Straight from the incredible ambitious and dedicated people at the Vancouver Farmers Markets: the Gastown Farmers Market opens this weekend! Please spread the word and support your local producers.

Looks like the Market is also being supported/promoted by The City of Vancouver’s Summer Spaces program, an initiative whereby “select commercial streets are opening up on Sundays this Summer for local residents to experience as temporary public spaces”. For more info on that go here to find your neighborhood’s Summer Spaces events and here for Gastown.

The opening market is this Sunday August 2nd from 11am to 3pm and will continue until September 27th. The full list of vendors to date includes:

A Bread Affair - organic artisan bread
Anna’s Blumen Design - locally grown dahlias, sunflowers and more
Bad Girl Chocolates - artisan chocolates, truffles, candy and dessert sauces
Cropthorne Farm - Squash, Lettuce, Salad Mix, Potatoes, Cabbage, Broccoli, Peas, Beans, Corn, Carrots, Asian greens, Leek, Parsnip, Cucumbers, Aubergine, Kale, Chard, Beets and more
Dundarave Olive Co - olives, flavoured olive oil, tapenade
Garden Back to Eden - organic heirloom tomatoes, brocolli, eggplant, berries and more
Golden West Farm - organic cherries, peaches, apple chips
Great Day Bokashi - indoor composting systems
Healthy Bagel Factory - bagels
Jobst-Hof Farm - cherries, peaches
Klippers Organic Acres - organic tomatoes, peaches, apricots, walnuts, plums, lettuce, squash, eggs, peppers, herbs, dried fruit, jam
Maan Farm - corn, peppers, berries
Matsqui Blue Farms - organic blueberries, hazelnuts, pears
Richmond Urban Farmers - garlic and ground crops
Royal Herbs - body care, soap, aromatherapy, tinctures, natural home cleaning solutions
Say See Bon Patisserie - Parisian macaroons
Sweet T’s Pies - pies - fruit and nut, cookies
Thai Princess Enterprises - Thai stir-fry sauces
The Cambie Bakery & Café - sweet and savoury baked goods
Wenger Sheep Farm - lamb and sheep products

You can also go here for more info. See you there!

Campagnolo is a somewhat new restaurant just a short jaunt away from where I live, in the Main Street neighbourhood. Recently Chef Rob Belcham and I had the most efficient food photography session ever, producing some new shots for their restaurant promotions. I would officially like to welcome Campagnolo as a new food photography client, it was a pleasure.

One reason I like Campagnolo (besides the delicious fried chick peas from the appy menu) is because they’ve involved themselves with the new Main Street Farmers Market that happens every Wednesday from 3pm-7pm across the street in Thornton Park. Executive Chef Rob and Chef de Cuisine Alvin Pillay purchase from local farmers every Wednesday, from which they create a feature menu item. Combined, this definitely makes for a quaint Wednesday outing: stroll through the market and pick up some local veggies, flowers, free range and grass fed chicken, and whatever else your fridge might be lacking; then cross the street to get some inspiration from what Rob and Alvin have done with the menu for the day. How very locally minded of you.

I hope you enjoy the photos, and Campagnolo’s creations.

Mid week last week (yes, I will admit my blog postings are not quite keeping up with my real life occurrences) was a solid day of participating in the local food scene, and further opening my eyes to even more of the issues that face our food security, our health, and our agriculture. It was truly inspiring in every sense of the word.

First, a fellow food blogger and I visited the season opener of the Main Street Farmers Market. A seriously central location (Main and Terminal, in front of the Greyhound station), and certainly no lack of vendors with local produce and crafts; I was impressed. We both intended to simply check it out, but that all ended as soon as we saw cake; fluffy, delicious cake. We ate cake, bought produce and Mammoth Sunflower plants, and had to drop everything off at our respective houses before heading to the next spot. Oh, and we went reusable bag-less. Dumb. Thank you Vancity for helping us out with this, made carrying all that produce home much easier.

Next we stopped in at Chill Winston for a quick bite of Ahi Tuna Salad, Ginger Tofu Rice bowl, and a glass of Joie Noble Blend. Yum! We had hoped for a seat on the patio, but apparently on a sunny mid-week at 5.30pm everyone else had the same idea.

The final stop of the evening was at the UBC Robson Square Campus to see a film screening of the documentary FRESH. Literally straight out of Michael Pollan’s talk about his book In Defense of Food this past weekend at UBC Farm (photos from that coming tomorrow), we heard from Pollan along with others including farmers/promoters of local, non-antibiotic/hormone/pesticide farming Will Allen, Joel Salatin, George Naylor and Diana Endicott in this documentary by ana Sofia joanes. Sending a message about our food system, it’s production methods it’s premise drove home the important that we have to, and can make a difference by, voting with our forks for local food and the farmers who grow it. A great line from the film that has stuck with me since seeing it is “Food is at the foundation, but it’s really about life.”  Well said Mr. Allen.