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Vol. 18, No. 38, Wednesday, August 16, 2023 www.LamontLeader.com
Lamont Farmer’s Market enjoying a successful first year New local farmer balances teaching career with farm work BY JANA SEMENIUK Teacher Stewart Schwab is the proud owner of Lamont County’s Schwab Farms, fulfilling a childhood dream of farming by raising 150 Lohmann laying hens and bringing farm fresh eggs to the Lamont Farmers’ Market each week. “They are fed oats, wheat and barley grown right on the farm,” he said. “I’ve got a couple of steers out there too. As a kid, I (always) wanted to be on the land (but) life took me a different way.” Schwab’s parents, who themselves were raised on a farm, brought up their two sons on the edge of the city of Edmonton and moved onto a farm once the brothers graduated high school. “They felt it was important that if my brother and I wanted to go to university that they wanted us to have the access for that,” he said. “And then once we made the decisions where we were going, they returned back to their love. They were not city people, they were agricultural people.” After graduating high school in 1997 from J. Percy Page High School, Schwab decided to go into teaching, while his brother started Schwab Mechanical outside of Thorhild. Schwab eventually moved to B.C. with his wife and two children, son Isaac and daughter Anna Lee. Tragedy struck the family, however, when Schwab’s father passed away from dementia over a year ago and once again when his mother’s farm
house burned to the ground a few months later.
Schwab made the decision to move in with his mother to help rebuild her
Teacher/Farmer Stewart Schwab, of Schwab Farms, holds up a carton of the fresh farm eggs, Aug. 2, that he brings to the Lamont Farmer's Market each week. Photo: Jana Semeniuk
home while working as a teacher for Aspen View and beginning Schwab Farms. “My wife is finishing up a specialty degree in post-natal care (in B.C.) and COVID slowed those plans down a bit,” he said. “But the goal is to try and get things back (together).” Today, Schwab said he sells his eggs regularly at the Lamont Farmer’s Market and also has a contract in Waskatenau. Meanwhile, Lamont Farmer’s Market organizer Peggy Sawchuk said that for a first-year market Lamont is doing great. “We are averaging 14-16 vendors per week and we are very lucky to have very few commercial tables,” she said, adding that vendor Jodie Derksen brings fresh fruit each week. “We are lucky Jodie brings in fresh fruit from B.C. each week.” Sawchuk said they are also lucky for the support they have received from the Town of Lamont. “The town did a wonderful job putting up nice big signs for us,” she said. “We also have the advantage of being able to be inside or outside. Some of our vendors, like one lady who has linens, can’t be out in the dusty parking lot. It’s a different atmosphere being outside and seeing tents set up in the parking lot. It’s exciting.” Sawchuk said the Lamont Farmer’s Market, which runs out of the Lamont Hall and parking lot, will operate each Wed. from 3:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. with the last weekly market of the year scheduled for Sept. 27.