Mona Stilwell was a fuzzy-brained and grumpy new mother of twins when she set out to her local farmers market last summer for stimulation.
She got more than she bargained for. Stilwell not only stocked up on fresh, fortifying foods, but also met another mother of twins, which planted the seeds for a flourishing support system.
Now Stilwell meets five other East Vancouver mothers of twins twice a week, 10 kids in tow. The women meet for dinner once a month.
“No babies, no spouses and we dish the dirt to each other and vent,” she said.
It’s another tendril of community she’s felt since she started frequenting Vancouver’s farmers markets five years ago, lured by local produce.
“The best thing is that when you buy produce at the farmers market, it lasts a lot longer in your fridge,” she said. “You know it hasn’t been on a truck for 20 hours or whatever.”
That kind of desire for access to locally grown food pulled a grassroots group together 20 years ago to launch the first farmers market in Vancouver.
Vancouver Farmers Markets kicked off 20 years of bringing local food to Vancouver neighbourhoods May 7, with the seasonal opening of the Yaletown market. Trout Lake market restarts May 9 and five more markets will open earlier than usual over the next six weeks.
Organizers that included nutritionists from the REACH Community Health Centre on Commercial Drive lured eight skeptical farmers to the parking lot at the Croatian Cultural Centre in 1995. A thousand people came, communed and cleared the farmers out. Two years later, the market moved to Trout Lake.
Fast forward two decades and Vancouver Farmers Markets runs nine markets, two winter and seven seasonal, supports more than 265 vendors and saw 425,000 shoppers last year.
Sales of $40,000 in 1995 have multiplied to $8.17 million in 2014, according to Tara McDonald, executive director of Vancouver Farmers Markets.
“We contribute a total of about $15 million to the local economy and we’re just doing this out of temporary spaces in parking lots under pop-up tents,” she said.
In addition to nourishing the local food economy and social connections, McDonald notes farmers markets support the sustainability of farmland.
“We’ve been able to keep 6,000 acres of precious, quickly diminishing agricultural land in production,” she said. “It keeps it viable so it’s not developed for other purposes.”
Susan Davidson, co-founder of Aldergrove’s Glorious Organics Co-operative, started selling at Vancouver’s farmer market in 1996.
Her Trout Lake stand is known for its salad bar that features difficult to find greens.
“I had a customer who was from Mexico and she was just blissed out to find purslane, which is a staple part of their menu, and I had no idea,” Davidson said.
It’s those interactions that have kept Davidson, who’s 70, travelling to the city.
“For half of the year, I get up at four in the morning on Saturdays to go to the Trout Lake market and, you know, sometimes it’s a stretch,” she said. “By the end of the day I wonder what the hell am I doing this for? I’m getting my $12 an hour, and that’s the profession that I’ve agreed to, but it’s the hugs and the tears and the life that comes to the market that really puts the extra value on it being just a career.”
Davidson, who sits on the vendor’s advisory committee and has sat on the Vancouver Farmers Markets board, remains frustrated by the permitting requirements and logistical details Vancouver Farmers Markets is forced to deal with each year.
“I’m just appalled that after 20 years, and now up to seven [seasonal] markets, we don’t seem to have to city policy that will support us,” she said.
The first market was permitted to sell only fruit, vegetables and certain types of baked goods. Now vendors sling artisan beer, wine and spirits, dairy products, meat, poultry and fish, but McDonald, executive director since 2005, notes meat still has to be sold frozen, which is tricky at markets that lack power and water.
She concurs problems with infrastructure and permits continue to stunt the growth of Vancouver Farmers Markets.
The organization has to renew all kinds of permits with the city every year and it lacks long-term agreements on the use of spaces. “Other markets that are indoor-outdoor markets like in Calgary and across the country, their sales are triple and quadruple what ours are, with all things being equal,” she said. “A building really makes a difference, or a pavilion or some kind of shelter.”
To celebrate 20 years, Vancouver Farmers Markets is launching an Instagram contest. For more information, see eatlocal.org.
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