Farm to table fresh lettuce mix is undeniably better tasting than that store-bought pack shipped in from down south.
The Kitsilano Farmers Market starts up this Sunday, May 11 (Mother’s Day), from 10am-2pm and runs every Sunday thereafter until October 19. Located in the parking lot of the Kitsilano Community Centre at 2690 Larch Street, the Farmers Market provides a wonderful opportunity to buy and eat locally grown, raised, crafted, baked, and harvested food. Find everything from Cawston-grown organic apples to Maple Ridge beeswax candles and wild BC morel mushrooms. With over 50 vendors each week, you may not get a chance to meet every one of them so we’ve picked 4 that you won’t want to pass by.
4 vendors you’ll want to meet at the Kitsilano Farmers Market
1. The Butcher
The Farmers Market has quite a few vendors selling pasture-raised meats and Ocean Wise seafood, but BeerBrats Sausages combines local, hand-crafted beer with local non-medicated happy meats to produce a premium sausage that’s just perfect for the BBQ. Choose from such varieties as the Howe Sound Brewing King Heffy smoked duck sausage to the R & B Brewing Red Devil Pale Ale chorizo or the Red Truck Brewing breakfast sausage.
2. The Baker
Owned by a French couple, French Made Baking specializes in traditional Parisian pastries including croissants, macarons, and petits fours made with locally sourced, organic ingredients. They use no preservatives, shortenings, or artificial flavours. Just real butter, vanilla beans, and free run eggs from Rabbit River Farms in Richmond. If you don’t get a chance to try their fast-selling almond croissants, visit French Made Baking at their shop at 81 Kingsway in Mount Pleasant. Ask about their impressive custom-made birthday cakes too.
3. The Farmer
Klippers Organic Acres is a family run 40-acre farm situated in the ranch-rich Similkameen Valley, about a 4 hour drive east of Vancouver. Using organic and sustainable farming practices, Klippers grows gorgeous fruits and vegetables, and raises happy pastured animals. They have excellent varieties of apples and tomatoes, and in high summer their cherries, peaches, and nectarines are beautifully sweet and juicy. Klippers offers CSA boxes too so enquire with them about getting your share of the harvest this year.
4. The Cheese Maker
Located in the cool, moist climate of Vancouver Island in the shadow of Mt. Arrowsmith, Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, together with MooBerry Winery on Morningstar Farm, produces a delightful selection of hand-crafted cheeses. Using the highest quality milk from their own herd of Holstein, Brown Swiss, and Canadienne dairy cows, Little Qualicum has an artisan cheese to suit any occasion. From the Old World-inspired, aged raw-milk cheeses like Rathtrevor, and Bleu Claire, to squeaky cheese curds that arrive on your palate only hours after the milk leaves the cow, Little Qualicum is not to be missed at the Farmers Market this year.
The Kitsilano Farmers Market also has a great selection of food trucks on site, with notable ones being the Creperie La Boheme, Earnest Ice Cream, and The Chili Tank. Convenient facilities at the market include washrooms (located inside the community centre), a kids playground and waterpark, and a bike valet. See you there this Sunday!
Last modified: May 8, 2014
