The Port Coquitlam Farmers Market may be celebrating the opening of its seventh season on Thursday but there will be many firsts this year.
To start, 2015 will be the first full year the eastern part of Whyte Street (beside Dairy Queen) will be closed for the market. Manager Kathy Marven of the Haney Farmers Market Society, which runs the PoCo market, said the closure means the number of vendors will double.
Among the new sellers will be Hunger Management, Rocky Point Ice Cream and Vail Farms Grassroots Ltd. Products, which sells grass-fed certified organic beef and lamb as well as pasture-raised chicken, turkey and pork from two family farms.
Second, the event tent will expand to include Chef in the Market as well as gardening workshops that will focus on how condo dwellers can grow food and plants on patios.
And finally, there will be booze.
In March, PoCo city council issued a temporary use permit to the society operators to allow packaged liquor sales as well as free alcohol tastings following changes to provincial legislation to allow such things at farmers' markets.
Township 7 Vineyards and Winery, Earlco Wines and Dragon Mist Distillery (vodka, gin and baijiu) will be pouring small samples from June 4 to Sept. 25.
Marven said although the market at Leigh Square Community Arts Village has run for each of the past seven summers, "this is going to be the tipping year for us. We really feel that we have made it a wonderful community event that allows people, no matter what income, to come out, buy and socialize."
Buying local is vital, not only to support Metro Vancouver and Fraser Valley farmers and producers but, also, to stop the reliance of produce coming from California, where there is a severe drought. B.C. strawberries, for example, are out two weeks early and are always a crowd favourite, she said.
• Port Coquitlam Farmers Market runs every Thursday from 3 to 7 p.m. at Leigh Square. Tomorrow's opening ceremony will begin at 4 p.m. with a ceremonial cake cutting. Visit portcoquitlamfarmersmarket.org for more information.
