Farm Markets

On the way home from our first adventure, we stopped at the Lepp Farm Market, a farm store selling meat, produce and dairy products.  Our daughter does a lot of her shopping there.  And I have always been interested in local food and the chance to buy directly from the farmer.

Obviously not all the products here come from one farm, but these types of stores gather produce from a number of farms in the Fraser Valley, so you can go to one place to get them.  And they label it if it's not local.  In the end there are only a few other things that you need to go to a regular grocery store for.

There were big bins of squash and apples out front.

And your choice of 50 lb. bags of carrots, or smaller amounts of the traditional orange plus yellow and purple ones.

And my favourites, Brussels Sprouts.

We ended up at two other farm markets over the week, including this one where we stopped in late afternoon on the way home from one of our adventures.

For the first time I can remember, there was an educational display for children attached to this store, with a working dairy operation.  They had turkeys, pigs, a pony and a goat in open pens for you to see, but they also had a big sign with each one giving you a bit of information.  The operating dairy has a full-scale educational program where students and families can visit to see a robot milking the cows, and learn about how they are cared for.  I'm all in favour of any efforts like this to educate people about how their food is produced.

I look forward to visiting in the summer, perhaps in berry season, when we can see more of all these local farms and farm markets.  Meantime, it snowed here last night, about 4-6" of heavy wet stuff.