Inside Vancouver

Vancouver Farmers’ Market season opens May 11

by Miranda Post in Green City on May 10, 2013

Photo source: Eatlocal.org

Like a Whitecaps Southsider at the beginning of the Major League Soccer season, I count down the days until the summer Vancouver Farmers Markets open. While soccer friends herald the return of the Mattocks, DeWit or Camilo each March, I cheer for the return of Little Qualicum Cheeseworks, Empire Valley Beef and Cropthorne Farms each May.

My ‘season’ starts with Trout Lake and Kitsilano Markets opening on May 11 and 12 respectively. Later, in June the West End (June 1), Main Street Station (June 5), and Kerrisdale (June 15) markets all commence to provide Vancouverites and visitors alike with delicious local eats, live music and handcrafted goodies like ceramics and jewelry.

Breakfast lovers, coffee devotees and food truck followers all have a place at the farmers markets, too. Besides the regulars like La Boheme Creperie, The Bean Buggy and Vij’s Railway Express, new mobile eateries will be added to the repertoire this year.

Between my missions for creamy goat brie and crinkly heirloom tomatoes this summer, I’ll be checking out the various market events. Not only will the summer farmers markets contribute to our community’s pantry but also to our community itself with family, gardening and foodie-focused happenings.

What’s up at your neighborhood farmers market this season? Take a sneak peak after the jump.

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Vancouver Farmers’ Market season opens May 11

Birders of a Feather Flock together for Vancouver Bird Week May 4-11

by Miranda Post in Green City on May 4, 2013

Stellers Jay. Photo credit: Chris Dale/Bird Studies Canada

Owen Wilson, Steve Martin and Jack Black – stars of the British Columbia/Yukon-filmed comedy The Big Year – introduced me to the world of bird watching. In the comedy, Wilson, Martin and Black’s characters travel across North America to see or hear the most bird species in a calendar year during the American Birdwatching Association’s annual “Big Year” contest.

The next day my partner and I played our own version of a ‘Big Morning’, trying to spot as many birds as we could on sunrise walk through Vancouver’s West End. We spotted seven different bird species including gulls, herons, widgeons and mallards. Suddenly we were hooked. The allure of walking around with binoculars to differentiate grebes from cormorants was no longer an activity reserved for our parents or our scientist friends.

It turns out birding, bird watching or ‘twitching’ as it’s called in the United Kingdom, is a pretty popular activity: according to 2006 survey done by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service there are about 48 million birdwatchers in the United States. In Canada, more than 550,000 Canadian adults take part in birdwatching activities annually according to a 2006 study on wildlife viewing activities.
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Birders of a Feather Flock together for Vancouver Bird Week May 4-11

See the Great Blue Herons in Stanley Park

by Remy Scalza in Green City on April 30, 2013

bird1 Even if you’re not a birdwatcher, this is worth checking out.

Hundreds of Pacific great blue herons converged on Stanley Park this spring, for the 13th consecutive year. The enormous wading birds, classified as at risk in B.C., have wingspans up to two metres and are easily identified by their bright blue head feathers and long beaks.

Right now, the herons are busy laying and hatching eggs in their nesting area, not far from Second Beach, near the Stanley Park tennis courts (behind 2099 Beach Ave., to be precise). While sensitive areas are fenced off, it’s still possible to see and hear the giant birds as they tend to their nests and get ready for young to arrive. Continue reading:
See the Great Blue Herons in Stanley Park

Amazing Rooftop Garden & Cafe in the Works for Vancouver Public Library

by Taraneh in Green City on April 27, 2013

VPL rooftop now. Photo credit: Greenroofs.com

After 20 years, the Vancouver Public Library Central Branch at 350 West Georgia Street is realizing its dream: to have a public rooftop garden and cafe.

As you probably know, the Colosseum-esque VPL already has a pretty cool, green rooftop covered with indigenous fescue and kinnickinnick grasses that are arranged to resemble the Fraser River. But most visitors have never gotten the chance to see the roof since the library was built in 1995. If you want to see it, you have to go to a neighbouring building for a peek. There are no safety barricades surrounding the perimeter of the 28,000 sq. ft roof and it’s a 30 metre drop to the ground.

The city has given VPL the green light for planning the massive “garden in the sky,” according to coverage in the Vancouver Sun. As for the timeline, in 2015 the library will reclaim the eighth and ninth floors from the provincial government and redo the whole shebang, adding more reading rooms and two outdoor terraces in a multi-level outdoor area, including an 8,000 sq. ft. public garden. There’s also been mention of a 3,000 sq. ft. “inspiration lab” with a a digital recording studio, music lab and video editing area. Continue reading:
Amazing Rooftop Garden & Cafe in the Works for Vancouver Public Library