A Trip To The Farmers Market!

Last weekend my Mom and I had a date day, and we decided to head over to one of our city farmers markets to stock up on some delicious, local, healthy, organic food!

I love visiting the farmers market for many reasons. The atmosphere is always bustling with happy people, proud to be shopping at a place where they can support their local family farmers (which in turn supports our economy), buying items they KNOW were made with love, care, and quality at the forefront, and filling their bellies with delicious tasters from all the local vendors!

By visiting the farmers market, I feel I am doing a small part in helping these hard working farmers continue their wonderful work! I love seeing the “face that prepared the food” too! It’s so nice to see the pride these farmers and local food producers have for their product, and it makes me happy I can support that!

As we walked along the aisles we took in all the bright colors of the produce, and tasted little bits here and there! I bought some gala apples from the fresh fruit stand (Steve & Dan’s Fresh B.C. Fruit), and had a little taste of one of their fiji apples! I must admit the taste is superior to the produce I get at any grocery store! I think the reason for this is because the produce is sold locally it does not go through processes of packing and shipping so it is picked at the peak of it’s flavor and able to retain the nutritional content!

Each stand had something wonderful to see! This one was bursting with bright orange pumpkins, and a variety of squash! I just love the colors! To me, when I see bright colors (natural not artificial) in food, I just think of all the wonderful nutrients that food has!

We made a mandatory stop at the Doef’s Greenhouses stand to fill up on fresh vegetables! Apparently, as you can see in the picture above, picking vegetables is very serious business (my mom didn’t manage to catch me smiling in these pictures, but I promise I do smile!!) I bought some bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a big eggplant from here! I’ve been munching on the little cucumbers as a snack every day, they are soooo delicious!

There’s my beautiful mom on the right making her veggie picks!

Next we were off to the SunWorks meat stand! I am a huge fan SunWorks – I have purchased their meat products many times; aside from the farmers market, their product is also carried at one of our local organic grocery stores in the city! They are just so passionate about their meat! I spoke to Ron (below), one of the owners of SunWorks about their huge emphasis on the humane and ethical treatment of their livestock and the importance of keeping their meat clear of fillers, additives, growth hormones, and antibiotics!

Ron, and his wife Sheila of SunWorks are part of CETFA (Canadians for the Ethical Treatment of Food Animals).

It is SO incredibly important to me that I KNOW when I am eating an animal product, that the animal has been raised in a pleasant environment, free to rome in pastures, treated humanely, and with care and respect. Just hearing Ron talk about his “certified happy chickens” made me feel confident in what I was supporting (not to mention the stamp of approval they received from the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

All too often have I seen videos/pictures/footage of large factory farms and the horrendous mistreatment of these animals. It is not something I would ever want to support – so by purchasing my meat from SunWorks, I put my support where I want it to be!

As we strolled by the rest of the vendors I snapped a few more pictures of homemade pickles (yum), pickled beets and carrots (yum yum!), and more pickled goodness (yum yum yum!!!). Oh, and a stand that sells micro-greens and wheatgrass!!

Wonderful!