market is walk up and down the paved hill checking out the stock of the week. Sometimes I see the same things; often I see at least one item that is new. It is this practice that has introduced me to mustard greens, collard greens, purple spiky lettuce, patty pan squash, edible carrot tops, cukamelons, rainbow chard, and so much more.
Some of those items, especially the various mustard greens, collard greens, and purple spiky lettuce, have become top-of-the-list purchases week in and week out. The weeks when their growth has run low and there are no mustards, or collards, or purple spikes, I am disappointed.
Seriously disappointed.
So disappointed, I’ve even been known to harangue the vendors… in the friendliest manner possible of course 😉
And then I got to thinking:
What is a farmers’ market?
Essentially, it’s people selling what they grow. Yes, it’s on a much larger scale than what you or I could do in a home garden, but when you break it down, these vendors are selling produce that could potentially be grown in your backyard.
The challenge for us in New Westminster, though, is space. According to the 2016 Census, New West has a total of 32,705 dwellings. Of that, 25,865 are apartments. This includes high rises, buildings with fewer than five stories, and apartments or flats in a duplex. That amounts to 79 per cent of our city’s abodes.
Space is limited.
For years I believed gardening was off limits for my family. We didn’t have a backyard, we had a patio. In my mind, that meant we couldn’t grow fresh produce, or fresh greens, my son couldn’t go and grab a carrot straight from the soil if he so desired. We were beholden to the products of the market.
Or so, that is what I believed. That is until I was introduced to container gardening a few years ago.
When I started out, I had miserable failure.
Zucchinis, which I have been told are the easiest plants to grow, are my nemesis. Every year I get tons of flowers, but no squash.
I tried going hipster with a pallet garden that was just an ugly mess with dirt flying every which way and hardly any edible growth.
We’ve had tomato plants that have given us three tomatoes and a whole lot of white flies, and strawberry plants that have produced all of one sour strawberry.
It hasn’t always been a success, in fact it’s been more failure than success, but it has been an adventure – especially since regularly attending the farmers’ market.
For this year’s growth, the New West Farmer’s Market was my inspiration.
I was determined this would be my year. I gave that garden so much love.
I talked to my valley girl and chocolate cherry tomato plants that I acquired from Zaklan Heritage Farm, I shook their flowers, as was recommended by Gemma at Zaklan, to aid in the pollination. I didn’t get frustrated when the tomatoes were slow, reallllly slow, to emerge, but rather patiently, lovingly, okay, maybe a little frustratingly, waited. By early September, we finally had a ripe tomato and others following suit.
I planted rainbow chard early in the season, along with arugula, spinach and kale. We got two rounds of the chard by late August that we used in salads and our beloved shrimp and chard quinoa.
Sadly the arugula and kale were attacked by a sneaky slug that I never did find; he’s lucky.
After chatting with a few colleagues at Inner City Farms, I discovered that mustard greens thrive when planted in mid to late August, even early September for a repeated fall harvest. Collards too. Oh man, I was in.
I should get three rounds of growth that will go well into October. Not only will this help offset the store-bought spinach and mixed greens that we’ll be forced to get once the market closes between the summer and winter season, but will also add that dose of über green freshness I’ve come to love.
I also planted mesculins and corn salad for further green goodness.
Without the market, I likely would not have got so adventurous and interested in my patio growth.
Farmers Market Challenge – Unexpected Absence
What do you do when you walk into a world of veggies only to discover there are no veggies?
That was the dilemma I faced last market day. For days I had excitedly anticipated carrots and kale, beets and squash filling my bags. We had been without the über fresh for over a month due to weather extremities; it had been far too long.
I got there early, right as the clock struck 11 a.m. I walked up and down the vender rows. I went inside the tent. I did a second run through. My eyes were surely deceiving me. The only vegetables they saw were potatoes, a beautiful buffet of potatoes, but only potatoes. That was it. Nothing more. After the second run-through, I started asking questions.
The ladies at Kiki’s Kitchen filled me in. The aforementioned weather extremities that had made market conditions too dangerous to proceed a couple weeks earlier, had also wreaked havoc on our farmers’ crops. Winter had come.
I could have walked away. I am sure some did walk away. But what is a challenge without the challenge?
This was an opportunity.
This is what farmers’ markets are all about.
They are unpredictable. They are at the whim of the weather. Nothing is guaranteed.
Except, of course, new discoveries.
Had the veggies been there: I would not have spent $12 on a bag of smoked chanterelles; I would not have stopped before the row of $10 homemade soups; I would not have indulged in that sample of award-winning honey. In my budget-minded books those were luxuries, not necessities. But had I not indulged, those new flavours would forever have been lost on me.
That would have been a shame.
Without the vegetables stealing my attention, this shopping adventure was all about splurging.
Market Loot:
Wheelhouse Seafoods: • 2 salmon burgers ($9)
Kiki’s Kitchen: • 1 jar ginger-beet soup, 2 servings ($10)
Your Wildest Foods • 1 bag of dried smoked chantrelle mushrooms, 6 servings ($12)
Honey Bee Zen • 1 500 ml jar wildflower honey ($9)
Total spent: $40
The salmon burgers and dried mushrooms were not new purchases. We had purchased the salmon in our first week of the summer challenge, and the mushrooms were purchased the first week of the winter challenge. Experienced forager Matt McAllister travels all over North America seeking his mushrooms; he had just got back from a trip to California where he had found “exotic” black trumpet mushrooms. But it was the smoky ones I was interested in. Previously I had tried his fire morels that had been foraged from areas devastated by fire. When you have had smoked mushrooms, it is real hard to go back. The smokiness is deep and dominant. I would recommend pairing them with a dish that is not already overly flavoured. We used ours in risotto and omelettes. We contemplated putting them into a stir fry, but we thought better of it figuring the mushrooms and soy sauce would be in an all out battle for flavour power.
The honey was for my four-year-old, who has been struggling the past month with a cold, turned flu, turned ear infection, turned lingering, hacking cough. As such, he’s been gobbling up our honey stores like crazy. At Honey Bee Zen, I sampled a few of the options, but it was the Harvest Moon that had me salivating for more. Turns out, plenty others too. This flavouring, which has placed first in B.C. the last four years running, was awarded third in its class at the American Beekeepers Federation’s annual Honey Show in Texas the week prior – where it was also auctioned off for $120!
I paid $9 for the same flavour and size.
The soup was all me. After a month of dealing with a sick child, my belly needed comfort, health and ease. Of the three soup vendors on site, I opted for Kiki’s Kitchen. I sampled the super greens and ginger-beet, and the ladies would have allowed me to keep going with the other flavours, but I needed to show restraint, if only for my budget. I was already blown away by the first two.
The super greens was creamy, with a definite, but not overwhelming vegetable note, and a pleasantly, surprising, heated kick at the end. Comparably, the ginger-beet was all ginger. For those who love ginger, this is your soup. Topped with a dusting of parmesan and a few slices of avocado – Oh. My. Yum. I do not know if I have ever had a pureéd soup so delicious. Lucky for me, Kiki and Paula felt they needed a boost of colour in their flavour options, which is how the ginger-beet came to be.
The quantity of my expenditures may not have filled my bags, but they sure did fill my belly.
