Meet Our New Market Manager

Today it is my pleasure to introduce to you our new Market Manager for the 2013 season, Melisa Zapisocky.

Originally from Edmonton, Melisa has always been interested in and passionate about the local food movement. She has worked in a variety of positions that have covered a wide spectrum of learning and living... from experiencing and contributing hard labour in fields, orchards and greenhouses, to teaching and training market managers under the Alberta Farmers' Market Association. She has helped develop agri-tourism businesses under Alberta Agriculture & Rural Development, worked market stalls and developed and implemented home delivery programs for local food. She has been an important player in growing a few key market-based businesses and comes to our market, eager to share her knowledge and expertise to help us take our market to the next level.

Researching for her masters degree in Sustainable Food and Agriculture Development, she immersed herself further in what was clearly becoming her life-long, passion: a study and promotion of the local food movement. Interestingly, this included spending time in the Yukon, researching and ultimately making recommendations to the government, ways to strengthen the Yukon's vulnerable food system.

Using this incredible Yukon experience and other knowledge that she has gained working in many, many areas of the local food movements in both Canada and the United States, she now returns home and comes to us, fresh from the market scene of Seattle and the surrounding Washington State area.

Please join us in giving her a warm welcome to our market. If you would like to contact her, she can be reached by email at swefm.manager@gmail.com and by cell phone at (780) 868-9210.



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

Our Community Engagement Tent

Your community farmers' market is run by a group of volunteers who are dedicated to making our local community a vibrant, healthy one. We see the market as a place where friends, neighbours and families can get together, have a little fun, eat some great food, do a little high-quality shopping and support our local economy & connect with each other. Creating opportunities like this to meaningfully connect is extremely important when it comes to building healthy communities.

Members of the Southwest Edmonton Seniors Association
in the Community Tent requesting a survey: 
Glenn Kissick on the left---middle Joe Roberts 
and on the right Richard Perry 

One of the side benefits of our market's weekly occurrence is that it also becomes a great place to share and trade information. For that reason, we have a community tent on site. Each week a different community group or community league is at our market, promoting activities that they are organizing and services that they provide (including such things as the purchase of community league memberships, the picking up of application forms to participate in charity runs, the pledging of support to community endeavours like playground initiatives, etc.). This is yet another layer of connection that you will find at our wonderful market!

Below you will find our Community Engagement Tent Schedule. You'll notice that five dates remain unclaimed. If you know of a community group that would like to use the tent to showcase all the wonderful things that they offer, please contact us at swefm.manager@gmail.com.

Our Community Tent is Ready and Waiting For You! 
for info on our community tent, go to our website

May 15: Riverbend Community League
May 22: Aspen Gardens Community League
May 29: Terwillegar Community League
June 5: The Ridge Community League

June 12: VACANT

June 19: Oak Hills Community League
June 26: Hodgson Community League
July 3: South West Edmonton Seniors Association
July 10: South Terwillegar Playground Committee

July 17 VACANT
July 24 VACANT
July 31 VACANT

Cookbooks for sale in the Community Tent,
 raising money for the Community Garden Project.

 August 7: Hodgson Community League

August 14: VACANT

August 21: Oak Hills Community League
August 28: South West Edmonton Seniors Association
September 4: Aspen Gardens Community League
September 11: The Ridge Community League
September 25: Riverbend Community League
October 2: Terwillegar Community League

Our market runs from 4:30 to 7:30pm on Wednesdays, rain or shine. Come out and check out ALL that our market has to offer. It's sure to be a fun and meaningful experience!


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

Making Seeking out Farmers’ Markets an Essential Part of Travelling With Children

Fresh fruits and vegetables are easy to come by at
local markets wherever you go around the world.

With spring break on the horizon, I thought writing about travelling with children would be a helpful idea and a timely topic. We have travelled a lot over the years with our family, and we inevitably wind up at a market wherever we go.

At first, we saw them as safe and relatively inexpensive (compared to restaurant fare) places to find healthy and nutritious food on the go. When travelling with young children (who were, coincidentally, picky eaters), finding a farmers’ market was a godsend. We always knew we could find wonderful fruits and veggies, breads and cheeses and treats… and things to distract and inspire us too.

To make the most of our market experience, we always travelled with an inexpensive and simple kit. Here are our family’s travel essentials when vacationing with children:

Markets always have something to
distract, something to intrigue
and something to amuse children.

Our Kitchen Travel Kit

• - Ziplock bags for packing up market treats, dividing them into portions & keeping them food-safe (I take sandwich-sized and snack-sized bags, held together in a bundle by an elastic)
• - A small portable plastic cutting board for preparing sandwiches, slicing carrot sticks and preparing other food on the go (I use an old Ikea plastic half board for this)
• - A sharp paring knife and protective sleeve (I love my Pampered Chef knife for its thick, light protective sleeve but a pocket knife works well too)
• - A small travel-shampoo-sized bottle of dish soap
• - A sharpie for labeling bags with family members’ names (using goofy names and stick drawings makes it all the more fun)… so you know who hasn’t finished their veggies!
• - Portable, reusable shopping bags (Eagle Creek makes awesome ones that fold into themselves, packing away in a very neat, very portable way with a clip that attaches brilliantly to my camera bag, belt loop or purse strap)
• - A cork screw and rubberized expanding bottle top for those adult-beverage market finds (to enjoy once the kids are asleep!)
• - A large-sized ziplock bag to store these food-related travel items in (yup, they'll all fit inside!)

Portland's Sunday Market had a whimsical booth filled with
hilarious head pieces... bolts, knives, pencils, saws, hammers,
tennis rackets... all made to look like you'd been
bludgeoned through the head! 

Now that our kids are in high school, we still seek farmers’ markets out, for their food, for their beauty, for their entertainment, for their treats and for that sense of connecting with the community in which we are travelling. And for me, it never gets “old.” 

• There are new people to meet. 
• Scrumptious foods to try.
• New stories to hear. 
• And there is always that creative thing that startles and surprises me… sometimes with its beauty, sometimes with its creativity, sometimes with its mouthwatering delectability and sometimes with is sheer, creative audacity.--->

Food Trucks At Our Market: Market Update

One of the best ways to experience a culture is through its food. That’s one of the main reasons why our family avoids chain restaurants, both at home and when travelling abroad. Food is like a window into a culture and every culture has its specialties that are just waiting to tempt and entice you, waiting to delight and surprise you, waiting to be discovered and explored, waiting to be sampled and treasured….

There are often line-ups for food
truck fare, but the wait is worth it!

One of the best ways to discover the specialties of a region, a foreign country or a different culture is to ask around. If you are wandering the streets and see a lineup of local people at a restaurant or a market stall or at a food truck, ask a few people in the lineup what’s being served. Ask them what their favourite item is. And ask them where else they like to eat. This advice can be as good as or better than any published review, up to date guide book tip, recommendation from a concierge or taxi driver (who may get a kick backs for referrals), or online reviews.

And one of the best ways to find great food for a decent price, both at home and abroad, is at a local market. Chances are that the food that’s being prepared is made from fresh, in-season ingredients… and often those ingredients are sourced locally. So you are supporting the local economy, tasting great food and getting tremendous insight into a culture.

The Southwest Edmonton Farmers’ Market is very proud to be offering up tremendous local fare this year. Part of our vision of the market is that it be more than simply a way for people in our community to connect with local food producers and buy fresh produce and handicrafts. Rather, we would like it to be a destination of sorts. A place where community bonds are strengthened. Where the local economy thrives. And where the community spirit comes alive. Food Trucks are an essential part of our community-minded vision. There's nothing like bringing friends, family and neighbours together over a casual meal in a vibrant, fun setting where there is a lot going on.

Food trucks are rather new to the dining scene in North America. Like mobile kitchens on wheels, they serve up great, often gourmet food, quickly and from their roadside, mobile location. And Edmonton's food truck scene is heating up! Though we are still in the recruiting stages, I wanted to give you a sneak peak at what food truck fare you can expect to sample at our market.

Starting May 15th, make Wednesday evenings a dinner out for your family. Come out and enjoy food from...

Try some great gourmet comfort food at the bright orange Bully Truck

Bully Food Truck: Wendy & Dean proudly proclaim that they're heightening awareness around the issue of bullying… and going along with that theme, they offer to take your lunch money and turn it into good quality gourmet comfort foods! Think sumptuous food offerings like Mac & Cheese, Poutine with Sausage Gravy, Turkey Burgers, Fresh Vegetable Salad topped with Smoked Meat and Black Garlic Aeoli, Pulled Pork Grilled Cheese Sandwich... all featuring food providers at our market! Check them out online at Bully Food Truck Inc. or on their Bully Truck Facebook Page. (We're quite excited that they plan to include food from growers and producers at our market in their menu! That will add so much to the sense of community at our market, and help to establish it as a unique destination for our market shoppers.)

Little Village Food Truck: Theo will be serving up delicious Greek food. Check out his website for photos... Little Village Food Truck website

Fat Franks: Long before food trucks were an item on the trendy food scene, there were vendors like Darren at Fat Franks offering up a favourite North American staple: the infamous grilled hot dog! Top your dog with some of the 60 condiments he'll have on hand... items like onions, olives, sauerkraut, 12 different mustards, numerous hot sauces from mild to wild, corn relish, pickles, jalepenos, hot peppers... and try a customer favourite: the Avenue Dog, topped with Canadian cheddar and bacon.

The Pink Kernel: Shirley & Anthony will be offering great items to round out your meal like mini donuts, Hawaiian Ice, freshly squeezed lemonade, novelty ice cream and bottled beverages.

The food truck trend is sweeping across North America and bringing wonderfully fresh and inventive foods to its streets and city markets. These mobile kitchens offer up really creative, extremely delicious, often very gourmet foods, and are an exciting new “must try” experience on the culinary landscape. Come to our market to experience it for yourself… your tastebuds will thank you! Bring your families down on Wednesdays, starting May 15th and (even better perhaps!!) you won’t have to cook that mid-week meal! Stay tuned for more updates as our 2013 market slowly, but surely, comes together...


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