Just wanted to share a thanks to all you Royal City Farmers Market boosters who share the love online through your blogs, Tweets, photos and videos.

Here’s an excerpt from Emerging Mummy’s lovely post about family memories recalled while soaking up the Market atmosphere with her children:

… I couldn’t resist chai-flavoured honey (seriously…honey flavoured with cloves and cinnamon and nutmeg! Seriously!) and even a beeswax lip balm as a treat.

Then we pulled up a patch of shade to people watch. Anne and I made a supper of crackers, water and raspberries (you think I’m kidding) while Joseph snacked on banana, raspberries and breastmilk.

I told my daughter and son about my Granny Nell and how she always had raspberries in her garden. I said that Auntie and I used to eat ourselves sick on raspberries when we were girls. How we dug the food out of her garden with my cousins, rinsing off the carrots with the garden hose and snapping peas with just one hand.

Even now, I know that July is truly here when we sit in the grass and eat raspberries with our fingers, staining each fingertip red, talking with seeds stuck in our teeth.

Meanwhile, Texpressions has put together a photo montage of images from the Royal City Farmers Market on YouTube:

Jessica at Yum-O-Rama gave a thumb’s up to La Boheme’s crepes after tasting them at the first market:

I’d heard great things about La Boheme – the line up for them at the Trout Lake Farmers Market was huge, and the lineups at a Portobello West show at the Rocky Mountaineer station was equally long. So when I saw the meager three-person lineup at the Royal City Farmers Market, I knew it was the day to try a crepe.

La Boheme makes their crepes with a light batter made from organic buckwheat flour and a small amount of white flour. I thought that it would make for a heavy crepe, but it actually very light, nutty and added a crisp texture.

I ordered the Ali Baba – red pepper spread, baba ghanoush (seasoned eggplant spread), and feta cheese warmed on a toasty-crisp buckwheat crepe, and topped with lettuce before being wrapped and served. It was a vegetarian option and it was delicious!

Twitter has also been alive with Tweets every week from Royal City Farmers Market regulars! You can find us on Twitter at @nwfarmers.

Finally, like many a Market newbie has remarked following their first visit, Miho Shimamura notes on her blog, Unnecessary Necessaries, “must bring larger bag next time:”

The weather cooperated and it was sunny and warm. I arrived at opening time (3pm) and it already was buzzing with action. The market was intimate, but it was full of vibrant energy. It had a great community feel with lots of locals perusing the stalls.

I can’t wait to go back next Thursday to pick up more goodies.

Hope to see you all there!

If we missed your Market post, let us know! Just leave a comment with the link.

RCFM Market Manager Jen Arbo was recently interviewed in The Royal City Record about this year’s market:

Published in The Royal City Record, Saturday, June 20, 2009:

The Royal City Record: Market is more than fresh food

By Theresa McManus

The Royal City Farmers Market is striving to be more than a place to buy groceries.

The market is kicking off its second year on Thursday, June 25. It will run Thursdays from 3 to 7 p.m. in city hall’s Fourth Street parking lot.

“Last year there were 14 vendors on opening day,” said operations manager Jen Arbo. “I have 34 confirmed for opening day.”

Feedback from last year’s market indicated that people wanted to see fewer arts and crafts and more fresh produce. Crafters are being limited to no more than 20 per cent of the market’s vendors.

“We already have about five produce vendors,” Arbo said. “Two of them are certified organic.”

Some vendors from last year are returning, including Bison Maluna and Vienna Treasures.

“We didn’t have a problem finding vendors,” Arbo said. “I am turning people down for opening week. That’s a good problem to have.”

Visitors to the Royal City Farmers Market will find a range of items, including baked goods, produce and fish.

“I am really excited. There is a completely diverse selection,” Arbo said. “You can get your usual produce, your soap. I have a woman selling organic grain.”

In addition to shopping and socializing, people will also be able to enjoy some musical entertainment. Attempting to appeal to a broad range of interests, the market has lined up an eclectic mix of performers for the market – including accordion and fiddler players.

Arbo suggests that people bring a blanket and sit on the park lawn and take in the festivities. It’s also a good time to wander through Friendship Gardens and Tipperary Park.

“I’d love for people to get into the vibe of the market being a community meeting place. … New Westminster is such an awesome, diverse place,” she said. “I’d really like to have that translated into the market.”

Arbo notes that some younger people may have only ever known buying produce from a grocery store, so this is a good opportunity to enjoy a different shopping experience.

“It’s really a nice organic experience – not the certified variety,” she said. “It is a real sensory treat.”

Aside from its weekly offerings, the Royal City Farmers Market is planning to hold several special events this season.

“Our first one is our kickoff week,” Arbo said. “We are calling it Welcome to Summer Vacation.”

New Westminster Family Place will attend with toys and crafts for kids up to six years of age and Fraser River Discovery Centre will provide crafts and a learning booth for kids.

St. John Ambulance will have free goodies and a wandering magician, face painter and violinist will attend on the opening day.

Royal City Farmers Market will kick off its 2009 season with a bang as Mayor Wayne Wright officially opens the market with help from the Seymour Artillery Association.

“We have another really awesome market on July 23,” Arbo said. “That’s to celebrate New Westminster’s 150th anniversary. We are going to plan something special.”

On Aug. 13, the “Get Active Market” will include demonstrations and attendance by groups supporting an active lifestyle.

“I really want people to understand that getting active in their community includes going to farmers’ market. There are other options,” Arbo said. “You don’t have to leave New Westminster to get active.”

Royal City Farmers Market is once again, offering a dedicated space to non-profit groups.

New Westminster Horticulture Society, the Biggest Little Garden in Town program and the Century House ceramic group are among the group’s making use of the space.

“They can promote their group. They can get a bit of exposure without a fee,” Arbo said. “This is a way for them to show off what they do.”

Royal City Farmers Market is getting set to unveil its new website. Check it out at www.rcfm.ca.

The market, which runs until Oct. 8, is held rain or shine.

Marketgoers can park for free in the metered spaces in front of city hall during market hours or in city hall’s parking lot after 4:30 p.m.

Arbo, who has a background in event planning, recently accepted a job as the market’s operations manager.

“I think being the operations manager is one of the most exciting things,” she said. “You are the person who shapes what the market is like. You are also an ambassador about farmers’ markets.”

Arbo was originally slated to be a vendor at the Royal City Farmers Market, where she planned to sell her Chai By Night products. She’s since had to hire someone to work that booth.

“I will be making the product. She will be selling it,” she said. “I won’t have anything to do with my booth.”

Arbo regularly attended last year’s Royal City Farmers Market, accompanied by infant son Kale.

“We made a point of going up and buying all our produce there every week, trying to support local businesses, local individuals,” she said. “I was there as a shopper last year. I remember going and really getting a kick out of meeting the people who grew what I was going to buy. It was outdoors. It was very peaceful.”

Eating seasonally and locally is a way to live more lightly on the earth – with a side benefit of enjoying more tasty produce! If you’ve ever compared a woody, out-of-season California strawberry with one fresh-picked from the garden, you’ve experienced this first-hand. But if you’ve always just bought what’s available at the grocery store (and you don’t garden yourself), you may not know just what is in season. Act Now B.C. has compiled a list of benefits of eating seasonally, along with a handy chart that shows when your favourite produce is available.

The two benefits identified by Act Now B.C. are affordability (out-of-season produce usually costs more) and sustainability (environmental, community and economic) but, as I alluded to at the beginning, the most immediate and satisfying is the sheer pleasure of eating a strawberry that tastes like a strawberry should.

So, what’s in season now?

• Strawberries
• Beans
• Broccoli
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Celery
• Corn
• Lettuce
• Green onions
• Radishes
• Rhubarb
• Spinach
• Turnips
• Zucchini

We can look forward to all of the above, plus the following treats at the Royal City Farmers Market in July & August:

• Blackberries
• Blueberries
• Cherries
• Currants
• Raspberries
• Parsnips
• Field peppers

Remember, the market is held every Thursday from 3-7pm, starting June 25 and continuing until October 8, in Tipperary Park near City Hall.

It doesn’t just feel good to buy local – new research shows that there are demonstrable economic boosts for communities as a result. Time Magazine explains:

The New Economics Foundation, an independent economic think tank based in London, compared what happens when people buy produce at a supermarket vs. a local farmer’s market or community supported agriculture (CSA) program and found that twice the money stayed in the community when folks bought locally. “That means those purchases are twice as efficient in terms of keeping the local economy alive.”

- Time Magazine | Buying Local: How It Boosts the Economy

Other benefits of buying local mentioned in the Time article:

• Increased local employment
• Better products, as small shops are more capable to innovate in market niches
• More tight-knit community – buyers develop personal relationships with sellers
• Less distance to transport goods = less cost to environment
• Better odds that you know what you’re getting (vs. products made overseas that may not have the same level of quality control/scrutiny)
• Local/regional resilience (diversity of small businesses = more resilient economy than when majority of local jobs are in the same company or industry)
• Money circulates more quickly, benefiting more people (vs. big companies, which keep more profits locked away)