Meet our Parent: The Terwillegar Riverbend Advisory Council

The Terwillegar Riverbend Advisory Council is a ‘super community league’ that represents 18 neighbourhoods in the city's southwest. The support and vision of TRAC have helped to create the Southwest Edmonton Farmers Market. Both organizations aim to enhance the quality of life in our quadrant of the city, contribute significantly to the vibrancy of the community at large, and provide many meaningful ways to form connections within our local community between neighbours, friends, families, city government, schools and businesses. TRAC is the parent organization, so to speak, of the farmers' market. I wanted to use this blog post to highlight some of TRAC's upcoming events and initiatives. By supporting these events, you are also helping to sponsor and support our market because a portion of the proceeds raised by these initiatives goes toward the farmers' market itself.

TRAC 10 K Fun Run
On Sunday May 26th, TRAC is partnering with the Running Room and Mother Margaret Mary Catholic High School to create a TRAC 10K, 5K, 3K Run/Walk & Spring Family Fun Fair that will be a blast for everyone involved! There will be a tremendous number of things happening at this fundraising event. If you register early, online, you will receive a significant discount (TRAC 10K Registration). The event takes place at the high school, which is located just behind the Terwillegar Recreation Centre, on Leger Road. There you will find:

All of this could not be possible without great sponsors.
See www.tracspirit.ca for the list of these terrific sponsors.

• the TRAC 10K 5K 3K RUN/WALK with *chip technology and a TECH T-Shirt     * NOW SERIOUS RUNNERS WILL HAVE THEIR TIMES ACCURATELY RECORDED!
• a Mini-Farmers' Market - Courtesy of  the Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market
• a Pancake Breakfast - Courtesy of TRAC Seniors (if the weather is not very nice, the pancake breakfast will be held indoors) 
• a Fun Fair: tethered hot air balloon, jumpy thing, face painting, games
• a Nutrition Booth - providing snacks and drinks for the registered runners and walkers  
• the famous Popeye's T-Shirt Toss courtesy of Popeye's Supplements Canada 
• a warm-up provided by Infinite Fitness 
• a cool down led by Rejuvenation Health Services
• Lots of Prizes, including the GRAND PRIZES of 2 mini iPads!

Terwillegar Malbec

TRAC also has another, very creative fundraising initiative happening now and throughout the rest of the year. Partnering with Vines Riverbend Wine Merchants, they have commissioned their own red wine, called Terwillegar Malbec. This red wine is produced by the popular Australian Bleasdale Winery and can be purchased for $23.99/bottle at Vines (Vines' Website). For every bottle sold, $5 will go to TRAC to support many planned projects and programs, like the Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market, that are happening in our community. 

The Official Launch of 'Terwillegar' will take place on Saturday, June 8th, 2013 from 2 - 5 PM at Vines Wine Merchants store (2331 Rabbit Hill Road) Come and celebrate the first Community Labelled Wine in Edmonton!A musical introduction, food and of course tasting! Vines Wine Merchants Website:  www.vineswinemerchants.com

The photo of Dr. Norman Terwillegar, courtesy of the City of Edmonton Archives EA-749-2

A very good wine, so far 15 cases have been sold, and the wine is not officially launched yet. The wine was also showcased at the EFCL Volunteer Appreciation evening at the Meyer Horowitz Theatre and at Vines' Spring Fling event, with great success. Here are its tasting notes:

• A luscious bouquet of dark fruits swathed in chocolate, roasted meats with mint, briar and violet, followed by notes of cassis and red berries. It leads to a medium bodied palate exhibiting pure varietal flavours, a quenching acidity, and a light gamey, meat character. Velvety smooth tannins and a soft finish. All too quaffable! ~ Steve Richmond, Vines Wine Merchants, ISG Certified Sommelier
• While Australia is certainly well known for their Shiraz, this Malbec can stand glass to glass with their top reputed grape. Created in the typical Aussie style, this wine is a delicious fruit bomb full of rich blackberry, smooth tannins and round yet full textures. This is positively a wine that will be a great crowd pleaser. ~ William Bincoletto, Vines Wine Merchants principal sommelier, International Sommelier guild Instructor

Everything Cheese, one of the vendors at our market, has partnered with this TRAC initiative and has paired 3 cheeses that go very well with this wine. 10% of the proceeds from the sale of these cheeses goes to TRAC:

1. Don Panchego (Island of Sardinia, Italy) Made from sheep's milk, this is a Manchego-style pecorino. Legend has it that a Spanish cheesemaker was let go from a creamery in Spain, so he took the recipe (dating from 1327) to Italy. The name is a play on the Spanish word "Manchego." It has an assertive bite and goes well with robust red wines like this one. 
2. Mimolette Extra-Vielle (XO) (Northern France) Made from pasteurized cow’s milk, it is a firm to hard, natural, inedible, brushed rind, extra-old chees that is very special and rare. It is cave-aged for 18 months and its orange colour comes from the natural colourant, annatto. The greyish crust (under the black wax) is the result of cheese mites, intentionally introduced to add flavour by their action on the surface of the cheese. It tastes a little like slightly smoky aged cheddar; sweet and savoury at the same time, with a hazlenutty flavour. 
3. Bleu Benedictin (Abbaye Saint Benoit, Quebec) This is a pasteurized whole cow’s milk cheese.  The monastery was founded in 1912 by exiled French monks who had moved to Belgium before relocating to Canada. Since 1943, part of the work at Saint-Benoît-du-Lac has been making cheese. It is the only cheese factory managed by Benedictine monks in North America. This cheese is aged at least 3 months in natural caves under the monastery. It has a superb, extra-creamy texture with a complex, pleasantly piquant, salty, lingering flavour. It is excellent served over a juicy steak with a red wine jus. 

I am always so pleased to see businesses that step up to give something back to the community in which they thrive. We have seen it in the generosity of our own sponsors, here at the Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market. And I truly love it, when it is done in a creative, and meaningful way, like this partnership between TRAC, Vines & Everything Cheese. So kudos to Vines & Everything Cheese for investing in their communities and to TRAC for coming up with such unique partnerships to better our community!

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Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee & Dr. Robert Agostinis