Perk of Country Living

Salmonberries!  One of my earliest memories was sitting at the pig pen feeding the pigs salmonberry leaves until they had green frothy beards hanging from their chins.  The pigs were my babysitters when my sisters were at school and mom was busy doing mom things in the house.  Pigs love salmonberry leaves.  I love how much food there is in the forest, if you know what's there- and it's all free.  Everyday I pick a big handful of salmonberries along my hike.  You pretty much never see salmonberries in the store, I think I saw them for sale once.  Do people not know how delish they are?  It doesn't look like many other people are picking them.  More for me!  

I have thought of one drawback to moving.  Right now I live close to the farms that ship their produce into the city.  It is kind of nice to be able to buy flats of berries fresh from the farmer.  Today I went to visit a farmers stand that just opened up a couple days ago.  Maan Farm on 790 McKenzie Road, Abbotsford.  It's early in the season, and it looks like they aren't selling any of their own produce. It all looks like the same stuff that's in the grocery store.  They also have some gourmet grocery items, a dairy section, and frozen locally made foods like perogies, stuffed potatoes.  I think they also have a restaurant/cafe, but I'm not sure, it wasn't set up yet.

They didn't have any organic produce- which was the whole reason I went.  But in a couple weeks they will have their no-spray berries.  I'll go back then and check it out. 

 I think it will be a fun place to go visit with kids.  They have a picnic area, a play ground, tractor rides, a petting zoo and corn/sunflower mazes.  But it's not free to do all of those things, but it would be a good way to spend a hot summer afternoon.