Hope you’ve been eating plenty of Everdale’s (rainbow and super-sweet orange) carrots, because there’s lots of reading ahead.

Everdale is pushing the local envelope this year, growing some crops we’ve usually had to import. Kyle writes: “Our ginger and turmeric are coming along nicely. Pre-sprouting started in late March and just in the last few weeks we’ve started to see some real growth in the hoop house. We may just get some fresh baby turmeric and ginger yet this season. If all continues to go well we should have these two crops available in September. Fingers crossed.” For now, as well as the carrots, they’ll have beets, green onion, head lettuce, cilantro, dill, parsley, basil and lots of different salad and cooking greens.

News that’s good but tough to share: The Akiwenzies have been invited to join the Saturday St. Lawrence Farmers’ Market. After many years of trips up and down the long road between Cape Croker and Toronto, they are hoping St. Lawrence will offer them enough sales that Andrew can come to town just once each week, so they are withdrawing from weekday markets. We’ll really miss having their superb fish at Dufferin, and Andrew‘s contribution to our community of vendors.

To cheer you up: Imagine the fragrance of peaches wafting through the park….No, you’re not dreaming, IT’S PEACH SEASON!! Last week, Debbie Wiecha of Niagara Lavender brought a tiny load and beat all records for fastest-sold-out vendor, but this time there should be a much bigger quantity. We still advise you to come and get some as early as you possibly can; they will be flying off the table.

Sosnicki Organic Produce news: “Well, if you noticed last week we had the first of our Fresh Dug Potatoes at Dufferin Grove. Didn’t get a chance to put them in the newsletter – Ben went out a few hours before the truck left and dug them up, the men washed and sorted them into baskets and quarts and voila – the freshest spuds around! Definitely more whites coming this week. Later on will be our yellow fleshed and French Fingerlings. Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!! Heirlooms, Cherry and Grape varieties galore. Also Ben’s a stickler for growing a tomato everyone seems to ask for: “A regular red tomato with flavour please!” So even thou I find that boring and love my heirlooms, our table will be a sea of baskets and quarts of regular red beefsteak that pack awesome flavour too. Roma’s are coming later on, no rush on those yet :). Sweet Onions, Zucchini and Cucumbers!!! The patch will wrap up soon, so I really hope everyone got their fill. Can’t forget Kale! We are busy as all heck around here harvesting our garlic patch (for oodles of seed for next year), hoeing fall cabbages and cauliflower too. Weeding our pepper patch and irrigating everything including the sweet corn, carrots and beets!” Jess, Ben & crew.

Way back on a cold winter day, a crew came to film at the market for a cable TV show called Market to Table. They put together a very nice set of interviews featuring the Dufferin Park Bakers, Kind Organics, Marvellous Edibles, Country Meadows and ChocoSol. There’s a link to our episode on YouTube. Ava, Sandra, Jens, Angelos and Byron, thanks for making us look so good.

More market celebrity news: Dawn Woodward of Evelyn’s Crackers has devoted years to developing wonderful crackers and baking made from Ontario grains. In fact, she is probably our region’s foremost expert on the producers and potential of heritage and organic grains, and she’s passionate about sharing this knowledge. Evelyn’s Crackers won’t be at the market this week because Dawn is a keynote speaker at The Grain Gathering in Seattle, a conference which ‘brings together professional and home bakers, maltsters, brewers, distillers, millers, farmers, wheat breeders, chefs, food writers, wood-oven builders…’ Wow, you get the idea! Well done, Dawn!

We’ve got tasty chilly treats to go with hot summer weather. Best Baa and All Sorts Acres will have ice cream, and visiting vendors Shannon and Ashlea of ‘It’s Hot Pops‘ will be bringing fruity frozen pops, made mainly with locally in season organic fruits and veggies.

Best Baa also has a market special this week: any 2 soft cheeses for $13! (Regularly 7.25 – 8.75 each).

Two of Spade & Spoon’s ‘greatest hits’ are back! They’ve got fresh batches of Low sugar Strawberry Rhubarb and their hard-to-beat Raspberry Jam ready for you. Also, Eloise has a perfect first tooth, which is extra sweet.

Nile and Jackson Kennedy are all over town these days, making their famous fries for thousands of eager eaters. When they asked to join our market, we had a lot of discussions about ingredients and sources. The quantity of oil necessary for deep-frying makes it prohibitively expensive to use certified organic local oil, so we agreed that sunflower oil is a good non-GMO option (unlike soy, canola, or ‘vegetable oil’ blends). Organic potatoes are a must, though, in keeping with the market’s mandate. Nile and Jackson have been getting organic potatoes from Pfennings, a local farm-based distributor, but the local supply of storage potatoes has run out, and although we’re starting to see new potatoes on market tables such as the Sosnickis’, large-scale harvests for wholesaling haven’t happened yet. For the next few weeks, they’ll have to use conventional potatoes to make their fries, but they’ll switch back to organic as soon as they can.

Please remember that you are always welcome to ask vendors questions about any of the ingredients in market food, growing methods, animal care on the farms, etc. We don’t claim to be perfect, but we do aim for open and friendly communication between producers and eaters. Those connections are what the market is all about.

See you at the market!

Anne Freeman

P.S. If all goes as planned, this will be the week we get an ATM.

Vendors we expect this time:

Ali Harris