Fresh Sheet: October 8, 2014

 

A bittersweet farewell (for now)!

Join us WEDNESDAY in the Terwillegar Recreation Center Parking Lot from 4:30-7:30

Please join us for our final market of the season! This week will be the perfect market to stroll the market for the last time in 2014, buy your Thanksgiving groceries, and enjoy a warm dinner from a food truck. Be sure to stop by the info tent to say goodbye (for now!) to our wonderful volunteers, board members, and market manager. We would like to take the time to thank each and every one of you for supporting our market this season. Without you, it would not be such a success!

SWEFM is constantly working to improve our market to support our community. We would absolutely love your feedback on what we're doing right and what could be improved at market for next season, so please complete our Customer Survey. As a thank you for completing the survey, you will have the opportunity to enter a draw to win $30 in SWEFM Market Bucks! Please complete the survey here.

For market shopping tips, be sure to check out this page to ensure your market visit is everything it should be. And remember, please leave Fido at home- no dogs are allowed where food is being served!   

Servus Credit Union, a sponsor of the Southwest Edmonton Farmers’ Market will be on site this week.

Servus will have their ‘Monster Head Knockdown’ challenge.  Take a shot and try to knock down these terrifying and troublesome monsters.  If you defeat a monster, you will WIN a prize! Also, Servus staff will be on-site this week to provide tailored advice to your financial needs.  If you come into a branch for an appointment, you will get a $50 gift card.  Come by the Servus tent to learn more!

 

The Sprouts Program for kids will be accepting new children for the rest of the season. Families can always access the Sprouts recipes online!  For more information on the Sprouts Program and to see the Sprouts recipes for kids, click here.

We ask all Sprouts who have been saving their tokens over the summer to redeem them in the next two weeks! Tokens received in the 2014 season will not be valid in 2015. 

New this week are Sprouts Cutting Boards, handmade by SWEFM vendor Prairie Cedar Creations! Support our Sprouts program and give your child a gift that will encourage them to continue to cook at home at the same time! Made from natural bamboo, these cutting boards are hand-branded with the Sprouts logo and made for little kitchen helpers. They'll be available at the Sprouts table for $16 each. 

Simply Supper loves the Sprouts program so much they've sponsored our Sprouts Recipe of the Week again! All Sprouts who visit the Sprouts table this week will receive another free packet of Simply Supper Spice Mix to use in the recipe below. Simply Supper is a great supporter of SWEFM and our Sprouts, having been a vendor at market for most of the summer. They allow busy families to make healthy and easy meals together, something we all should do more of! To learn more about Simply Supper and their great offerings, visit www.simplysupper.ca. 

Steve & Dan's B.C. Fruit will be bringing their delicious peaches, nectarines, fresh apples, cherries, berries, dehydrated fruit and apple juice this week. 

AIG Produce brings their wonderful cherries, berries and peaches to market directly from Osoyoos, one of Canada's premier fruit-growing regions. 

 

With everything in season, now is the perfect time to try a new vegetable or a new recipe. The vegetable vendors joining us this week are: 

Dargatz Family Farm will be at market this week with their fantastic cherry tomatoes, mini peppers, potatoes, carrots, squash and more. 

The Plot will be with us again this week, bringing fresh-made ketchup and relish, along with homemade preserves and some heirloom tomatoes (if we're lucky!).  

Holden Colony brings their whole bounty to market week after week! Expect a variety of fresh vegetables including kale, lettuce, onions, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and garlic, along with other staples like eggs, frozen chickens, honey, and preserves.

Riverbend Gardens will be bringing their winter squash, carrots, Red Banana, Ama Rosa, and Mozart Potatoes, beets, cabbage, kale, coloured cauliflower and onions this week!

S4 Greenhouses will be at market this week with their fantastic tomatoes, peppers, lettuces, beans and cucumbers. They make adorable $2 mixed bags just for our Sprouts!

We believe in meat raised using ethical, sustainable methods, and our meat vendors do too! If you're looking for some delicious meat products, look no further:

Sunworks Farm will be bringing their ethically-raised meats for you to enjoy this week. From full chickens to their ever-popular sausages, Sunworks is your new favourite meat destination!

 

Who doesn't like delicious baked goods? Our vendors have great items, from sweet and soft cupcakes to salty squares made with cheezies, to wholesome bread made with freshly milled flour. With gluten-free and nut-free bakers, there's something for every lover of baking at SWEFM! The bakers joining us this week are:

Cakes by Oma will be joining us this week with her wonderful European cakes made with real butter, cream, fresh fruit and custard.

Sweet Stuff will be bringing her wonderful mini and full-sized cupcakes in a variety of flavours, along with her oatmeal raisin cookies that are perfect with a cold glass of milk.

Confetti Sweets will be at market again this week with their awesome cookies. If you haven't tried the coconut cookie yet, you're missing out!

Prairie Mill Baking Co. makes all of their breads the morning of market day with fresh-milled flour and wholesome ingredients. 

 

We know you lead busy lives, and our ready-to-eat food vendors are here to help! With options from Turkish to Indian to vegan to sweet, these vendors always have something to help you satisfy a quick craving or serve dinner to your family. Our ready-to-eat vendors joining us this week are: 

Honest Dumplings will be at market with their absolutely wonderful and healthy dumplings. Ray uses fresh ingredients to colour and fill her products, so be sure to ask her all about her process!

Theo's Greek Kouzina will be bringing their wonderful pitas, dips, and olives to market this week. Make a wrap with fresh market vegetables and their tzatziki for a healthy lunch this week!

 

Market shopping for local foods can leave you feeling hungry! Our food truck and concession line up is the perfect way to end your evening at market, with healthy and indulgent options that are sure to satisfy everyone. The food trucks joining us this week are:

Sailin' On will be at market, serving up their ever-popular vegan fare. If you're looking for a vegetable-packed treat, try their BLT wrap made with coconut bacon!

Knosh Catering is back this week (by special request!) and will be serving some Thanksgiving-themed U.K. comfort food.

Yellowbird Cafe Truck is back again this week, serving a wide variety of Japanese dishes to SWEFM guests. If you're looking for a dinner option to fill you up, Yellowbird is a great choice! 

Bully Food Truck is a SWEFM staple and will be offering their fantastic comfort food again this week. Try their Locker Room Burger to support a good cause!

Fat Franks is back and will be ready to serve you their delicious hot dogs and smokies with all the fixings! 

Original Canadian Kettle Corn will be serving up their freshly-popped kettle corn at market this week! If kettle corn isn't your thing, they also have salty popcorn for the crunch without the sweetness!

Farmers' markets are the perfect place to find high-quality, handmade products. Our artisan vendors are incredibly talented and love to share information about their crafts. From soap to jewelry and fashion, they're all worth a visit:

Ada's Soap Shop will be at market with his beautiful handcrafted soap, made with all-natural ingredients. 

See you at market!

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Write a review on TripAdvisor http://www.tripadvisor.ca/Attraction_Review-g154914-d6698177-Reviews-Southwest_Edmonton_Farmers_Market-Edmonton_Alberta.html

Recipe: Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

so what's so great about eating pumpkins? 
Never has a vegetable provided so much fun and been eaten so rarely. For so long, we have associated pumpkins only with Hallowe'en's jack'o lanterns or Thanksgiving's pumpkin pie. However, it is a veggie that the 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth says is a really great, overlooked vegetable that is ridiculously low in calories while very high in potassium and vitamin A, not to mention the beta-carotene that is typically found in all orange foods.

Potassium works with sodium in our bodies to maintain water balance. People who have diets that are high in potassium have lower blood pressure (you can also get good doses of potassium from popular foods like bananas, though pumpkins have far more, per calorie, than that tropical fruit). So increasing potassium in your diet helps to ward off hypertension. It seems that the more potassium you take in, the more sodium you excrete... something that's important in our Western, industrialized, processed food exposed, salt-heavy diets.

Pumpkin is the generic name for any winter squash
that is round in shape, usually rigid, and bright
orange in colour, like these from Dargatz Family Farm.

what else?

• Increasing your potassium intake decreases your risk of stroke.
• Increasing your potassium intake increases your bone mineral density.
• Increasing your potassium intake when you exercise helps to ward off muscle cramping.
• Pumpkins contain beta-cryptoxanthin which can reduce the risk of lung and colon cancers along with rheumatoid arthritis.
• Pumpkins contain lutein and zeaxanthin which are vision-protecting superstars.

One more thing to remember... carotenoids need dietary fat for absorption in our bodies. And while a small amount of olive oil or butter would be a better choice, nutritionally speaking, to help us get the most of our digestion of pumpkin, the butter in these cookies does the trick!

how to choose a pumpkin

Thankfully, for your waist line, the dough does
not taste very good...

According to Pete Luckett, of The Greengrocer's Kitchen, gigantic pumpkins won't be very sweet, and the small ones that fit into your palm aren't worthwhile to cook with either. Instead, buy fresh pumpkins that are heavy for their size with smooth, unblemished skin and no mould. A fresh pumpkin will last up to a month when stored in a cool, dark place. And once cut, the pieces should be covered in plastic wrap and used within the week.

how make pumpkin purée
This is SO easy! And once you make your own, you'll find it is so much tastier (not to mention cheaper on the grocery budget) than canned pumpkin!

Split the pumpkin lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and fibrous bits. I like to use a spoon with a sharp edge to do this. Place one half, cut side down, in a shallow baking dish. Add 2 tablespoons of water and cover with plastic wrap. Cook on high of 12-15 minutes, until tender. Let stand, covered, for 5 minutes. Remove the plastic, cool, scrape out the pumpkin and purée either in a blender, a food processor or in a bowl with an immersion blender. Repeat with the other half pumpkin.

pumpkin chocolate chip cookies 
These pumpkin cookies have been a favourite around our house for almost 2 decades now. The recipe came from a child's Halloween craft book that we took out of the library when my daughter was quite young. The cookies are very moist, and almost cake-like in texture. They are not your typical cookie, but they are unbelievably delicious. They're also not a glamorous cookie... never perfectly shaped they're like the ugly duckling of cookies. This is an easy recipe that you just can't mess up!

The smell of these cookies coming out of the oven is
so good! 

ingredients
½ c. butter
¾ c. brown sugar
¼ c. molasses
1 egg
1 c. pumpkin, canned or roasted & mashed
2 c. flour
½ t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1 t. cinnamon
½ t. nutmeg
1 c. mini chocolate chips 

directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Cream butter & brown sugar together. Add molasses. Stir in egg. Add pumpkin. Put all dry ingredients into the bowl except chocolate chips and mix together well. Add chocolate chips.

Bake 10-12 minutes. Cookies should still be very soft in the centre so that they come out soft & chewy & cakey.

where can you find ingredients at our market?

• Dargatz Family Farm, Riverbend Gardens  and the Holden Colony, have pumpkins each year.

Recipe from a child's Halloween craft book that we took out of the library when my daughter was very young. Purée recipe form The Green Grocers' Kitchen, by Pete Luckett, p. 115.
Nutritional Information from The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth, by Jonny Bowden and The Greengrocer's Kitchen, by Pete Luckett
Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Write a review of us on Trip Advisor: SWEFM on Trip Advisor

Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee