Market Update: Location Change

People have been asking me for help in trying to picture our location change. Here is a map to make it all clearer. (Last year's location was off the map by the F2 parking lot.)

This is something that we are all excited about as the market will be easily seen, as you drive by on 23rd Ave. Remember, the market starts up May 15th (just ignore all the snow that is in tomorrow's forecast... the local creeks and the river are running... spring IS coming!).


Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
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Such Inspiration can be found in Farmers' Markets Around The World

With Spring Break around the corner, I thought I'd post something about travelling and market culture...

A pineapple vendor in Bangkok prepares a bag of diced pineapple with a
wooden skewer for eating right there, on the spot.

A juice & tea stand in Thailand displays the fruit, such as very tiny lemons and
 bright pink dragon fruit that can be juiced into delectable drinks on site...
served not in a cup, but in a plastic bag with handles and a straw!

Everywhere we have travelled, we have encountered farmers’ markets. Some are little more than trucks pulled to the side of a road, or crates stacked in a dark alleyway. They serve very simple fare. Others have festival-like atmospheres and are the sites of lots of activity and organized family fun. Some literally take over roadways with a sense of vibrant, untamed chaos. And some have permanent stalls with neat corridors, concrete floors with roofs overhead and elaborate displays. 

Every market has its own flavor, its own mix of vendors and patrons, and its own sense of character and identity.

Seattle's Pike Place Market has a rooftop garden over its sign,
planted up with tulips and a wide variety of permanent
 vendors, like these fish mongers, inside.

Street vendors set up in the most innocuous places in Bangkok, sandwiched between parked cars or down crooked, dark and dingy back alleys. Though there are permanent stalls on the sidewalks, there are opportunistic, mobile ones too that take advantage of any available space, and of any of the changing, popular spots.

Yup! In the top left hand corner of this photo there are fish
flying over the market shoppers' heads.

In Thailand, at night, the markets come alive, taking over the streets, forcing 4 lane roadways to become congested, but vibrant, places of street market commerce, allowing only 3 wheeled tuk-tuks and motorcycles to pass through. Walking through the streets at night, after the heat of the day has dissipated and the daily torrential rains have washed everything clean, is a unique experience. It is after about 9pm that the city truly comes alive.

In the dark recesses of this basement market in Singapore,
you can see bundles of yard-long Asian green beans,
bundled up and on display at this stall

In this picture are plastic crates loaded to their brims with sugar cane,
wonderfully scented limes, intensely fragrant lemongrass
bundles, gigantic Habiscus flowers, green figs and red beets.

Sometimes it’s just not enough to see artfully displayed fish and seafood on pristine beds of crushed ice… the fish mongers at Seattle’s Pike Place Market have to hurl fish over your head, playing a slippery game of catch in the hallways of the market. That definitely adds a strange element of entertainment value to the experience!

Portland is known for its many terrific microbreweries. Rogue is one of them
and they are regular vendors at Portland's "Saturday Market" (which,
coincidently, runs Saturdays and Sundays down by the river). With their
very artistic labels, they make a wonderful display at their market stall.
And yes, you can purchase beer there and drink it on site.

In Singapore, basement markets in Chinatown are strictly utilitarian places to shop for fresh meat, poultry and produce, and yet, lit by harsh fluorescent light, they are beautiful in their own bare way. I love the way that foreign markets introduce you to strange and wonderful edible things like these chewy hibiscus flowers with a somewhat raisiny flavour (the burgundy things in the bin below), beans more than three feet long (folded and twisted and bound in elastics), and deep purple sugarcane stalks (the banded stalks below).

Brightly coloured spring tulips, crammed into buckets, form a
beautiful display at the Pike Place Market in Seattle.

An Egyptian vendor creates an amazingly balanced wall of fruits and
veggies at his stall in Cairo.

No matter where you go, there is such artistry in the way items are displayed…

• in the arrangements of the fruits and vegetables in colourful triangular towers
• in the scrunching together of buckets, filled to the brim with fresh cut spring flowers 
• in the artful display of spices, poured into pyramids resting precariously in bowls
• in the tantalizing racks of glittering wind catchers, their polished metal surfaces catching your eye as you saunter by
• in the sheer volume of a barrel of crushed dried hot chilies in a farmers’ market in Chile
• and in a row of microbrewery beer bottles, with creatively designed labels and catchy, fun names lined up on a counter. 

Whimsical wind chimes made of twisted, cut and reshaped cutlery
dangle from the frame of a vendor's tent in Portland.

Traveling to farmers markets wherever you go around the world always provides unique insights into the culture through which you are travelling, adventuring and vacationing.  

Gigantic baskets of fresh and crushed, dried hot chile peppers are waiting for
market shoppers in Santiago, Chile.

By going to local markets, you get to see things from the ground level... what a culture values, the things that are important for sustaining it, what it regards as beautiful or as delicious (no matter how extreme or strange it may seem to you), and what it sees as humorous and fun.

When vacationing, be it within Alberta, across North America or abroad, I encourage you to seek out the local farmers’ market and see what’s there. It is sure to be an enriching, tasty, lively, eye-opening experience!

What have you seen that you loved, that piqued your curiosity, or that surprised you in markets that you have experienced on your travels? 
Please share your experiences here. I'd love to travel some more, vicariously, through your comments....

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca

Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

Our 2013 Season Is Coming Together: Market Update

The snow may be flying and the temperatures may be still cold, but the daylight hours are getting longer and this weekend the time changes as we spring forward and lose that precious hour of sleep. That can only mean one thing: market season is around the corner and we are busy planning behind the scenes for our third successful market season. There are a few happenings to update you on...

We have moved!

The Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market has successfully negotiated a move to a much better location! Still located in the Terwillegar Recreation Centre parking lot, we are now in the lot that is visible from 23rd Avenue, beneath the new animated sign, opposite from the Leger Bus Station. This location change should have a tremendous impact on attendance at the market... if people can see the market as they drive by, they will be more likely to pop in for a visit.

We are receiving many applications for the 2013 market season!

This year's market is looking to be a vibrant and exciting one filled with a wide variety of vendors and a number of special events and planned activities. This is the time of year when vendor applications are coming in to our market organizers. If you, or anyone you know, would like to be part of our 3rd season, go to our website at www.swefm.ca. There you will find application forms and a fee schedule. You can find the documents you need to be a vendor at our market under the "Get Involved" tab and a link called "Become a Vendor" (http://swefm.ca/become-a-vendor.html). You will need to download and fill out the forms there.



We are excited to welcome back many of our favourite vendors from last year! 

Look who's coming back:

AIG Produce Osoyoos (BC Fruit)
Dargatz Family Farm (Vegetables, Bedding Plants, Pickles)
Everything Cheese (Cheese Products)
Gourmet Girl Cookies (Cookie Dough, Packaged Cookies, Whoopie Pie)
Holden Colony (Vegetables)
Jenny's Gems (Jewellery)
Olive Me (Olives)
Orange Avocado (Jewellery)
Peter's Lake View Farms (Saskatoon Berries, Pie, Vegetables)
Prairie Mill (Bread)
Red Apple (BC Fruit)
Red Tractor Meats (Meat)
Riverbend Gardens (Vegetables, Bedding Plants, Vegetable Seedlings)
Simply Supper (Prepared Suppers)
Steve & Dan's (Vegetables & BC Fruit)
Sunworks Family Farm (veggies, meat, eggs)
Tea Garden (Tea Cup Bird Feeders)
Theo's Greek Kuzina (Prepared Greek Food)
The Butcher's Bus (Sausage, Perogies)
The Pink Kernel (mini donuts, cotton candy, theatre popcorn, Hawaiian Ice, freshly squeezed lemonade, novelty ice cream, bottled beverages, Yo yo balloons)
Three Muffin Tops Charms (Jewellery)
TR Greenhouse (Vegetables)

Stay tuned for the next update where I spill the beans on the exciting new vendors to our market. There are some wonderful surprises in store for you there!



Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

Why Eat Local?

This is a very complex and complicated issue and more than I can tackle in a single blog post. But I’d like to try and hit the highlights for you.

Spicy salsa brings summer to our plates all winter long.

Living in Canada, we are dependent on much of our food coming from abroad… that is, if what we want is to eat fresh produce and things that are not boxed, processed or canned throughout our long winters, we must take in food from other countries. These are foods that travel, in some cases, thousands of kilometers to go from their fields to our tables.

It is very ironic, considering the fact that we are truly the Bread Basket of the World, producing much of the world’s wheat as we do, that we are so dependent on the global economy to feed us year round. We have vast tracts of arable farmland… but that fertile land competes with our intensely populated areas for space, hugging our southern border with its warmer climate as they both tend to do.

We have the ability to produce quite an extensive variety of excellent quality fruits, vegetables, meats, eggs & cheeses, wines and grains. And yet we cannot feed ourselves independently. And, more often than not, we choose not to purchase local goods, when they can be found cheaper elsewhere.

A spicy pepper jelly that brings a bit of
golden sunlight colour and summer heat
to our crackers and cheese & to our roasted
chicken sandwiches throughout the year. Yum!

Even when products are available locally, often supermarkets, with their head offices in other cities, provinces, or even countries, will not use local producers, preferring a large scale contract with big importers or vast operations elsewhere. It seems crazy that we should be buying apples from, say, New Zealand, when local apples are available. Or that we should be purchasing tomatoes from California when our local growers are producing great quality fruit in season, virtually in our own backyard.

For two interesting short videos on this issue I highly recommend: Do you know where your food comes from? -Eat Real. Eat Local. and The Story of Stuff. (These are hyperlinks. Click on them to view the videos.)

With the writing of the 100 Mile Diet: A Year of Eating Local,  authors Alisa Smith and James Mackinnon brought into the forefront of our minds an interesting experiment on this issue: was it possible to eat locally year round when living in Canada. Granted, they lived along the BC coast: truly a land of plenty with a decadent zone 9 climate (we are a zone 3b here in Edmonton). But even that had its unbelievable challenges, given the nature of our market and the way that our dependence on the global economy shapes it… like the difficulty surrounding finding a store to sell fish that truly was locally caught and not from far away: being able to see the ocean, did not necessarily mean they could purchase anything to eat from the sea. It is a very interesting read.

So in a nutshell, what are the advantages of eating local?

1.     Eating locally, our food is not transported great distances, leaving tremendously costly environmental footprints on our world, contributing to the use of valuable resources and emitting harmful greenhouse gases.

2.     Eating locally, our food is not picked in an unripe state to prevent it from spoiling during the transportation process, making it less nutrient dense than food picked at the height of freshness and the peak of ripeness. 

3.     Eating locally, our food is not raised and harvested in countries that use pesticides and growing practices that we do not allow here.

4.     Eating locally, our food does not have to be excessively packaged to prevent items from bruising during shipping.

5.     Eating locally, our food does not have to be coated with waxes and products designed to prevent spoilage… things that we do not need to digest.

6.     Eating locally helps us to support our local economy. Food purchased locally creates profits that are mostly spent directly in our community.

7.     Eating locally, you can enjoy food that is at its peak of freshness, quality and taste. Your food will look better, taste better and work (from a health and nutrition standpoint) better in your body.

8.     Eating locally can mean eating seasonally… which brings tremendous variety to your table and to your nutritional goals.

9.     Eating locally can open the door to creative cooking practices so that you can freeze and/or can fresh produce when it is in season, to be enjoyed later on in the year. You can reach back to your family roots and rediscover your past through those old recipes. Jams and pickles, frozen rhubarb and berries, frozen beans and applesauce are all extremely simple to make and do. It is an investment in time, but it is very rewarding.

Raspberries freshly picked & ready for the freezer.

10.
Eating locally means that the food you are eating, if it is produce, has been picked at the most 24 hours before it comes to market. Nutrient value decreases over time. Eating locally grown food at your local farmers' market is the next best thing to growing and harvesting it, or going to a U-Pick Farm and harvesting it yourself.

Black currents, ripe and bursting with intense scent
and flavour,  ready to be mixed with sweet and mild
flavoured saskatoon berries to make the most 
delectable jam!

Your local farmers’ market is a way to vote with your dollar and to support your local farmers, food producers and growers. By consciously shopping and eating locally when and where you can, you are making a more informed, healthier and better choice for your family, your community and for the environment.

And when your local seasonal market is unavailable, check out the Eat Local website http://www.live-local.ca to find out what you can do and where you can go to incorporate more of “the eat local” ideals into your daily life.

Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

It Takes A Community to Make A Market Flourish

In ancient times, when man first gathered together and settled in the verdant valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers (in present day Turkey and Iraq), civilizations developed around food. The only reason to settle and cease to be nomadic was to plant, raise and harvest food crops. Roots were put down, both literally and figuratively, and civilization as we know it today, was born.

Since ancient times, communities have gathered around food.

It nourishes us and it gives us reasons and opportunities to gather together, to connect, to unite and to socialize. Our lives are nourished by it and made richer for it in so many ways.

Crunchy, fresh cukes from Riverbend Gardens
& wonderfully fragrant dill ready to make pickles

When I first started going to farmers' markets, the idealist in me was simply there to get the best quality fruits and vegetables that I could find to feed my family very well, both from an aesthetic and a nutritional perspective. I zipped in and out with tremendous efficiency: it was, at that point in my life, simply a place of commerce. However, I now have a little more life experience behind me, and what I've come to realize both in my travels around the world and through my work behind the scenes with the Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market board, is that farmers' markets can be so much more:

• A farmers' market can be a community gathering place. 
• It can be a place where people meet, enhance, enjoy and support each other, be they farmers, producers, artists, craftsmen, shoppers, volunteers, organizers, community league directors, market planners or generous market sponsors. 
• It can be a place for people to connect, not only with the people who run and support the market, but a place to connect with family, neighbours and friends. And strong connections are the foundation of a vibrant, healthy community.
• It can be a place to support the local economy. 
• It can be a place to enjoy a meal or a delicious snack with family and friends.
• It can be a place to meet new people and have fun.
• It can be a place to witness great beauty and inspiring artistry.
• It can be a place to experiment and try new things, such as a new type of food, an unusual vegetable, an intriguing spice mix, a neat combination of foods from a food truck.
• It can be a place to learn something new... whether it be an artist's perspective or perception of beauty, a new recipe, something that is offered in your community such as an event or a service that you didn't know existed, or a new way to combine and prepare foods.
• And it can be a place to form strong connections with friends and neighbours, vendors and family, old and new.

They say, "It takes a community to raise a child." And while I have most definitely witnessed and participated in that wise, old saying, I also know that it takes a community to do a lot of truly amazing things.

There's no doubt about it: it takes a community to make a market flourish and for it to be successful. 

And our market is no exception. I have been humbled and amazed by the people who work behind the scenes well before market day or even market season, in order to bring you our wonderful local, community market. There are so many people, from the organizers, community league representatives and volunteers through to the individual vendors... the artists, crafstmen, food producers, chefs, farmers and growers... all working very hard and very creatively to make our third market season a rip roaring success.

Make coming to your community market a habit this year. Your life, and the lives of the people you care about, will be richer for the experience.

Southwest Edmonton Farmers' Market runs every Wednesday from May 15th to October 2nd, 4:30-7:30pm. I really hope to meet you there!


Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee

Embrace the Contrast! [a.k.a. Market Season Is Around The Corner]

The rolling, sun drenched hills of sunny California

Oh, to live in sunny California, where the growing season is perfect for fruits and vegetables to be harvested all year long! It is a place that embraces market culture. A place without the cold that we experience in the depths of winter. A place where going to a local market is as normal for Californians as running up to the local grocery store to grab a jug of milk is for us. All. Year. Long. [Sigh….]

At first blush, this seems ideal… but is it? I think not. I know I would really miss the seasons. Sometimes, life is truly lived in the contrasts. By experiencing one extreme, we come to joyously embrace the other. It may sound crazy, but without the deprivation that winter brings… and without the marked differences that exist between the seasons… we would settle into a boring routine existence without our lives being enriched by contrast, by difference, by variety….

The contrast of the changing seasons can bring such
fun and humour to our traditional celebrations.

The rains of spring are wonderful in the way that they wash away the dirt of winter and tease those early plants out of the cold soil. The warmth of a spring day feels glorious on our faces, our arms, our hands and our legs. Our burdens seem lifted as we shed layers of bulky winter clothing, and accept the promise of summer that it brings. The heat of summer is delicious because it is so far removed from the icy -25C to -35C of an Edmonton winter. And yet the icy blast of a winter wind… you know the one… the one that bites your nose as you breathe it in… the one that needles its way right through the layers of protective clothing and attaches itself to your bones… is incredibly refreshing and even exhilarating because it is so different from the +30C of our typical late summer days. And then there is fall, spectacularly beautiful fall with its bountiful garden harvests and technicolour displays of changing colour in its leaves!

The pyrotechnics of fall are amazing...
especially when contrasted with the
very first snowfall of the season.

Those incredible winter days where the air is
so cold that the moisture is sucked right
out of it and hangs, suspended, as a layer of
spectacular ice crystals, catching that brilliant
winter sun that we have, making every
twig and branch glitter as if it was covered
in diamonds! 

Having no outdoor markets in the winter, is not a bad thing as there is something new to look forward to come spring. As the days grow longer and the sunlight creeps into our lives, seemingly unnoticed, reaching into the dark recesses of our winter moods, we are uplifted. As the snow melts, those westerly winds scream down over the mountain tops and roll out over the prairies toward us, drying everything in their wake.  And as the prairie wind comes and cleans up the slushy muddy puddles and the days get longer, I find myself reveling in the excitement and anticipation of the approaching market season.  It may sound silly, but I really do believe that our outdoor market is even more fantastic because its season is so short.

Have you noticed our days getting longer? How at 7am, daylight is now seeping back into our days? We are getting closer… closer to that time when locally grown, amazingly fresh, essentially nutritious and incredibly tasty produce is ours to be had at the Southwest Edmonton Market.


Visit our website at http://www.swefm.ca
Like us on Facebook! https://www.facebook.com/swefm.ca
Contributed by Sheri Hendsbee