Summer Farmers’ Markets of British Columbia and Food Created With Love

Grown to share the love and joy

Everything gets a moment in the sun

Summer—and with it, the fabulous outdoor farmers’ markets—will soon come to an end.

But a road trip through supernatural British Columbia, as it’s affectionately called, compels you to stop and quite literally smell the flowers, fruit, and vegetables. Delectable colours are everywhere, enticing you to reach for your purse. Big and small yellow, purple, red, orange, and green shapes conjure meals made with love, served in earthenware on linen-covered tables with cloth napkins and crystal glasses. Bright flowers stuck in a vase sit proudly in the centre.

Or: bamboo plates and cups for an outdoor picnic, with baguettes topped with fresh basil pesto, roasted sweet peppers, courgettes, and beetroots. Teeth mowing through corn on the cob.

Fresh food isn't just better, it's magic!

Heirloom tomatoes (I've already made a delicious pasta sauce with mine!)

Fresh ginger (I'm going to pickle them for sushi and poke) and beets for an arugula and goats cheese salad with roasted seeds and freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice (they are ridiculously sweet!)

Sometimes, you’re lucky enough to stumble upon a food fest, like the Grindrod Garlic Festival near Enderby:

Pretty arrangement

Nature's jewellery

Did you spot the pretty owl apron in the back?

Come on: you've got to be thinking of those Mediterranean recipes now!

These onions are so eye-catching, they'd look perfect in a clear glass bowl

Prompts, ready to be created into love songs and sonnets

One of my fetishes is collecting pretty aprons - I have many, and wear them according to my mood

What would summer be without sunflowers?

If you can't eat them fast enough, make jam!

I wish farm-to-table food were accessible to all—it feels like a crime that it isn’t. Fresh, locally produced produce tastes different. It’s more nutritious. It costs less. And the super-extra benefit: it’s a feast for the senses.

Food is love. Farmers are creators of visual poetry. Farm stalls are stanzas lining the highways of our journeys, inviting us to sample from the anthology.