What’s Fresh at Historic St. Andrew’s MyMarket This Week

Market times: Saturday, 9am-1pm, rain or shine

Fruit

Every week brings new fresh produce to the market: keep an eye on what’s coming up with our crop availability chart at http://my-market.ca/availability.html.

Strawberries are almost gone, but O.K. Farms will have some this week, plus raspberries continuing through the summer. Loffredo Fruit Farms has had sweet cherries for the past two weeks, and sour cherries started to appear last week. Cherries won’t be around for long, but you can freeze them for later use in cooking, using these great cherry recipes from Foodland Ontario: http://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/fruits/cherries/recipes. Their Super Simple Cherry Pie is really easy to make (even for a novice baker) and produces an impressive pie with a minimum amount of effort.

Vegetables

On the vegetable front, Bosco Farms will have French green beans and golden wax beans new this week, great for eating now or freezing and pickling, to complement their already impressive display of broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, cabbage, onions, fava beans, zucchini, cucumbers, beets, carrots and several varieties of heirloom tomatoes. Also new this week: Godelie Family Farm will have sweet corn, a sure sign that summer is here.

O.K. Farms has fresh garlic — a huge improvement in flavour over the usual grocery store variety — and garlic scapes, which are the curly tops cut off garlic in order to allow the heads to grow larger. Scapes have a lovely mild garlic-green onion taste, and you can toss them with olive oil and grill them lightly on the BBQ, or make a tasty pesto: http://www.whatgeekseat.com/wordpress/2007/06/16/garlic-scape-pesto/

VanHart will be back with their wide array of heirloom tomatoes and organic greens, perfect for a summer tomato and basil salad. Several varieties of potatoes from O.K. Farms and Godelie will have you forget that low-carb diet (at least for a day): scrub them, cut into chunks, and seal in a foil packet with unpeeled garlic cloves, pancetta and olive oil to put on the BBQ. Thames River Melons is bringing in zucchini and mini squash, although last week was the last of their asparagus.

Baked Goods, Preserves and More

To complement the fresh produce, Monckton Organic Farm grows their own wheat, grinds it, then bakes it into a variety of breads for the market. In addition to such delights as olive shallot loaf and sundried tomato focaccia, they have whole wheat flour, bran and whole wheat pasta available. For your sweet tooth, Loffredo’s has fresh-baked fruit pies, tarts and muffins, plus jams and preserves including an unbelievable extra hot cranberry pepper jelly — great with cheese on a bit of Monckton’s bread, with some cucumber slices on the side to put out the fire.

Even if you’re watching your diet, there are two natural sweeteners that are good for you as well as great tasting: honey and maple syrup. Bees Universe has a variety of honey, plus beeswax candles and skin care products with bee pollen — drop by to hear more about the natural benefits of honey and bee pollen. We may also see Jay Thoman with maple syrup, maple butter and maple candy.

You can take home a bit of decoration with your market produce: drop by Cedar Creek Farm’s booth for fresh cut flowers. They’ve had a few weeks of magnificent peonies, and will be surprising us with new varieties in the coming weeks.

We’re actively working to bring in farmers with meat, cheese and eggs — be patient, and keep supporting our fledgling market in the meantime! Fresh produce from local farmers means better quality, better tasting food with a lower carbon footprint that supports the local economy.

Next Week: George Brown Chefs Get Creative With Crostini

July 25th at the market will be the first of our chef demonstrations, with chefs (and student chefs) from the George Brown Chef School using that day’s fresh market produce to create unique crostini for sampling. See what ingredients they use, how they prepare them, and take home some fresh menu ideas — and ingredients — for an easy summer treat. The demonstration will run from 11am-12pm, but plan to arrive early to enjoy a coffee from La Merceria and a muffin from Loffredo’s while you shop the freshest produce in town.

Where To Find Us

The Historic St. Andrew’s MyMarket is at the corner of Adelaide Street West and Maud Street, about halfway between Bathurst and Spadina, in the parking lot beside St. Andrew’s Park: http://bit.ly/aAQKG We’re there every Saturday between 9am-1pm, rain or shine, until October 31st. Come for the freshness, stay for the fun!

Here’s where to find us online:

Join our Facebook group at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77018143011

Follow @standrewsmarket on Twitter at http://twitter.com/standrewsmarket

See photos of the market (or contribute your own) on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/groups/1143510@N21/pool/

Email us at standrewsmarket@gmail.com if you want to be added to this email list, or if you’d like to help out as a market volunteer