Seed Saturday
The earliest event of the market year is Seedy Saturday (Tribute to Seeds in Covid years).
The first Seedy Saturday in Kamloops was held in 2009 by the Friends of the New Victory Gardens to promote seed saving and growing food. A few years later it became an event jointly hosted by Friends of NVG and the Thompson Shuswap Master Gardeners in an effort to improve the local supply of seeds via a seed sanctuary. It was organized by them for a few more years before it was passed on to Daniela Basile of SSOL Gardens. Daniela approached the Kamloops Farmers’ Market about hosting it as a special event in the early spring, and it has been a jointly held event since then. In 2022 Daniela is handing over the organization to the Farmers’ Market staff so she can enjoy a well earned retirement.
The Seedy Saturday event brings together interested gardeners and local BC seed growers, community groups like The Kamloops Food Policy Council, FarmFolk CityFolk, Seeds of Diversity, local suppliers of gardening supplies, including Jora Composters, along with many regular market vendors including farmers, bakers and other food makers from our region.
In 2020 and 2021 it was held as a special Indoor Winter Market in March at the Purity Feed Greenhouse (471 Okanagan Way, Tk’emlups te Secwepemc).
The 2023 Seedy Saturday is being held at a new location at the Mount Paul Community Food Centre on Saturday March 11th, from 10 AM to 3 PM.
Pollinator Festival
New in 2022 the Pollinator Festival, is an annual community celebration of the important role pollinators play in the health and well-being of our ecosystem. It is a community event inviting participation from the general public, businesses, and non-profit communities.
Pollinators are very important to farmers, gardeners, and ecosystems, therefore their well-being is important to us as well. Most people think of honey bees when pollinators are mentioned, but they also include native bees like bumble bees, mason bees, and more, as well as butterflies, moths, flies, wasps, beetles, birds, and bats (although not in Canada).
The 2023 Pollinator Festival is scheduled to happen from May 13th to 20th. In the meantime check out the resources below to learn more about fabulous pollinators.
Follow our social media pages for details about the festival for check back to this page for more information.
Resources:
BeeCityPledge: https://beecitycanada.org/pollinator-pledge/ (individuals can pledge to protect and support pollinators)
An awesome opinion piece by a beekeeper on the importance of native pollinators like bumble bees: https://undark.org/2022/02/03/the-bumblebees-decline-shows-how-we-get-conservation-wrong/
For more information on protecting and supporting pollinators see: https://seeds.ca/pollination/
Ecoregional Planting Guide for the Thompson Okanagan Plateau: https://pollinatorpartnership.ca/assets/generalFiles/Thompson_Okanagan.Plateau.2019.pdf
Information on Bats as Pollinators (note Canada does not have any pollinator bats): https://www.batcon.org/article/the-forgotten-pollinators/
Tomato Festival
The Tomato Festival started as an event of the TRU Friends of the Garden in 2012 which was held at the Kamloops Farmers’ Market. Eventually the organization of the event was taken up by the market.
The Tomato Festival is back but we are keeping it low key (see below for details) for 2022. We still encourage Kamloopsians to grow and enjoy locally grown tomatoes whether from your own yard, the farmers’ market, or one of the many local restaurants and cafes which support local in-season agriculture.
Tomato Festival dates for 2022 are September 10th through 17th.
We have several community groups attending Kamloops Farmers’ Markets to help celebrate our local love of tomatoes and to raise awareness about local food security and food sovereignty.
On September 10th:
The Stir Food Hub is at the Saturday market to talk about what they do and how the people can further support local food.
September 14th:
Mount Paul Community Food Centre is at the Wednesday market to discuss their programs and how they work to address both food insecurity and increase food sovereignty in our community.
September 17th:
Sees both the FarmFolk CityFolk (FFCF) and Butler Urban Farm (BUF) at the Saturday market. FFCF will be demonstrating some of the seed cleaning equipment and as part of the festival be taste testing carrots from local farm trials (grown by Ikigai Farm), and BUF will available to chat with the public about their farm & programs, seed saving, and the Kamloops Food Policy Council Seed Library.
As well, on Sept 17th we will have samples of fresh tomatoes from KFM vendors for the public to taste and vote on their favourite for the Public Choice Award; and a competition open to both farmers and the public for tomatoes in the category of largest by weight, most colourful, most unusual shape, and greatest number of tomatoes in a single cluster. Rewards for all are bragging rights in the applicable category. There is no cost to enter the public competition but tomatoes entered do need to be picked by noon or they will be donated to either the seed library or one of the local emergency food community groups.
We invite everyone in the Kamloops / Tk’emlups te Secwepemc area to share their love of tomatoes by using the hashtag #KamloopsTomatoFestival.
Do check our our social media and the Kamloops Tomato Festival hashtag and help us celebrate tomatoes, and local food.
Street Food Fare
The first Street Food Fare at the Kamloops Farmers’ Market was held in October 2019 as part of our participation in Kamloops’ Culture Days events. Due to Covid it has been on hiatus since then but we hope it will be back soon.