Join us this Sunday for our annual Salmon BBQ! The Coquitlam Farmers Market is so pleased to partner with Mossom Creek Hatchery to bring you this year’s Salmon BBQ! Join us for a day of music, games, and great food at one of the Market’s most popular events!
Place des Arts will be on-site offering free kids crafts! Be sure to also visit the Market’s Kid Zone to make a salmon necklace and play some fun games including fishing for prizes!
Purchase a delicious lunch with proceeds going to the Coquitlam Farmers Market and the Mossom Creek Salmon Hatchery! We will have salmon for $8 ($7 for market members), burgers, and portobello mushroom burgers for $6 ($5 for market members) all served with fresh market greens! Rocky Point Ice Cream will also be on-site for your after lunch dessert needs!
The POP Kids Club activity this week is all about encouraging financial literacy. Visit the POP tent anytime between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to pick up a $3 token, then go out into the market to check out pricing and get the most for your money. When you’ve done that, come back to the POP tent and show us what you bought! And, we’re celebrating the arrival of peaches in the Two-Bite Club!
We are happy to welcome Ranj Singh as our musician this weekend! His unique mix of Indo-Canadian Folk music and classic standards is always a welcome addition to our market!
Farmers markets are a great place to be able to learn about company’s that grow local food or make local food products with local ingredients.
Growing on the foundation their family began in 1902, sisters Jenna and Emma have branched off and created their own line of dairy products with Golden Ears Cheesecrafters.
We love the fact that we have a family heritage to keep growing and diversifying with. We’re building a sustainable future for our family farm in this community and bringing people back to food basics, they can literally watch their cheese being made. That experience is something people value.
Growing locally in British Columbia is important for the sisters. With some of the world’s highest quality standards, Golden Ears Cheesecrafters wants to educate consumers about their products and be transparent with their practices.
It is important for us to grow locally and sustainably because we like to know where are food is coming from…Certified Organic in most countries is equivalent to our conventional practices. Canada has the least amount of approved chemicals that can be used on crops.
So with an expanding business, why take on farmers markets? For Jenna and Emma, it’s all about the power of knowledge.
Farmers markets are a great place to learn about how your food is made or grown. You can talk directly to producers or farmers and there is transparency.
They say this knowledge can help consumers make the best decisions for their lifestyles, adding sourcing local reduces carbon footprints and supports the local economy.
Farmers markets are a great place to be able to learn about company’s that grow local food or make local food products with local ingredients.
Jenna and Emma say the more people know about provincial food industries the better. With the B.C. Buy Local movement no longer in its infancy, they believe consumers will become more aware of the high quality products, like the dairy produced by Golden Ears Cheesecrafters.
I see the B.C. Buy Local movement becoming more popular when sickness and diseases are happening because food being imported is not up to the standards that Canadian food processors or farmers have to meet. Canadian dairy is one of the highest standards in the world, farmers are not allowed to add any hormones, antibiotics of steroids to there milk. If they are caught they have to pay very high fines. No farmer can afford to have this happen or else they would all be out of work.
For Golden Ears Cheesecrafters, it is important to grow locally and sustainably because they, like many in this province, want to know where their food is coming from.
We would never make anything that we wouldn’t feed our family. Our goal was to produce a product that is healthy for everyone and that we could share with other families.
Here at the Coquitlam Farmers Market we are all about local, seasonal and sustainably grown produce. What better way to celebrate the summer months than a fresh take on some familiar foods! This week’s topic: bell peppers.
Did you know red peppers are simply green ones left on the vine longer? (Courtesy of KT Ng)
Did You Know?
Did you know peppers were named by Spanish explorers searching for peppercorn plants to produce black pepper? Also, they are considered fruits because they are produced from a flowering plant and contain seeds.
Peppers are in season in South West British Columbia from July through to October! Bell peppers are the most cultivated in the pepper family and are good in salads, pizzas, soups, sandwiches, or eaten fresh as a snack.
1 bell pepper (any color), cut into four 1/2-inch-thick rings
4 large eggs
Coarse salt and ground pepper
2 teaspoons grated Parmesan
4 slices multigrain (or other) bread, toasted
8 cups mixed salad greens
Directions:
Step 1- Heat one teaspoon of oil over medium-high in a large cast-iron or nonstick skillet. Add bell pepper, then crack one egg into the middle of each pepper ring.
Step 2- Season with salt and pepper and cook until egg whites are mostly set but yolks are still runny, this is about two to three minutes. Gently flip and cook one minute more for over easy.
Step 3- Sprinkle with Parmesan and place each egg on a slice of toast.
Step 4- Toss salad greens with one teaspoon of oil and season with salt and pepper; serve alongside eggs.
Ingredients at the Market
Bell Peppers: Floralia Growers, Never Say Die
Cheese: Golden Ears Cheesecrafters
Eggs: Alder Creek Heritage Homestead, Forstbauer Family Natural Food Farm, Rockweld Farm
Bread: A Bread Affair, Delish Gluten Free, Gesundheit Bakery
Greens: Amazia Farm, Beckmann Farm, Floralia Growers, Forstbauer Farms, Harvest Direct, Hill Top Farm, Langley Organic Growers, Mandair Farms, Never Say Die Farm, Ripple Creek Organic Farm, Shen’s Farm, Snowy Mountain Organics, Wah Fung Farm
Steps on How To
Bell Pepper Planting 101:
Step 1- As an option, plant three seeds in one pot, and thin out the weakest seedling. Let the remaining two pepper plants live as one plant. About a week before moving your plant into a bigger pot, introduce compost or other organic nutrients into the soil.
Step 2- Once the seedlings are large enough to transplant, place them 18-24 inches apart. Place the pot outdoors in a warm environment. You can warm up the soil by covering it with black plastic.
Step 3- Water the plants two to three times per week or if conditions are particularly dry, more frequent watering may be necessary. To help retain moisture you can add mulch to the surrounding area.
Step 4- Weed carefully around the plant and harvest as soon as the peppers reach desired size.
Note: Keep your plant as warm as possible for the best germination conditions. Also, the longer you keep the peppers on the vine, the greater vitamin C content.
Bell Peppers in B.C.
Bell peppers are considered a greenhouse vegetable by the B.C. government. The industry now relies on state-of-the-art facilities and production practices to produce high-quality fresh vegetables!
These advances in technology have extended the growing season and therefore has allowed consumers the option of buying locally during times when certain produce were not historically available.
Come join us this Sunday for the freshest local produce, baked goods, artisan crafts, and much more!
Bring your appetite and stop by for breakfast or lunch at Cheese Street Grill! And don’t forget a coffee or cold tea from Biscotti Joe or delicious ice cream from Rocky Point Ice Cream!
POP Kids! Do you think you know the difference between fruits and vegetables? Study the clues, and see if you can solve this riddle on Sunday! And bell peppers are on the menu for this week’s Two-Bite Club!
We were recently gifted some beautiful paper from our vendor, Art Cards by Valerie. This week, we are making gorgeous windmills with some of the paper! Be sure to stop by the craft table to make one, and tell Valerie ‘Thank you!’ next time you see her at market!
Visit the team from Bad Seed at market this Sunday, and learn how you can help weed out invasive plants in Coquitlam!
We are happy to welcome Barry Wilson as our musician this weekend! Barry plays a variety of music of all styles including old time, jazz, rock, folk, country, and more!
