Meghan - Preparing for Spring Valley Middle School presentation

So in preparation for our visit to Spring Valley Middle School on Wed. Nov 16th I needed to find some local produce. Given that there was not a Farmer's Market the weekend before our presentation I decided to check out Urban Harvest's warehouse sale on Saturdays from 9am - 1 pm at their distribution centre on 806 Crowley Ave. (right next to Okanagan Street Food in the North End industrial area).


I was so pleasantly surprised by the feel of the space, the quality of the produce and the diversity of goods, it really felt like a little fruit stand or market. The week prior to their warehouse sale they list on their website the food items that will be for sale that week and which farms they come from. This made it a bit easier for me to pick out which items to buy that were within our 100 miles for the presentation and tasting. Although most of their produce is locally base with a few exceptions (bananas, avocados etc). On their website they sometimes explain what the items are or how it's used if it's something different.  They also tell a bit about the farmers where the produce is coming from along with linking you to their website if they have one.


I had such a great time finding really near and different gems. I had to limit myself for buying everything I wanted for this event so as to not saturate the students we were presenting to. The final produces that I decided to buy were celeriac (celery root), watermelon radish, white radish and sunchokes. For our presentations we kept everything raw. 


Celeriac (celery root) is a ugly looking root vegetable which can be eaten raw or cooked.  It taste like a very strong celery which can be added to salads, boiled, braised, sauteed or baked. So lots of options for this vegetable and it's available most of the winter months.

Watermelon radish

Watermelon radish is a large root vegetable that is related to the turnip family. It has a crisp texture and a mild peppery flavour. This radish is the size of a soft ball or small watermelon with an outside colour of light green. The inner flesh is what makes it so attractive with a bright red to magenta colour. This radish can be cooked or served raw. Great on salads but also can be sauteed, braised or roasted. In the US it's a spring radish but in BC it appears to be available more in the fall.


White radish is a round radish the size of a small apple or orange. Its taste is a milder pepper flavour then the traditional red radishes and as such many people eat them like an apple. This radish can be cooked or served raw. It is available in the summer and fall seasons.


Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichoke) are in the sunflower family and has nothing to do with artichokes. They have brown lumpy skin (reminding you of gingerroot). The white flesh is nutty, sweet and crunchy which makes it great both raw or cooked. They are available from October to March in most areas.

So those are the produce items along with some apples that Amy has that we will be taking into the classroom. I was hoping for some coloured carrots but no such luck this week, so as you can see these are lesser known produces but non the less it's food so hopefully that will go over well.


Also in preparation for this presentation I was able to find a great BC food map for us to distribute to the students to help them see what we have available both in the valley but all over the province in the way of food options. 


Sources: BC Food map - BC Agriculture in the Classroom Foundation (http://www.aitc.ca/bc/uploads/bc-food-map.pdf)
Watermelon radish picture - Urban Harvest (http://www.urbanharvest.ca/item/14819/)