Birds of a Feather

Interest in locally grown food fuels explosion of urban ‘pocket markets’

When a group of Vic West residents set up a local food market in the summer of 2005, they had no idea it would blossom throughout the capital region.

That one open-air produce market has led to about 16 other so-called “pocket markets” in the region this summer, providing an outlet for area farmers and a place for urban dwellers to buy locally grown food without driving far, or even at all.

The pocket markets are the new kid on the block of openair local produce markets — many other open-air markets in the region have been running for years — but all are indicative of the growing interest and concern over where our food comes from.

Established markets, like those in Sooke and on the Saanich Peninsula, are growing too, providing more places for area farmers to get their produce to people.

Interest and support for locally grown food has increased dramatically in the last few years, said Lee Fuge, the chair of FoodRoots Distributor’s Co-operative, the group that runs the pocket markets.

The timing for such markets is ideal, with concern over food security and greenhouse gas emissions, escalating food prices and shrinking farmland converging with a social interest in eating locally. More restaurants pride themselves on providing local food, and books about it stay on bestseller lists. Children are starting to hear about it in school.

“Our region is unique because we have such a fantastic agricultural land base and our climate is so conducive to long-season growing that we are really blessed,” Fuge said. “We have all the elements that should make us one of the most food secure areas in the world.”

The region also has dozens of farmstands. These work well for people who have the time and the vehicle fuel to get to them, said Fuge. But the openair markets provide another way to get local food to consumers, bringing the product to a central urban area. Pocket markets can set up wherever there is a demand, and most run for a few hours each week, allowing locals to count on a place to buy mostly local food.

“If someone is exposed to this concept even once a month and it makes them think about where their food is coming from, it’s a success. The chances are that eventually, they’ll go to their local grocery store and ask where the produce there is coming from and create more of a demand at all levels,” Fuge said.

“We’d like them to ask why strawberries from California are being sold in some grocery stores, when they are grown on the Saanich Peninsula as well.”

The pocket markets see two or three tables covered in produce and locally made food products, like honey, syrup, flour milled on Saltspring Island, granola from Saturna Island and locally smoked salmon.

The aim is to sell all-local food, and by midsummer, that’s usually achieved, Fuge said. But at the start of the season, some food is from the Lower Mainland and even as far as Mexico, as was the case for avocados this week.

“There are certain things we cannot get locally. There are also things we will not buy because of the distance they’ve travelled, such as apples from New Zealand.”

If the price on the product list is green, it’s from B.C. If the price is in orange, it’s from elsewhere.

David Mincey, the owner and chef at Camille’s Restaurant, started the Island Chefs Collaborative open-air market in Bastion Square last summer, and saw the desire for locally grown food skyrocket. The ICC market is running two days this summer, instead of the one day it did last year. Mincey already has almost 100 local farmers supplying their wares to the Thursday-and-Friday market, which gives locals the same access to produce as chefs have.

Such markets aren’t a passing fad: A national farmer’s market association is starting, to be run by local agriculture expert Brent Warner.

He remembers a group trying to start such an organization 15 years ago. It fell on deaf ears then, but times have changed, he said.

“It’s really indicative of the importance of the issue,” Warner said.

The organization could do everything from bulk-buying environmentally friendly shopping bags for markets across the country to creating a website so that travelers can find markets wherever they happen to be, he said.