You have a mere 2 weeks to submit your best farming/gardening photos in the Home Grown! Photo Contest hosted by FarmFolk/CityFolk Society and the Museum of Vancouver. Your entry gives you a chance to win the grand prize of $500 worth of BC Farmers Markets products, your photo included in the upcoming Home Grown! art exhibition, as well as tickets to the Opening Party.

The Home Grown! exhibition opens August 26, 2010 and  features international award-winning photographer Brian Harris. (Thankfully, you won’t be competing with him. Instead, contest winning photos will be judged separately and may be exhibited alongside his.)

For the past 3 years  Brian Harris has focused his camera on local sustainable farming and Vancouver’s urban agriculture scene. The 40 images on display at the Home Grown! exhibition  will portray local farms, farmers and urban growers with Brian’s characteristic hopeful and intimate cultural style of portraiture.

Learn more about the contest, check out the photos submitted thus far (not many so you still have a chance!) and enter today. Then be sure to attend the Home Grown! exhibition and be inspired by what many local farmers, urban growers and locavores are doing to return our society to a more sustainable and healthy relationship with our earth and food.

My brother and sister-in-law just moved into their new Coquitlam house a few weeks ago. To celebrate, I took my sister-in-law to the market. To my great surprise, she had never been to a Farmers Market. What a treat! For me as much as for her.

It was a great experience. She couldn’t believe all the vegetables (I know!) and the line up for fresh bread. We combed through perfect looking organic heirloom tomatoes to get the right combination of green, red, and striped fruit. We picked up the largest, funniest shaped carrots either of us had ever seen. We purchased all-natural sprays for our homes (and bug spray for my crazy bootcamp-obsessed friend). We bought beef from the people who actually owned and cared for the herd. And finally, we lugged over-filled bags, with green peeking out over the edges, back to the car.

The next day, I received an email from her. She had to tell me how fantastic the apple was that she just ate and how great the nectarine she had earlier was. I believe the phrase “best ever” was used.

It just makes me happy.

I remember the good old days when I could harvest plump, juicy MacIntosh and Golden Delicious apples right from the trees in my grandpa’s back yard — and often did. There is nothing to compare to that sweet smell and the heavenly, crisp crunch of biting into a just-picked apple. Store bought just doesn’t come close.

Well, hello AppleBarn! My grandpa and his apple trees are long gone, but here’s a delicious alternative: an orchard in Abbotsford where you can pick your own.

Not only can you harvest as many apples as you want right from the tree, in October you can mix and match the varieties that are in season and walk away with a 10 lb. bag for $7. That’d make some mighty tasty apple cobbler, apple pie, apple sauce, apple cider…

Make it a day trip or catch them at a farmers market near you.

Paul Robeson:

A Russian heirloom.  This favourite heirloom tomato was named after the operatic artist who won acclaim as an advocate of equal rights for people of colour.  His artistry was admired world-wide, especially in the Soviet Union.  This “black” beefsteak tomato is slightly flattened, round, and grows to 4-inches.  It’s deep, rich colours set it apart from others…a dusky, dark-red tomato with dark-green shoulders, and red flesh in it’s centre.  A very flavourful fruit, with luscious, earthy flavours and a good sweet/acid balance.

We are now at the height of the local farmers market season.  In addition to last week’s offerings, you will be able to choose from between 4-5 varieties of melons, apples (the Mac’s just arrived last week!), squash, and an ever-increasing variety of both sweet and hot peppers.  Be sure check out the most delicious selection of plums that can be found in the Lower Mainland.  Varieties include Sugar, Lionheart, Amber, and, my personal favourite, Santa Rosa.  Seriously, if you have given up on finding a tasty plum, give these little guys a chance to change your mind.

Here is an easy way to prepare them:

• Clean the peppers and dry them completely.  Do not remove the stalks.
• Pan fry them in some quality olive until they blister.
• Drain the excess oil by placing them on some paper towels.
• Season with some good quality salt and enjoy.

Most of the peppers will have a sweet, fresh pepper taste – but one out of every ten will be scorching hot.  It is for this reason that padrones are known as Russian Roulette peppers.   I believe that this is a game worth playing, but you should plan accordingly.  I suggest pairing them with your favourite locally crafted brew in the event that things get out of hand.

Padrón peppers are available at the Vancouver Farmers Markets through to the end of September.

Festivals begin this weekend!

Saturday, August 22nd
9:00 – 2:00 pm
Trout Lake Market

Wednesday, August 26th
Main Street Market

Saturday, August 29th
9:00 – 2:00 pm
West End Market

Sunday, August 30th
10:00 – 2:00 pm
Kitsilano Market

Enjoy Tomato Festival activities, including:

• A beautiful display of the many tomato varieties grown by our farmers
• Free (and delicious) Tomato Recipes
• Tomato Tastings
• Kids crafts with a tomato theme
• Face painting for your little tomato
• Guest Chef Neil Taylor from Cibo Trattoria at the Trout Lake and West End Festivals

Do you plan to go? Leave a comment.

When you start cooking your pasta (a quality bronze dyed fettuccine is recommended), add the halved cherry tomatoes, some thinly sliced garlic, a sprinkling of kosher salt, and a generous amount of olive oil to a second pan. The tomatoes will start to break down while your pasta boils.  Be careful to cook at a low temperature, ensuring that the slices of garlic do not brown. When your pasta is al dente, the tomatoes will be ready. Toss to combine and, if needed, add some of the reserved pasta water to bring it all together.  Finish with some torn basil leaves, a little freshly grated Parmesan Reggiano and a few cracks of pepper if you like.  Simple and very, very good.

There will be a greater selection of heirloom, field-ripened tomatoes at the market this week; they may still even be around if you wake up at 11. A variety of peppers including Hungarian hot bananas and a Spanish delicacy called padrones will also be available.  Apricots, an early apple variety or two, and maybe even some peaches will make an appearance. Superstar and Walla Walla onions, both fresh and cured garlic, several varieties of basil, zucchini, cucumbers, and a selection of beans should also be among the offerings from the friendly folks at Klippers Organic Acres.

A sign at the Coquitlam Farmers’ Market a while ago has ended all that:

“Hand-weeded fields”

What? Somebody has spent hours on their hands and knees weeding their field so I can have quality produce?? I now rarely chuck produce (and save some dough in the process), even the bits that don’t work in soup.

Here are some clever ways to end the waste and save those people’s knees!

• Wiggly carrots: clean them up, wrap them in foil, adding butter (or olive oil for the vegans among us), salt and pepper, and place them on the BBQ. Ten minutes later, beautiful, sweet carrots emerge.
• Wilty spinach: Heat up your favourite soup, place the spinach at the bottom of the bowl and ladle over the soup. The spinach adds zillions of nutrients to your soup, and you won’t care that they’re not at their most crisp!
• Mushy berries: I cannot handle the mouth feel of mushy berries (like a 5-year old, really) and often end up blending them up and adding them to toast (with a bit of sugar), cake, or ice cream.

Do you have any veggie-savers to share? Leave a comment below.

“Check out this lettuce I bought this AM at the farmer’s market: the blackest I’ve ever seen! It’s not really red on the outer edges – it truly is black, and neon green at the center.”

Thanks for the delicious pics!

Check out your local farmers market for funky food that tastes amazing.

Hanley Homegrown

I was in a little town outside Cleveland, OH recently and took in the weekend farmers market. It was a small event by booth numbers, but bustling, and in talking with many of the vendors it became clear that it was also a highly successful event. It usually takes several years to pick up a following, I was told, but the Chagrin Falls Sunday farmers market was an instant success when it started last year and was immediately profitable for the farmers involved.

I spent some time chatting with various vendors and was intrigued by what I found. First, there are lots of old farms and experienced farmers in the area. At one booth, the second and third generation of farmers with a 50+ year old farm was manning the booth. That is a lot of history right there! Another family affair had two generations and 12 years behind their banner.

Hanley Homegrown T-shirt Bag

Kelli stood out not only because of her energy and creativity, it was also her fresh approach. I’m a marketing specialist by trade — well, really, it courses through my veins and I can’t stop myself — and I couldn’t help wondering what kind of havoc she’s going to wreck on the staid, old produce-piled-on-tables image some people have of farmers markets. And I smile. It’s about time.

See, Kelli is her target market. Like her contemporaries she’s young, engaged, creative and knows what she wants: local, delicious, healthy, sustainably farmed food. I suspect she’s going to make that happen.