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Get Stuffed - Back to basics

Falling in love with farmers’ markets – again

Hope you didn’t want any fresh peas from last week’s farmers’ market. If you meandered from booth to booth looking for same, only to find they were all out, you might have later spied the culprit and given him the evil eye. "I’ve got every pea in the place!" he cried out gleefully to his buddy, lugging two huge garbage-sized bags through the crowd.

Whether it’s fresh peas in the pod or hand-woven necklaces with seed pearls, the sight of silly white geese in diapers, or the idea of keeping local dollars in local pockets and supporting farmers who leave a softer footprint on the land, there are about ten gazillion reasons to support farmers’ markets, at Whistler and every other place you can find one. Sure, fresh is truly beautiful, both in the hand and on the dinner plate. And small has always been beautiful when it comes to globalization and scary industrialized food sources. But the more meaningful bottom line is that a lively, jostling, here-try-a-strawberry farmers’ market is just plain fun.

Now in its 11 th year, the Whistler Farmers’ Market has grown in all senses: Up to 80 stalls (it started with 12), a nicely evolving mix of food and craft offerings (all handmade, baked or grown), and an increasing social momentum and ambience that’s self-perpetuating, and, in the end, irresistible.

"My favourite thing is that it brings us back to the old days. You know, the whole slow food movement – you can’t have that without a farmers’ market," says Bernard Casavant, better known as Chef Bernard. He and Rick Clare as well as – depending on who you talk to – either Dave Roberts or Lee Fink were pretty much the three godfathers of Whistler’s market back in 1993.

"It started off in a selfish mode," recalls Clare, who still sits on the market’s board of directors. In the early days, he, along with Casavant, did everything from setting up tents to negotiating the $25,000 provincial government grant, which acted as seed money. "We wanted to bring business to the Upper Village because it was so dead. So we thought we could do something unique in Whistler that was colourful."

And colourful it is – yet one more reason why it attracts so many people. Then there’s the social aspect.

"Ask anybody what they like, or maybe even don’t like about it and it’s that it takes a couple of hours to get through – you see everybody," adds Casavant. Which is so reminiscent of the "good old days" at Whistler, or anywhere, when things were smaller, slower, scaled down and you couldn’t cross a plaza without running into someone you knew.

Blame it on whatever modern ill makes you ill – the Internet, fast-paced living, scary food sources, globalization and depersonalization – but the market’s burgeoning popularity and growth is simply tracking a bigger trend.

While farmers have bartered and sold goods as far back in history as the roots of agriculture itself, the more formalized idea of markets has had its ups and downs. In early colonial times, say the 1600s in Connecticut, farmers’ markets were actually legislated into existence. "Start a public market to feed these sots or we’ll behead you." Or something like that.

By the 19 th century, most cities with at least 30,000 people sponsored local markets, that is until better roads and refrigeration put food in the hands and shelves of supermarkets and wholesalers. By the 1970s-80s, markets in general and farmers’ markets in particular had pretty much petered out.

"People had different priorities. They became more urban and thought it was fun to eat easy-squeeze cheese and all the crap that people were eating," says Nicole Ronayne, who grew up on a Pemberton farm and now wakens very early Sunday mornings to manage the Whistler market. "Now there are obviously a lot of food issues going on and people are a lot more aware."

Something else happened too: most markets that still existed in the ’70s turned into giant flea markets or garage sales. Table after table offered bad T-shirts or Amway or Watkins products, with maybe one glum guy in the corner selling wilted beans.

The market renaissance, at least in the U.S., started in California and spread to New York and other eastern seaboard cities about 15 years ago. Today, there are more than 2,600 farmers’ markets in the U.S., generating some $1.1 billion annually. Figures for Canada are hard to come by – we don’t have any yet for B.C. – but in Ontario sales from 127 farmers’ markets totalled $500 million in 1998 alone.

Recently, agencies like the B.C. Association of Farmers’ Markets, to which both the Whistler and Squamish markets belong, have popped up and increased the momentum. They help out with things like insurance, health standards, promotion and setting guidelines for the markets themselves. For instance, members must adhere to certain stipulations, such as being non-profit societies and staying open a set number of days a year.

Despite its spontaneous, organic, natrual feel, the Whistler market also has its own criteria and standards – for instance, commercial stores are discouraged and organic/socially ethical vendors are encouraged. As well, behind the scenes, a huge bastion of people, including Ronayne, the tent crews, the market supporters and all the dedicated volunteers and board members, work diligently to create the type of magical market people have come to expect.

So if there aren’t fresh peas next time you visit, you certainly can’t blame them. I suggest you watch out for the happy guy with empty garbage bags under his arms.

The Whistler Farmers Market runs every Sunday from Fathers’ Day to Thanksgiving weekend, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Located in Whistler Upper Village, by the Fairmont Chateau Whistler, at the base of Blackcomb. For details log onto www.whistlerfarmersmarket.org

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who has shelled thousands of fresh peas in her lifetime.

 

To market, to market in Squamish

The Squamish Farmers’ Market started life two years ago much like the one in Whistler. Three men, in this case Mayor Ian Sutherland, First Nations councillor Dale Harry and chamber president Gord Prescott, thought it would be a great addition to the community, for many of the reasons spelled out above. Squamish Chamber of Commerce staff scrambled like crazy and in about three short weeks, the first farmers’ market in Squamish sprang up in the "Wild Cherry Casino" left over from the Walking Tall movie shot there.

This year, the market has moved to a new location, in the parking lot at Cleveland and Loggers’ Lane, right next to the pavilion and handy for a picnic on the adjacent lawns. Since it was purposefully planned for Saturdays, to avoid overlapping with Whistler’s, you can easily check it out, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., as a vendor or shopper or both.

Given its infancy, the market is off to a good healthy start, with 13-18 stalls each week so far, and interest heating up. Chamber manager Karen Hobson points out they’re keen to grow, so the welcome mat is out for new vendors.

The same make it, bake it, grow it philosophy applies. You’ll find lots of market goodies from home-baked pies to B.C. fresh produce and handmade soaps.

"The thing I really like is that it’s outside, it’s interactive, and each week it’s new. You never know what you’re going to find there," says Hobson.

Beyond local borders

From Bella Coola to Saltspring, Chase and Dawson Creek – more than 80 officially sanctioned farmers’ markets now dot B.C. And there are even more unofficial ones.

Besides Whistler and Squamish, you’ll find about a dozen more close to home. Try the Two Rivers Farmers’ Market in Lytton (Saturdays), or in North Vancouver, the Artisans Market (Wednesdays and Saturdays) in Lonsdale Quay and the Seymour Farmer’s Market (Saturdays) at the Icesport on the North Shore.

In the Big Smoke you’ll find a range – the Granville Island Truck Farmers’ Market, one at UBC every Saturday, the East Van market at East 15th & Victoria Drive (Saturdays), one at Nat Bailey Stadium (Wednesdays to Oct. 27) and the West End market on Comox and Thurlow (Saturdays). If you get really desperate for a market hit off-season, to buy or sell, there’s also a Winter Market at Heritage Hall, Main at East 15 th , Dec. 11-12.

Most farmer’s markets open around 10-11 a.m. They usually run through the summer to around Thanksgiving. Check out www.bcfarmersmarket.org for details.

Smart market shopping

Bring your son’s wagon, your baby’s out-grown stroller or anything handy on wheels to carry your things. (A wheeled suitcase nicely holds a 25-lb bag of carrots.)

Cloth bags or baskets are practical and easy on the hands. You didn’t think those shoppers in French markets used them just to add a picturesque note to your snapshots, did you?

Bring a cooler in your car to keep things cool later.

Walk the entire market before you buy to check out prices and value.

Buy heavy items, like potatoes, at the end of your visit.

Bring your extra plastic bags (with handles). Some vendors really appreciate them.

Fresh picks for July

Apricots, basil, beans, beets, blueberries, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, celery, cherries, Chinese vegetables, chives, cilantro, cucumbers, kale, lettuce, peas, peppers, potatoes, radish, raspberries, rhubarb, rosemary, sage, salad greens, spinach, strawberries, summer squash, Swiss chard, tomatoes, thyme, turnips.