Looking forward to Summer Market...

We attended our last Winter Farmers Market of the season last weekend.  It was a sunny, busy day and many friends came to say hello (even furry friends, our favourite!).

As with most beautifully warm Saturdays, everyone seemed to be in a good mood and there was much socializing amongst vendors, which happens to be one of the best parts of participating at the Farmers Market. 

We are grateful to take part in such an event and feel privileged that the market organizers and vendors have accepted us into their community.  Setting up our tent in the morning is no longer a hassle and has actually become a bit of a joke; not one week has gone by without a gentleman and fellow vendor offering their help to hopelessly useless jam ladies (we have the patience to dice a hundred pounds of onions in one afternoon, but not to figure out how to pop up a canopy tent...)

Everyone wishes us luck before the bell rings, offers advice when needed, and discount their handmade and homegrown product for other vendors (and often for customers too). We have exchanged jam for cheese and bought hundreds of pounds of fruit from other vendors, from people we now know by their first names. It really is an amazing feeling to greet the person who grew your breakfast from seed. Who picked the apple you ate this morning? Travis? Kevin? Walter? As a matter of fact, we can proudly tell you who grew the fruit in almost every flavour of Sticky Spoon jam and often point out the farmers and vendor to the customers who chat with us at the market. 

We look forward to returning to the Vancouver Farmers Market in June. You  can find new Sticky Spoon flavours at the West End Farmers Market on June 30th, July 21st and September 15th.  In the meantime, our jams can be found at five different locations across Vancouver and Vancouver Island and you can always email us for more if your jar of jam didn't last quite as long as you thought...See you soon!

Fingers Crossed For More Sun

It's finally Spring.

Cherry blossoms are exploding on their branches everywhere in Vancouver right now and we appreciate their wonderful scent, particularly at night time. They pouf up into fluffy, rosy clouds and soon the petals will cover the sidewalks and pile up on top of cars left unattended for too long. So lovely.

Spring also means that walks and outdoor activities last a little longer everyday, as we try to soak up as much of the sun as possible (if, like us, you live in Vancouver, you can be seriously deprived of vitamin D by the time April comes around.)

Those sunny days often inspire a few hours of playing in the dirt, planting the first herbs and seeds of the season and watching teeny tiny sprouts pop up almost instantly.

Trips to the local nursery can make you feel like undertaking garden projects you may never have had the courage to take on before. This time of year has us wishing for a big yard where we could plant an orchard; apple trees, fig trees, pear trees, cherry trees.... the list goes on. One visit to the nursery and we are rethinking our careers and considering becoming farmers.

Can you believe these small twigs will turn into sturdy trees that produce hundreds of pears? Humm, pear and vanilla jam...

Spring time is always exciting, but this year particularly so. The most popular jam flavours are about to be produced in the next few months and we are getting ready. The sun is shining and an abundance of berries and stone fruit is coming our way-- strawberries, apricots, raspberries, blackberries and plums. First, we take on rhubarb though. We were so excited to see the first of the rhubarb this weekend at the Farmers Market and have become rhubarb's biggest cheerleaders. Let's keep our fingers crossed for more sun, we are antsy to harvest these stalks and are quite sure that you all could use a little colour (or freckles) on your skin too. Enjoy the nice weather and thank you for checking in on Sticky Spoon.