Produce

[SilverDoctor]

Anyone notice that the prices at "Farmers Markets" are higher than Safeway? I bought some Squashes to stock up for the winter in BC and they where a great price at the roadside markets there. When I went last weekend to teh Farmers market in Calgary prices where crazy and on top of that I noticed that much of the produce was from other countries not locally grown. Anyone know of any markets close to the Calgary area straight from the farmer.

[Dangler]

By 'Calgary Farmer's Market' I assume you mean the one at Currie Barracks? If so, we don't buy produce there any more...it's like shopping at a jewelry store. My wife drags me to the Crossroads Market for produce where she swears it's 'half' the price. Some local and some imported stuff, great selection and quality. I don't look at the prices or she calls me "Cranky Old Guy" for the rest of the day. We occassionaly go to the Millarville market...definately local...prices are all over the map.

[EvilWeevil]

my dad owns a grocery store in the central area and its funny how many of the sellers buy produce from him and then sell it as bc cherries or farm grown ...sad really and he doesnt do it knowingly ussually finds out after the fact but it happens on a fairly regular basis ....im sure not all of them do it just there is a few in every bunch right ...but in the end it is usually the same suppliers supplying the produce even if its labeled bc fresh or taber corn you might just end up paying more for the printing is all ....unless you by it straight from the grower

[trailhead]

Yes it is very trendy to go to the Calgary Farmers Market. It's a nice place with lots of pricey vehicles in the parking lot. I prefer the Crossroads one, and there you have opportunity to buy from the grower, whether it's one of the Hutterite colonies or the East Indian families from BC. I have also noticed the prices are lower too.

[CDone]

Funny, I didn't find the prices at Crossroads any less.

 

As much as I support local (30 plus years as a Chef, busting my @ss trying to source as much local product as possible), I sometimes think we are being taken advantage of by everyone all the way up the grocery chain because we've been led to believe that we are truly supporting the small guy.

 

Next time you're at the farmers market take a look at the empty boxes in the stalls, that will tell you where all that 'local' produce is coming from.

 

Colin

[Ricinus]

You might want to check out the U pick farms. Might be too late for this year depending on what you want.

 

Regards Mike

[SilverDoctor]

That is what clued me in too me in. Seeing so called local grown signs next ro the bins with Mexico boxes piled up next to the truck. I notice that all the veggies in various stall that are advertised to be from various farms are exactly the same which doesn't make sense. I guess I'll go for a drive this weekend out of town and see if there are any signs for produce.

 

Next time you're at the farmers market take a look at the empty boxes in the stalls, that will tell you where all that 'local' produce is coming from.

 

Colin

 

[CDone]

That is what clued me in too me in. Seeing so called local grown signs next ro the bins with Mexico boxes piled up next to the truck. I notice that all the veggies in various stall that are advertised to be from various farms are exactly the same which doesn't make sense. I guess I'll go for a drive this weekend out of town and see if there are any signs for produce.

 

 

Check out the fall issue of City Palate citypalate.ca page 25, there is a great listing of most of our local suppliers, what their products are and where you can get them.

 

Colin

[Giovanne]

Funny, I didn't find the prices at Crossroads any less.

 

As much as I support local (30 plus years as a Chef, busting my @ss trying to source as much local product as possible), I sometimes think we are being taken advantage of by everyone all the way up the grocery chain because we've been led to believe that we are truly supporting the small guy.

 

Next time you're at the farmers market take a look at the empty boxes in the stalls, that will tell you where all that 'local' produce is coming from.

 

Colin

 

 

Very well said.

 

what it comes down to is that with the exception of beets, potatoes, carrots (root vegetables) there is not much local produce around the Calgary area.

 

Gotta love all the Politically correct shoppers with their cotton bags at the Farmers market that drive big friggin SUV's and live in monster homes. Mostly the upper crust crowd that shop there as a regular joe cannot afford it.

[trailhead]

Because of this post I did a direct comparison of the two markets and Crossroads is definitely lower, Mac apples $.99/lb at Xroads, $1.99/lb at Currie, acorn squash $.79/lb Xroads and $1.69/lb at Currie. As for the boxes, I noticed that there were stacks of Chiquita banana boxes full of BC peppers. Looked to me that they are using the boxes to pack their produce around.

[slingshotz]

Try Kingsland market next time. They got kinda sick of the BS that is Calgary Farmers Market with the "local" produce and started their own market that requires the vendor or product to be local. Now what concerns me is that it is not both the vendor and product needs to be local but so far everything I've seen there is pretty local. I'm quite into food and I can tell the BS from working on farms so I inquire and question a lot of the vendors to make sure that it's good products. Another great market is the one on Wednesdays in Hillhurst as it is even more local. There's some vendors there that grow stuff from their little plots in Calgary and close around.

 

Here's a little plug for one of our great local vendors to support them:

 

Pork - hands down Ravenwood Farms. They raise heritage Berkshires that have the flavours that existed 30 years ago. If you buy half a pig or a full one it is actually very affordable.

Tomatoes/peppers - Can't remember the name off hand but there's a Biodynamic grower at the Hillhurst market that produces these little cherry tomatoes that are addictive as hell.

Lamb - There is a little vendor in the CFM that raises small quantities of local lamb which is way better than any imported stuff from NZ or OZ. They are located in the right side of the market in front of the Indian or Cuban fast food vendor. Another good local producer is the one found in Millarville. Can't remember their name either as their business card is at home.

Mead/Wine - Chinook Arch Meadery in Okotoks. Local mead from local bees. Support the bees and you can support all the farmers in Alberta. Very good varieties of mead. If you've never tried mead and are a wine drinker you are missing out. Another good vendor is En Sante that actually has an organic fruit winery in Alberta. I was shocked too to hear of a fruit winery that can survive the Alberta winters but so far all their products that I've tried have been good.

 

Unfortunately there's not a one stop shop yet for good local produce but they are there if you look for them. I'm not affiliated with any of them, I just want them to be supported so they don't disappear. Our food culture is finally getting better in Calgary and I'd like to see it keep improving.

[midgetwaiter]

What I don't get about the Calgary Famer's Market is the organic, holistic hand waving garbage. An "organic" cucumber that tastes like wood is just a crappy cucumber, I don't feel like paying $4.00 for it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[snuffy]

The great irony about the organic craze is that it's proponents actually believe that it's an anticonsumerist movement when it is, in fact, the final frontier in competitive consumption: the bogus commodification of virtue.

[slingshotz]

I guess I'm a little too dense to understand if that was a slag against organic or giving it a thumbs up. I'm probably going to get slammed but organic hits quite close to home for me as I'm a strong supporter for organic. I've known a lot of people committed to organic ways and not one of them believe it's an anticonsumerist movement, it's just what they choose, just like religion. Just because you worship a certain religion doesn't mean someone else can slam it cause they don't believe/understand. I do have issues with hippies that get in people's faces when they don't recycle or are not vegans but to me it's the same when a religious zealot gets preaching about you're all going to hell if you don't worship god.

 

The organic movement is not a craze or a fad, it's just plain makes common sense to a lot of people. There's a crapload of hidden costs in regular conventional food that the consumer does not pay up front but may pay for in other ways. When the excess fertilizer leaches into the ground and pollutes the rivers, governments may spend money to clean them up or the help of volunteers may have to step up when the government doesn't do anything about it. The amount of fuel required to transport apples from New Zealand is enormous compared to just getting apples from BC. Things like that matter in the long run but it does keep lots of people employed in Alberta too when that much fuel gets used.....

 

I never really thought or cared about any of these things before except the final cost of the food to me until I spent some time working on regular farms and organic farms and saw the difference. When I worked on a conventional strawberry farm in the UK (so not some third world country where things are even worse) they would spray this pesticide on the aisles between the strawberries. Now these isles are only 2 feet wide so it's not like none of the spray would gets on the berries. Now they told me that it's perfectly fine and safe but when I started using some of the dirt from the isles to fill in the berry plant holes, they told me that that dirt is not good for the plants. Something really didn't add up when they said this. This wasn't a dodgy farm, it was just the way they did things. I do have to say that organic isn't always the best, organic apples that have spent weeks being shipped from Chile do not taste as good as freshly picked regular apples from BC. Having local produce and supporting our local farmers I believe should be the foremost importance, being organic to me is a bonus when I have to choose.

 

When people demand cheaper food, someone will supply cheaper food and that's the reason food grown in places like China seem to have a never ending problem with food safety. Things like bleaching garlic to make them look whiter, growing plants with human manure (cause it's dirt cheap), etc. I only single out China cause I've been there and seen it firsthand so I can't comment on other places.

[bigjonjon]

I found the "holy grail" of fresh fruit markets...It's DJ fresh fruit market on 42ave and 11st se...there prices are wonderful and it's a fairly big market with fresh and new produce all the time...7 varietys of plum last time i was there... i luv plums...lots of locally grown stuff(western canada) and there is a famous burger bus in the same parking lot that has great bus fries and burgers.. allways lines up at lunch.. only downfall is the close for 4 months.....

[Giovanne]

Organic;

 

Uses twice the land mass for 1/2 the production. If we all decided to eat organic it would be a problem.

 

This must be the reason why a pound of organic apples or berries cost over double!

[slingshotz]

I found the "holy grail" of fresh fruit markets...It's DJ fresh fruit market on 42ave and 11st se...there prices are wonderful and it's a fairly big market with fresh and new produce all the time...7 varietys of plum last time i was there... i luv plums...lots of locally grown stuff(western canada) and there is a famous burger bus in the same parking lot that has great bus fries and burgers.. allways lines up at lunch.. only downfall is the close for 4 months.....

 

Rocky's burger bus is the best burger in town imho. I go to DJ's a lot since I work nearby and they are actually open through out the winter but only once a week and it's not technically a public opening but if you call them and tell them you want something they'll have it available. They keep open through the winter to supply restaurants, etc. They get so many different varieties of apples from BC, even new varieties that don't even have a name yet and most of them are awesome.

 

If you build up a relationship with the lady owner, she'll tell you want is good and not, it's awesome. They have so many customers they know by first name they definitely are doing something right.

[slingshotz]

Organic;

 

Uses twice the land mass for 1/2 the production. If we all decided to eat organic it would be a problem.

 

This must be the reason why a pound of organic apples or berries cost over double!

 

By that reasoning then we shouldn't harvest anything from the seas and then grow all fish in the farms and ignore things like sea lice and escaped fish problems. And it's the labour that in involved in organic that raises the prices, unfortunately labour costs more than machinery in first world countries. However, since consumer demand for organic is growing exponentially, you have places like Walmart getting on board and that only drives the economies of scale better to lower prices, simple economics.

 

In places where there's a ton of organic growers (like near Nelson, NZ) the cost of organic apples were pretty much the same as normal as there was little freight costs and a huge supply.

[Tadpole]

when i was a kid i used to work for a farmer at the market and all of his produce would come from the states. all of the bags he would have us remove the usa tags from. we would actually make signs out of cardboard boxes and magic marker to make it seem more local and sell it that way. the supplier he used was the exact same as the big supermarkets. kinda sad really. ever since that i figured my money goes to essentially the same people. there is still middle men and wholesalers involved. so is the farmers market really the farmers market? i dont think so.

[SilverDoctor]

I normally grow my own Tomatoes and Squash. This year I got wiped out by hail. Certainly in the coming years with the rising price of produce I will be doing more home growing and am very seriously considering a small greenhouse.

[slingshotz]

when i was a kid i used to work for a farmer at the market and all of his produce would come from the states. all of the bags he would have us remove the usa tags from. we would actually make signs out of cardboard boxes and magic marker to make it seem more local and sell it that way. the supplier he used was the exact same as the big supermarkets. kinda sad really. ever since that i figured my money goes to essentially the same people. there is still middle men and wholesalers involved. so is the farmers market really the farmers market? i dont think so.

 

Welcome to the Crossroads market and the CFM

 

That's one of the reasons why I dislike Crossroads, there are actual farmers at both markets but I find that there are also a lot of vendors selling the same crap as in the supermarket. It's frustrating to try and sort out the legitimate farmers from the commercial vendors, hence why Kingsland market started up. Of all the markets I've been to so far Kingsland, Hillhurst and Millarville have been the most authentic. You really have to ask a lot of tricky questions sometimes to sort out the real farmers from the fakes.

 

I can't wait till next year, gonna tear out the entire backyard of all the useless grass and put in stuff thats edible.

[CTownTBoyz]

Organic;

 

Uses twice the land mass for 1/2 the production. If we all decided to eat organic it would be a problem.

 

This must be the reason why a pound of organic apples or berries cost over double!

 

You are incorrect, in fact, organic food production can equal or better the yield of non-organic. Yield has more to to do with effective nutrient delivery - which can be done without the use of chemicals/pesticide/herbicide.

 

You can even grow organic produce with hydroponics.

[Giovanne]

You are incorrect, in fact, organic food production can equal or better the yield of non-organic. Yield has more to to do with effective nutrient delivery - which can be done without the use of chemicals/pesticide/herbicide.

 

You can even grow organic produce with hydroponics.

 

Please cite your "facts" in regard to Organic operators having equal or better yield of non-organic.

 

 

 

 

[slingshotz]

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010...anic_go_organic

 

One of the highlights of the story:

 

"In one of the largest studies to analyze how agroecological practices affect productivity in the developing world, researchers at the University of Essex in England analyzed 286 projects in 57 countries. Among the 12.6 million farmers followed, who were transitioning toward sustainable agriculture, researchers found an average yield increase of 79 percent across a wide variety of crop types.

 

Even the United Nations backs those claims. A 2008 U.N. Conference on Trade and Development report concluded that "organic agriculture can be more conducive to food security in Africa than most conventional production systems, and ... is more likely to be sustainable in the long term."

 

I'd bet someone is going to follow up now with a scientific study which is completely opposite of this statement. It seems in this time and age there's always scientific proof of both sides of a story. I believe in local and organic farming because I've spent time working in both industries to make up my own mind. Not everyone has that ability to do so, so I hope that everyone can just keep a open mind. I fully understand the monoculture industrial farming reasoning when oil was dirt cheap and labour was not available, it's just that times change and unfortunately the only thing that is not growing is land.

[bigbowtrout]

unfortunately the only thing that is not growing is land.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_islands

 

 

:Hi jack: