“It takes a community to grow a market.”
So, let’s come out to support the Bowen Island Farmers Market which is held every Saturday at Bowen Island Community School from 10 am to Noon, and which opens this season on Saturday, May 13, the day before Mother’s Day!
We know that the cost of food, especially produce, is expensive now, but the droughts, floods and wildfires in California and other states from which we import so much produce, will impact food prices. And the U.S. may not have as much available to export after they have met their national needs!
We know we are lucky to still be able to buy whatever we want, whenever we want, but for those products we import (either because we can’t grow them or not in season for us) you may have noticed that more and more are coming from further and further afield, e.g., Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, Argentina, New Zealand, Australia, Asia. That’s a BIG carbon footprint!
In these times of supply chain issues, and having to import more produce from further afield than California, we can choose to support our growers, be they national, provincial and/or local in order to ensure as much of our food security as possible. We can try as much as possible to eat seasonally. We can buy local when homegrown produce is in season. For those of us who are able, we can preserve fruits and vegetables when they are in season, by canning/bottling or freezing, to have them for the winter months.
Our island farmers grow a wonderful selection of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, and make jams, jellies, fruit leathers, pies, and baked goodies, which they sell at the Farmers Market. Yet, our farmers sometimes go home with unsold produce! As anyone who has tried to grow veggies knows, it’s not easy!
Even if you are growing some of your own produce, come to the Market to see what’s available. We get to support our farmers who have spent the time and energy to cultivate their soil to be able to grow homegrown produce for our consumption. With climate change impacts affecting food production everywhere, we need our farmers to keep growing as they are able.
Nothing is cheap any more, but we haven’t ever paid the real price for our produce, whether imported or not. Buy Canadian, buy local, buy seasonal, and yes, it might be more expensive than what you pay at chain grocery stores, but it’s supporting our self sufficiency, our food security, and those few of us who toil the soil to keep us fed!
Come visit the Market, see what is Bowen grown (the selection of produce changes over the season so come often!) and crafted, meet the vendors and enjoy their selection of produce, preserves, baking, cut flowers, indoor and outdoor plants, artwork, and clothing!
To those of you do come, especially the regulars, thank you. We always look forward to seeing you! If you have ideas as to what might encourage more of you to come to the Farmers Market, let us know... a different day, different hours...?
It takes a community to grow a market!
(And you don’t have to take a ferry to get to the Market!)
