Traveling Cowboys: Early Morning Mustard at Exhibition Park Lethbridge Farmers' Market in Lethbridge, Alberta

Mustard World

If you go early, you get the freshest produce. If you go later, you can spend more time with friends at the market.

Everybody in Southern Alberta knows that Lethbridge's Farmers' Market is one of the best in the area. It is packed with fresh produce that sells out early. You can also find products like honey from Forever Bee, mead wine from Spirit Hills Meadery, nuts and even locally made mustard from Luco Farms. We also managed to get an excellent Flat White Coffee from Red Engine Coffee Roasters.

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The market return every May to the Exhibition Park's indoors West Pavilion. The Saturday market opens at 8:00 a.m. and closes at 1:00 p.m. The last market of the season is on the last Saturday in October. There is no admission or parking fee. Over 3000 people attend the Saturday markets, so it is a busy place. Get there early.

Between fifty and a hundred exhibitors are at the market each market day. The Farmers’ Market is a member of the Alberta Farmers’ Market Association (AFMA). It aims to offer at least 80% of products to be locally made, baked or grown. This means you can find crafts, fresh fruit, vegetables, home-made baking, artwork, hand-made clothing, and much more made by people in the area.

Observations

The Lethbridge market has the right vendor mix and offers something for everyone. There is enough to taste, see and sample from local vendors so that it keeps you busy for the entire Saturday morning.

As you would expect, the produce from this part of the world, with its well-structured irrigation infrastructure, is outstanding. If you are not into farm-fresh food, there is even someone (Synergy Urban Farms) that makes a business out of cultivating vegetables in people's gardens in the city of Lethbridge. Call it "garden-fresh" produce. You can buy this also at the market. 

What we learned new, courtesy of Luco Farms, was that the area is also a primary producer of Mustard. Yet, as usual, we don't process it in Alberta as we should. Like some of our other highly prized agricultural assets, namely barley, we export most of it to the rest of the world without adding any value. Luco Farms is changing that with the traditional mustards they produce, with the hope to export it soon.

We love mustard on our BBQ pork and making the discovery that we can use our very own Alberta mustard is a revelation. The only challenge now is that we have to work in frequent visits to the Lethbridge Farmers' Market to stock up on this beautiful mustard. We'll see you there.

Hendrik van Wyk

Hot and Spicy Mustard Cowboy

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Photos

Great Sausages

Alberta Mustard!

Fresh Honey

Indeed!

Berries!

o-CNN: Booze Out of the Woods - Fallentimber, Alberta

Fallentimber At the Market

Farmers and craft markets play an important role in the evolution and growth of micro businesses. Communities that recognize this value and create opportunities for these businesses to take their goods to market are flourishing. Fallentimber is one such business we profiled recently.  

We caught up with Nathan Ryan and his cousin at the Canmore Mountain Market and Cochrane Farmers market recently to find out how the market has worked for them.

Enjoy this one, and don't forget to join our mailing list for special offers and experiences from Fallentimber and our other Producers. You can join here.

Hendrik van Wyk

Market Maker

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Local Sign Maker

Soldiers

Instrument of Necessity 

Two Cowboys on a Journey: Fallentimber - Water Valley, Alberta

Booze in the Woods

(Learn: *** Inspire: **** Amaze: ** Live: ****)
(The Two Cowboys Subjective Rate-o-Meter.   )

At the end of a dusty road in Water Valley, at the Foothills of Alberta, there is a small honey farm in the woods. Here you will have three brothers, their father and a cousin using their pure Alberta honey to make booze in the woods. What a life!

Fallentimber Meadery is a member of the cottage winery industry in Alberta.  Their doors officially opened to the public in the fall of 2010. In Alberta, just having a cottage wine industry is an achievement on its own (thanks to overbearing alcohol production regulations and the weather). We didn't even know we had such an industry. It is, therefore, no use to split hairs that Mead is technically not wine.

I've met Nathan Ryan (one of the brothers) at the Canmore Mountain market in 2015. He was selling his mead two stalls over from my Gelato trailer. The first hour listening to him proved interesting and entertaining, as he explained to people what Mead is, and what they do with it at Fallentimber Meadery. 

I must admit, I thought I knew something about the product. But, Nathan added a whole lot more information I did not know. After the first hour, I started to feel sorry for him having to explain to all the people, over and over again, what Mead is. "Man, you need a video!" I said. "You will go crazy telling the same story so many times in a day."

Then it hit me: He needs to do nothing more than let people sample what they produce. It is so good that the moment it hits your palate, it doesn't matter where it comes from. Fallentimber knows what they are doing, and you can taste it in their drink. My favourite is the Ginger Mead and the special Hops Mead. I do have my eye on the batch they still have in the Whisky Barrel back at the lab. That will be a special one too.

Great Mead starts with great honey, and honey is something that the Ryan family knows very well. Back in 1969, Blake Ryan started the family business when he purchased the family farm and established his first hives.  Today, Blake's son Kevin is the owner and operator of Ryan's Honey which is sold at select stores in the region. However, with the birth of their Mead business, almost all of they honey is going into the booze.

All of Fallentimber's Meads are produced with Ryan's Honey, and that superior flavour comes through in every glass. Think of it as the vintage that gives it its character.

Mead is an alcoholic beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits, spices, grains, or hops. The alcoholic content ranges from about 8% ABV to more than 20%. Yes, it has a kick! 

The defining characteristic of Mead is that the majority of the beverage's fermentable sugar is derived from honey. It may be still, carbonated, or naturally sparkling; dry, semi-sweet, or sweet. Mead was produced in ancient history throughout Europe, Africa and Asia and is in a revival phase in the craft brewing industry of Alberta, Canada.

Mead has played an important role in the beliefs and mythology of some peoples. One such example is the Mead of Poetry, a mead of Norse mythology crafted from the blood of the wise being Kvasir which turns the drinker into a poet or scholar. It didn't take much drinking of Fallentimber Mead to turn the Two Cowboys into Poets and Mead Enthusiasts, for life.

The terms "mead" and "honey-wine" often are used synonymously. Some cultures, though, differentiate honey-wine from Mead. For example, Hungarians hold that while Mead is made of honey, water and beer-yeast, honey-wine is watered honey fermented by the fruit of grapes or other fruits. We will go with the more purist perspective. For us, it is Mead, not wine.

Reflections

What can be better than to live in the woods with the people you love, make a healthy product that makes people happy, and succeed in building a business with it all.

The Ryan's may just have discovered the ideal life. Every time we drink a bottle of their Mead, we remind ourselves: It is possible to live in the woods, make booze and be happy.

Cheers!

Hendrik van Wyk

Mead Cowboy

Get rewarded for supporting our local Producers. Receive special offers and invitations from the Two Cowboys.

Who we are: We are a social enterprise. We are funded through donations and sponsorship. 
All our earnings are applied back to covering our costs of marketing and promoting Producers and inspiring local communities. Please support us to bring you more (www.forwardthefavour.com)

Photos

Praying for Mead 

For the Chosen Few

Foundation

Booze in the Woods

Mead Cowboy