Qualicum Beach Farmers Market

Today is Market day in Qualicum Beach and so until noon you can see vendors selling their goods and shoppers having a nice time interacting with the sources of their foods. It's a fun and festive atmosphere every Saturday from 9-12 downtown on 1st Ave E just off Memorial.





Here's Ravenstone Farm Charcuterie. They make the best sausages and bacon! Plus they're very friendly. Here they are enjoying a 5 second break between customers. Hi Declan and Trevor! They own the farm we're currently staying at and are super nice people. They make I think about 15 varieties of sausage and Trevor seems to introduce a new one fairly regularly as a weekly special. Everything from Bangers to Chorizo and Mediterranean to Italian. Yummy on the grill, in the oven or even in soup!



Kate did the Shoots with Roots program from Milner Gardens. They had a little booth where you could use recycled materials like cardboard and newspaper to make your own flower press. I'll do up a whole article about that later. She decorated it and thought is was super cool!



Lunch was soup made from our Farmers Market haul of scallions (I'm not kidding they were 28 inches long) green cabbage, red peppers, Romano sausage from Ravenstone, onion and potatoes. And garlic, salt and pepper of course. The sausage was chicken, and tasted very nice. I cooked it first so I could try it out as I've never had it before. After I stir fried the veggies for a few minutes we added water and seasonings to finish cooking the soup and I used the last of the bread from "Bread and Honey" ( a great little place for lunch in Parksville) to make multi-grain croutons for the top of each bowl of soup. it was delicious

Saturday Night and I Ain't Got Nobody....

Yep. It's Saturday night and Stephen is out at John and Nic's doing some more work on their bus. It's looking pretty spiffy thanks to all the hard work John has put into it. Steve's been doing a lot of the hidden stuff like water tanks, electrical and plumbing. Thankless jobs but very necessary.

As far as our own little family goes, we're good. Spent some time picking the hay out of last years alpaca fibre (Yes, that's how we spell it in Canada) ready to get it sent to the mill for cleaning and spinning. I just don't have enough time to get it done this year by hand and I still need to repair my spinning wheel anyways. I guess I still have to knit the wool and make felt slippers by myself so that's still handmade a little.

On my way back from dropping Christopher off at work and before taking the girls to swimming lessons I had a chance to pop by the local farmers market in Qualicum. There was a nice selection of plants, crafts, fresh produce, meats, breads and treats. I did indulge in a fresh croissant which receives high marks but his french bread was a bit bland and not as crusty as I'd like. Great sausages from Ravenstone Farm. I got bangers, canadian, sicilian, and Loukanika to try and I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. The last sausages I got from them were awesome grilled on the BBQ. And some honey for my honey, creamed of course. Which I can guarantee he'll eat with peanut butter on toast when he comes home later. This being his preferred snack since childhood for breakfast or bedtime. 1kg jar of honey cost me $13. Bread $4. Sausages averaged about $5.50 for a pack of 4 large sausages. I also bought kohlrabi, green onions and some rhubarb.

I managed to get my yard tidied up, the inside of the kids trailer is almost cleaned but still have to finish dishes, vacuum, and put away all their clean laundry. I sorted fibre as mentioned previously, sorted out a couple of boxes from the storage locker and will donate more stuff to the SOS which runs a huge local thrift store. Also washed and dried 2 loads of laundry including some more blankets off Kate's bed. I took 2 more off and she still had 3 left! My goodness, who needs so many blankets? You'd think we were making her sleep on an ice ledge in the Arctic!

Today's weather was nice and sunny, 22 degrees C with 5-10km wind from the west. Great for working outside. Tomorrow should be more of the same. Great because John and Nicole are coming with the girls for a BBQ and to check out our place. Gotta run. It's after midnight and I have to get up early in the morning to clean, drive Chris, write a talk with Meghan, and then get food ready for when John and Nicole come over after church.

Goodnight!