Farm to table, flower to bouquet meet Lisa Yang
A day in the life of market vendor Lisa Yang
According to famed French chef Michel Roux, a good menu should always be market-led. When traveling, the late chef always sought out the local food markets. He viewed them as reflections of national and regional heritage and culture — and I couldn’t agree more. Tasting locally-made artisan cheeses, sampling or cooking with regional and seasonal ingredients, these are my souvenirs when I travel.
The Penticton Farmers’ Market is one such market that is a regional source of pride. It never ceases to astonish me and it was one of the main reasons I chose to relocate to this city.
Our farm-to-table commitment runs deep here, and the market's continuation highlights the importance of supporting locallygrown provisions and the farmers and makers who make our world delicious.
Like every food market, it’s run by dedicated, hard-working people from young and old, and from very diverse backgrounds. I’ve met former chefs, academics and seasoned wild foragers, all dedicated to their craft and a full-time commitment to farming the land, sustainably and organically.
Many vendors hold down full or part-time jobs outside of their farms, and most drive in from locales as far away as Greenwood B.C., waking up in the early hours to prepare themselves — and their product — for market. Their strength and determination inspires me to also wake up early on Saturday and shop the market for my week’s menu.
You might recognize Lisa Yang from the market where she’s surrounded by a breathtaking array of flowers, from the exotic to the commonplace, all grown and handpicked from her farm off Lower Bench Road. The flowers often overtake the focus on produce she and her family also grow but for the last 17 years, the Yang family has provided us with delicious sustenance and breathtaking beauty for the table.
To better understand the day-to-day work of a farmer’s life Lisa recently gave me a tour of her farm to see what they grow and to glean a better understanding of what goes on behind the scenes.
Opening the immense decorative wrought iron gate of the Yang’s property, flowers of every ilk greet you. Rows and rows of dahlias in every colour, shape and size lead to a garage that is Yang’s workshop. Lisa, spry, energetic, and eternally happy, shows off her arsenal of foliage and flowers — more than 200 varieties are grown on site — that become her creatively wrought bouquets for weddings and caterers, for the market and other events. The floral names are as evocative as her bouquets, including Love-in-a-Mist and Bells of Ireland. Her regular flower customers hail from Vancouver to Summerland.
As we walk the farm, a handcrafted arbour covered with foliage drips with four kinds of squash, in all shapes, sizes and colours, acting like a tunnel as we walk through it. She talks about other vegetables growing in the vicinity — bitter melon, chayote, watermelon — and points to the 50-foot greenhouse that holds a jungle of sweet peas, and more flowers, including fragrant gardenias.
Inside, it’s humid and hot and the fragrant aromas are intoxicating. The interior is also dripping with four types of beans from colorfully speckled Hungarian beans to long asparagus or Chinese long beans, and three varieties of cucumbers.
“A little bit of everything,” she notes. In fact, wherever you walk on the Yang’s acreage, flowers and produce are in view. “I love flowers,” she admits, pointing out her blouse that also has a floral print. Her typical 16-hour day begins in March and runs until harvest and then into November for clean up. It’s early to rise and ends late in the night when, donned with a head lamp, she diligently hunts for pesky insects — slugs, earwigs, aphids and the like — a system that ensures her crops stay pest and pesticide-free.
Pesky insects that can destroy crops overnight is her expertise. She has a bachelor’s degree in crop management with a major in plant virology. And it was in a Beijing lab where she met her husband Yu. The two immigrated to Canada and Lisa worked at the Summerland Research Centre before taking the plunge to farming.
She relies on the good insects for assistance. For example, even though she bought 4,000 ladybugs one year, she finds that Hover flies — that tiny insect that resembles a bee ‚ does a far better job as an ally in pest management. She refers to the fly as a “garden guardian.”
Her love of food is also palpable. She says that the family grows what they like to eat, and while you’ll see the greatest hits of berries, vegetables and herbs, I always discover something new at her market stand.
Currently in season, I’ve recently enjoyed tender water spinach, yam or sweet potato leaves — I didn’t know you could eat yam leaves — and another new one for me, luffa leaves. All of them are tender and deeply nutritious, more so than regular spinach. While she prefers stir-frying, I’m big on braising the greens with a bit of garlic. Eating your greens has never been easier and more interesting. In previous years,
I’ve also purchased Penticton-grown peanuts from her, a project started and finished by her 86-year old mother.
Like other vendors, to ready themselves for the Saturday market, tasks begin the day before. She and other family members, be it her husband Yu, or one of their two twenty-something sons, pick produce, wash it, bundle it and store it. Then there is the packing and unpacking and display, sales, restocking and tear down.
One thing is missing this year, Lisa’s parents. Stalwart assistants and curious gardeners, they are stuck in China. While on vacation earlier this year, the COVID outbreak meant that while they’re safe, it’s deemed best that they stay with family in the countryside of Henan province, until it’s safe to return.
Another downside, here in the Okanagan, with wedding season pretty much cancelled and a decrease in the amount of vendors in the market, Lisa’s Flowers and the Yang’s business is down 50 to 90 percent from last year.
I admit the lineups for the Penticton Farmers’ Market have been daunting this year, but please it’s more important than ever to give the market and the farmers some love and support.
With flowers in tow, let the market lead your menu.
With fork and pen in hand, and a passion for culinary adventure, Shelora Sheldan, a Penticton writer, cook and traveller, goes in search of the delectable.