Penticton Christmas Market

I didn’t know that I wanted some furniture made out of old wine barrels before I stopped by the Penticton Christmas market in the heritage Cannery building this morning. The market is fairly slow and small but this is Penticton in November. It’s worth worth a stop.

oak barrel wine rack

I was crossing my fingers and toes that Joy Road Catering would have a table set up with their to-die-for homemade granola. No luck. But there was some fun stuff: sweaters and soap, baked goods and glass beads, jewelry and all the other crafty doodads you’d expect. Most interesting was The Broken Barrel Furniture Co., a business that makes handcrafted furniture from old oak wine barrels sourced from wineries in Naramata, Kelowna and Oliver. Their motto is something like “the tables are built strong enough to dance on.” Nice! I’d like one of the coat hangers made from barrel staves.

Julius Weber, of J&S Weber Fruit Summerland had a killer old-school fruit stand going on, stocking over seven varieties of organic apples and a slim selection of pears and fresh unshelled nuts. I loaded up on the MACs, Spartans and Fujis that were selling for 50 to 60 cents a pound.

Julius Weber selling his sweet wares

He was pushing the Newtown apples as stars for baking and cooking (clearly he doesn’t know me) and was also hawking Golden and Red Delicious, Jonagold, Mutsu and Sinta. You can find Julius and his lovely, tiny, tasty apples at the indoor Kelowna Farmer’s Market most often and around Penticton winter markets (as suits him).

The Cannery building is also home to the cozy CAN Coffee and the Cannery Stage. A neat, multi-purpose coffee shop turned theatre turned art gallery (local artist Joel Reid is currently on exhibit). It’s a great place to soak up that arty, local vibe with a newspaper or a friend over a steaming Americano.

The Penticton Christmas market runs every Saturday from 10am to 2pm until December 20.