
The country market from heaven
On this beautiful sunny day, I had it in mind to drive to a little village near by called Keremeos, where there are several country markets specialising in local produce and crafts. Last month, Robert and I brought a box of fresh field tomatoes home from our lovely weekend out this way, and I roasted them with my home grown garlic. Absolute heaven. And I planned to buy at least two more huge boxes and take them home.
So I left the cabin bright and early, Chloe and Zoe decided to come with, and we drove thru those beautiful grass lands, down to the Similkameen River…
And followed it further into the interior of BC.
We soon found what we were looking for.
We drove thru the village, peeked in at a few markets, but found a brilliant country market: Parsons, a family run farm since 1908, where organic practices are observed. I love seeing where our food comes from and knowing that no pesticides or herbicides were ever used. I love knowing that the seeds are old heritage varieties and not genetically modified. Not to mention that I think it’s a really good idea to eat local and super important to support small farms and give back to the community. And, while I’m probably the guiltiest one here travelling from England to Canada and back again several times per year, I do try my best to eat local wherever I am and save the planet a few “fossil fuel food miles”.
As soon as I smelled the tomatoes I knew this was the right market. Do you know what I mean? Some people look for blemish free, perfectly round and symmetrical tomatoes, but in my experience, these supermarket types don’t have very much flavour. I’ll take the blemished, strange shaped, field tomatoes over the shiny, perfect supermarket ones any day.
So we pack up the car with my two boxes of ripe tomatoes, two gorgeous pumpkins, some squashes (including the beautiful strippeti and small wonder spaghetti squashes), some fresh pressed apple and pear juice, and back to the cabin we drove. π
Jo
What a lovely adventure – and glorious photos. I love shopping at little local stands too.
Jo
And I love your header – great photo.
Veronica
Aw, thank you Joanne. Those birches are just too beautiful. It was super hard deciding on the ONE photo. π
sarah
Wonderful photographs! π
Veronica
π How are you doing sweetie? How’s your daughter? I’m popping over to catch up. π
Sharmon Davidson
It looks like a truly glorious day. Your photos of the countryside are marvelous! And good for you for buying local produce!
Veronica
Thank you so much Sharmon. It’s becoming more and more important to me, and, I suppose as the Federal election is only days away, I’m thinking of the kinds of issues I want to see addressed and buying local sort of ticks all the boxes, (small, family run business subsidies, conservation, fossil fuel, environment, etc…) right now. π
Kathleen
What a day you had…and those photos—-breath-taking!!! Thanks for sharing.
Veronica
Thank you every so much Kathleen. It’s absolutely breathtaking out there so pretty impossible to take a bad photo…lol. π
Debra She Who Seeks
Gloriously picturesque!
Veronica
Oh my gosh Debra, you’re so very good to me popping round. I really need to come catch up with you and your Rare One. X
michellepond
The birches caught my eye, but the whole area looks lovely. What a wonderful market.
daryledelstein
did you know that Florida exports all the ‘perfect’ tomatoes and sells in their markets only the ‘ugly’ ones … my mom used to say that was fine with her, the ‘ugly’ ones tasted far better than the ‘perfect’ ones
Julie@frogpondfarm
Hi Miss .. What a wonderful place! The produce looks amazing, and you are right, you can’t bet organic! Yum, I bet those tomatoes smelt heavenly .. Gorge photos, wish I had been there ?