Market day
If you live in the Queen West area and are connected to me on Facebook or Twitter, or read my previous post, it would have been hard to miss my excitement this week at the opening of the new market. This is a certified farmers’ market, part of the MyMarket program bringing local farmers into urban markets, and is in the same location as Toronto’s third public market originally opened in 1837 but closed in the early 1900’s. With today’s markets, Farmers’ Markets Ontario does most of the logistical work, but I’m on the local volunteer advisory committee to help promote the market and staff the information booth on site.
Today’s opening was a bit small, since there isn’t a lot of local produce on yet, but more farmers will be showing up over the coming weeks. Today, we had:
- Bees Universe with honey and honey products (including beeswax)
- Thames River Melons with asparagus and the first local strawberries of the season
- Loffredo Fruit Farms with baked goods from their own fruit orchards
- Boz Toic with a wide variety of vegetables including wild garlic, spinach, onions, lettuce and other greens, carrots, potatoes, and potted tomato and herb plants
- Monckton Organic Farm & Bakery with whole grain organic bread and pasta
- A maple syrup producer from Milton whose name I missed, but looks like “Danbrie Farms” on the closeup of my photos
I went over just before the 9am opening, and found things mostly set up – they’ve all done this a thousand times before – and a few early customers starting to trickle in. I wandered around taking photos and talking to the vendors, and ended up with one of Loffredo’s freshly baked peach muffins to eat on the spot (delicious, and a deal at $1).
By 9:30, there was a steady crowd through the market, and when I left around 11 with my haul, it was still going strong. I returned just after 12:30 to find many less shoppers (it was due to close at 1pm), and a lot of depleted vendor tables: Loffredo’s and Monckton were both almost sold out of the baked goods and pies, Thames River’s strawberries were completely gone – at $6/pint! – (although they still had quite a bit of asparagus left), and even Boz Toic’s well-stocked vegetable table was sold out of a number of items.
Here’s what I took home, by the way:
- A baguette and whole wheat pasta from Monckton
- Chocolate zucchini loaf from Loffredo
- Asparagus from Thames River
- Wild garlic, spinach and basil from Boz Toic
I’m busy figuring out what to do with the wild garlic for dinner, since I’ve never used it before: I’ve blended some of the leaves with lemon and olive oil and used it as a dressing on the steamed and chilled asparagus to have for dinner, and I’ll chop the bulbs and cook chicken breasts with them and a bit of white wine.
The really cool thing about the market was how it became a place of conversation: neighbours met amongst the stalls, comparing purchases and examining babies and dogs (in this neighbourhood, there are many more of the latter than the former), and generally having a nice outing.
If you want to stay up to date on the St. Andrews market, join the Facebook group or follow us on Twitter. There will be more vendors coming each week as the fruit and vegetable season kicks in, and one farm is being certified right now to allow them to bring their (frozen) meat, including lamb and chicken. I, for one, am very happy to be buying local.
