Food Trucks at our Market This Season

Anchoring one end of our market is the bright orange Bully Food truck.

Food trucks are one of the trendiest things on the foodie landscape, and if last year at our market is any indication, they are a definite draw, pulling people together to experience a vibrant local food scene. 

After placing your order, it is so fun to visit with friends and other food truck aficionados while waiting in the pick up line for your fresh food to be prepared, taking in the atmosphere of the market, listening to musical buskers, and watching children swarm all over the inflatable slide. There's really nothing quite like dinner up at the market with friends and family on a warm summer night.

Food trucks have picked up quite a local following:

Yellowbird Food Truck is a brightly coloured fixture at our
market, serving up delicious Japanese-fusion style food
and delicious Italian sodas.

• There is an Eat St. app that you can download for free on iTunes that links your current location to the nearest food truck so that you can, on a whim, get your fix of gourmet comfort food. 

• There is the wildly popular Food Network show of the same name, Eat St. which is actually a Canadian show that features food trucks, that shares their recipes, that interviews their chefs, that tells their stories and that shares the chefs' inspirations with its viewers. 

• And food trucks are popping up all over the place, with Calgary and Edmonton hosting some of the hottest food truck scenes in Canada. This year in Edmonton, like last, there are a number of new food trucks on the scene.

Wendy, serving Bully's food to a customer at SWEFM
last season.

Essentially gourmet kitchens on wheels, food trucks usually offer up comfort food, cooked fast and fresh on site, often using locally-sourced ingredients. 

With our old view of food trucks as hot dog, hamburger & fries stands and carnival fare, they have made us redefine our notion of what a food truck can and should be. Take a look and see what I mean...

Bully Truck (gourmet comfort food). 

Wendy & Dean will be back, using food sourced from local vendors who are at our market, making wonderful things and sumptuous food offerings like Mac & Cheese, Poutine with Sausage Gravy, Turkey Burgers, Fresh Vegetable Salad topped with Smoked Meat and Black Garlic Aeoli, and Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich. Yum! Wendy and Dean make a point of using food sourced from local farms and producers when they can, enhancing the "local" nature of the delicious food they serve. You can find their bright orange truck, located next to the children's slide area at the market. Wendy is the kind, warm and friendly face who greets you at the truck window.

She shares, "I am Dean’s wife; you can call me executive wife… lol. I met Dean over 20 yrs ago when we worked in a hotel together. We flirted for a while until he eventually asked me out for coffee. The rest is history. Dean has worked in large hotels in this city for years and when he finally decided he no longer wanted to work for the man, we agreed to buy a food truck and my daughter Janaya worked with him for the fall of 2012. When it came to 2013 I had to make the decision to leave my guaranteed paycheque job to work with him, or let him experience his adventure on his own. Well.... I took the plunge and quit work for the unknown. Who would have known it was the best decision I ever made. Sure the hours can be long and the sleep is scarce, but it's a job with huge rewards that allow us the satisfaction of serving some of Edmonton finest foodies. Here is to another decade of happy customers."

Yellow Bird Food Truck

Yellow Bird's Yakinaku Wrap

(Japanese fusion cuisine). 

Ayumi and Masa will be back again, serving up delicious rice bowls, yakiniku wraps (a Japanese take on a Philly Cheesesteak with sesame dressing, shreds of daikon, sautéed red peppers, and generous shavings of beef seasoned with soy sauce, garlic & brown sugar). Their bright red food trailer can be found in the centre of the market, next to the ATM machine. 

Their foods are light, healthy and delicately seasoned, making for a wonderful evening dinner. Complete with wooden chop sticks (or forks and knives if you prefer), you can have an authentic eating experience. Top it off with one of their Italian sodas over ice and you have the mixings for a delicious food truck meal.

Wraps served with mild or "heck hot" sauce and curry chips
 are a popular item at Sailin' On's food truck.

Sailin' On (vegan food) 

Mike & Garret will be back at our market this year, serving up their popular veagan takes on fun foods like tacos and B.L.T.s. People rave about their Seitan Reuben sandwiches and curry chips. 

They started off on the food truck path years ago, with an annual event on the front steps of their home in Garneau, where they made vegan corndogs for their friends and passers by. This event became quite popular, and so, after much preparation & research, they took the leap last year from making their immensely popular vegan corn dogs to expanding their menu and jumping into the Edmonton food truck scene, "bringing vegan street food to the masses." 

On their website, they proclaim, "Gripping hard to their punk rock roots and DIY work ethic, they built a truck, tested and re-tested their menu through pop-up and special events, learned to look good in hairnets and rocked plenty of tight jams along the way." Check out their particular flavour, style and the creative take that they bring both to the food that they prepare and to the atmosphere of our market. You're sure to be surprised, delighted and satisfied... 

Knosh's Coronation Chicken Sandwich

Knosh Food Truck (British comfort food). 

New to our market this year, Stuart is excited to bring his take on traditional "Brit Foods" to us. 

Some of his regular menu items are a Yorkshire Pudding with Braised Beef and Rosemary Gravy, Pulled Pork Belly Sandwich with Purple Cabbage and Beet Slaw, Pork and Apple Burger with Brie and Carmelized Onions, and Irving Farms English Bacon Sandwich with Fig Jam and Grilled Tomato (their take on a BLT), Cornish Pasties, Steak and Kidney Pie, and Corn Beef Hash with English Pancakes and a Poached Egg. 

He uses local producers when he can. He also has an in-house made Ginger Beer that is very popular. And for those who feel British to their very toes, even on our hot, sunny Edmonton summer days, there is Earl Grey Iced Tea and Fresh Scones with Clotted Cream and Strawberry Preserves. Yum!

With a wide array of toppings, La Poutine
Food truck is sure to meet your craving.

La Poutine (many versions of a traditional Quebecois comfort food favourite: fries, gravy, cheese & toppings). 

La Poutine will be a regular at our market this season. La Poutine was created by an Edmontonian and a Quebecois who have enjoyed poutine from east to west. They have fused their two worlds together in one comfort food item to deliver a terrific taste sensation. Their fries are hand-cut from fresh russet potatoes and fried twice in canola oil that is free of trans fats and low in saturated fat. 

They offer both traditional gravy and beef gravy. The traditional gravy is vegan and is considered Quebec-style while their beef gravy is thicker, darker, and considered western Canada-style. Their cheese curds are locally made and are so fresh they “squeak.” And their dipping sauces are made in-house from real mayonnaise and sour cream. By offering traditional poutine and many other unique poutine creations, La Poutine has something for everyone. 

Insights Into The Food Truck Scene...

Listening to CBC's interview of the Food Network's James Cunningham, producer of Eat St. gave me fascinating insight into the food truck world. A successful Food Network show that tours around North America, Eat St. films and interviews the chefs behind popular food trucks. (To hear the interview, go to http://www.cbc.ca/albertaatnoon/ and scroll down to April 12, 2013 at the 16:30 minute mark). He was in Calgary, filming one of their food trucks there. Though it is a Canadian show, Eat St. does most of its filming States-side, partially due to the fact that there are far more trucks down south where the population is substantially more numerous and the climate allows for trucks to be open for far longer seasons than it does in Canada. However, we Canadians are a resilient bunch, and are coming out to support food tucks, hand over fist! So we have a definite presence on the North American truck scene map.

Wendy & Dean of Bully Food Truck

Cunningham made some really interesting points in his radio interview. He stressed that the chefs who rent or own and operate these trucks had to be a bit crazy and super passionate about food to run a food truck, as it is a lot of work. And he likened what is happening now, on the food truck scene, to what he called a Food Truck Revolution. Food trucks are a phenomenon that have absolutely exploded onto the street scene because of two serendipitous things occurring in North America a couple of years ago.

First, there was the down turn in the North American economy. 

Often, he pointed out, the people behind the gourmet food trucks are 5 star chefs. during the economic downturn, some were out of work (and, he added almost sheepishly, some were simply office workers who desperately wanted out from behind their desk to do what they love) but they still wanted to be gainfully employed in the culinary arts in which they were trained and were passionate. They were nervous to roll the dice and open up their own restaurant in the height of a recession. So these chefs rented or invested in trucks, hit the pavement and took their inspiration to the street to do what they loved.

Sailin' On will be back once a month with their popular vegan fare.

There is a flip side to this point as well. With the downturn in the economy, especially in the United States, many people were no longer going to expensive 5 star restaurants. But they still had a passion and a desire to be eating gourmet food.  So these people began turning to more expensive, but gourmet, street food as a replacement for eating out in fine dining restaurants.

The second thing was the social media explosion that has occurred in our society

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest are all the rage and have the possibility to make things popular, to make things go "viral," and to get news out almost instantaneously. Food truck chefs can tweet out their information throughout the day. And their customers can retweet or "like" that info out once again to their friends, who "like" or tweet it to theirs, and so on. When it comes to food trucks, this can include menu items, their location for that day, and what is hot & popular on a given day. As a result, food trucks have their fanatical followers, and lineups at the trucks can be insane. James Cunningham likened it to a gourmet flash mob where there's an energy and an enthusiasm in the line up & the air is a-buzz with excited "What are you getting? What did you get? What's good here?" chatter.

Knosh Food Truck serves up traditional Brit Food

The success and popularity of the food truck phenomenon has made another important thing happen. Cities like Edmonton and Calgary are recognizing what a great thing having a vibrant food truck scene is for the atmosphere and profitability of their cites, and they are giving parking spots to the food trucks along with their licences in prime, downtown locations. 

The chefs in these trucks are beholden only to themselves and this creates a unique opportunity to blend influences from their upbringing and fuse them with their own unique style in preparing comfort foods. The gourmet result is a surprisingly delicious and inspiring fusion cuisine. A carte blanche, if you will, to do what they want & to bring their inspiration to the street.

Edmonton's food truck scene has taken off this year with some new trucks hitting the pavement and setting up on our streets.  

Sailin' On's popular Green Chili Sauces.

There aren't many opportunities in Edmonton to see multiple food trucks gathered together in one place. Our city seems to licence them in a way that attaches them to a particular street corner or location that is isolated from other trucks. Other than What The Truck! events, and some special downtown & summer festivals, rarely do you see them collected together en masse. Our market will feature 4 food trucks throughout the season It is a really cool "must-try" experience. 

Come out and see what all the fuss is about. 

Make Wednesday night Dinner-At-The-Market Night 

for your family and friends. See you there!

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Follow this link to read up on the profiles of trucks at our market: http://www.swefm.ca/food-trucks--concessions.html
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

Organics Is About More Than Just The Food

This week we have a guest blogger, Sheila Hamilton, of Sunworks Farm. Her farm is located just outside of Armena, Alberta. She and her husband Ron are committed to raising and selling "environmentally friendly food." They supply some of the best markets in town (one of which is ours) with their delicious chickens, turkeys, beef and pork products... all are pasture raised or free range and certified organic... qualities that are extremely important to them and to their life philosophy. Here, Sheila explores what it means to be totally committed to "organics." With their commitment to biodiversity, they are tremendous stewards of the land.

Organics is about more than just the food. Often on the news you see studies that compare organic products to their non-organic equivalent. These studies most often look at nutrition and pesticide residues. But eating and buying organic has a much greater effect than just the food that you put in the body. Organics is also about the environment that we all live in. For every certified organic product grown, there are less chemicals being added to the environment. 

For us this encompasses our attitude toward the environment and the world around us. We use the ancient Haida saying “We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." We believe that we have to leave the land in better condition than the land we received. We strongly believe that we have to be stewards of the land and of the environment. We feel that by being certified organic and using holistic management, we can be active stewards of the land. We also believe that we can be beyond organic. We have to look at all of our practices and be as sustainable as possible and be the best keepers of the earth as we can be. 

There are many ways that we do this. We use time controlled grazing for our cattle. This is a method of grazing that prevents the overgrazing of the land which prevents erosion, allows the grass to naturally reseed itself and provides habitat for wildlife. We also let the grass grow in the fall, this allows for longer winter grazing which in turn allows the manure to be spread out over the land rather than being accumulated in one place. 

We want to continue to improve the land. Our goal is to grow topsoil. We use our composted chicken manure as a way to do this. The manure is composted in 2 large in vessel composter units. This compost is then spread on our land and other neighbouring farmers' land. The composting breaks down the manure and makes it safe to spread onto the land. Rotational grazing also allows a lot of organic matter to be put back into the soil. We feed our cattle in the winter on the poorest part of our land. This allows the leftover hay and the manure to improve the soil. Our moveable chicken shelters have no bottom and this allows the manure to be put directly onto the land and then be exposed to the sun. The grass thrives on this mix of organic matter and manure. The grass is often waist high and extremely thick. We see improvement in the soil every year. We also do not use any herbicides or pesticides on the land. This results in a wonderful soil ecosystem full of microbes, bugs and worms. 

Water is an essential and important resource for animals and plants and we try to take care of this precious resource. We are part of the Battle River watershed. We maintain and do not alter the natural watershed areas allowing the water to naturally flow towards the Battle River. We collect surface water in ponds (dugouts) allowing natural drinking water to be pumped for our cattle and all of our livestock. The dugouts and natural wetlands are fenced off protecting them from the cattle and allowing wildlife (ducks, geese, deer, coyotes) to use and thrive in the clean water. No herbicides or pesticides are used on our land.

Because of the lay of our land, the water that fills our dugouts only comes from our property. This prevents chemical runoff from neighboring farms from collecting in the wetlands allowing frogs and reptiles to thrive. We love our frogs! 

Biodiversity is essential and we believe that all wildlife is important to the ecosystem. We only take one cut of hay so wildlife can have plenty to eat for the winter. This also allows for more snow to collect on the land in the winter providing more moisture to the land and to the wetlands in the spring. We have buffer zones around our land that allow natural untouched habitat for birds, this allows them to nest and raise their young undisturbed. Bird houses are put up to encourage birds to nest; blue birds are a common sight.  

We use electric netting around the perimeter of the outdoor chicken shelters to protect the chickens from the foxes, skunks and coyotes. This allows them to live on the land right beside the chickens.  We also have planted trees and continue to plant trees. We have seen many different types of wildlife flourish here and have seen more and more diversity every year.  Mice, shrews, moles, gophers, badgers, coyotes, porcupines, deer and moose live on our land and we have seen a cougar. Owls, hawks, bluebirds, swallows, sparrows, starlings, robins, crows, magpies, grouse, ducks, geese, shore birds, frogs, snakes and salamanders make their homes here as well. 

In the choices that we make we can affect the whole environment, not just our own land. We drive a Toyota Hybrid vehicle. All our buildings are powered through wind and solar sources using Bullfrog power. We try and reduce and reuse and we recycle through a local recycling company, TK Environmental out of Camrose.  All our buildings are newer and were built with energy efficiency in mind and our house is a R2000 house. Solar powered watering systems are used for the cattle.  We also personally purchase organic, local and environmentally friendly products wherever possible. We are constantly looking for ways that we can reduce our environmental footprint on the earth. 

We believe that being organic is about more than the food. It is about a way of life and a way of business that keeps the environment and human health in the forefront. By using these practices we strive to not only provide our customers with the best and cleanest food possible but also food that has a positive impact on the health of our environment as a whole. 

Sheila Hamilton

See more at: www.sunworksfarm.com
Follow them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/SunworksFarm

Contributed by Sheila Hamilton, of Sunworks Farm
Intro by Sheri Hendsbee

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca

Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca