Feasting and Fun

Hard to believe this will be the last market of August. It’s too soon to start thinking about fall routines! Instead, come feast and have fun in lively, lovely Dufferin Grove.

To keep you cheering between the Olympics and Paralympics, we’re holding our 2nd annual Watermelon Seed Spitting Contest this week. Unlike those other events, no testing or training is required, and instead of cold, hard medals, there are prizes you can eat! We’ve got categories for all ages as well as specialties:

  • Freestyle: the Artistic Gymnastics of the Watermelon Seed World!

  • Synchro: for Pairs and Partners (matching outfits optional, bibs recommended)

  • Ultimate Challenge: Just before the closing ceremonies, category winners will have a chance to shatter (or splatter?) all previous records!

Serious competitors, first-timers, and the merely curious are invited to report to the official seed spitting zone (down by Ted Thorpe’s table) from 4:30 on.

Here’s another invitation, from Liz Martin and Paul Barber:

Come join us and our Scottish Country Dancing friends in our annual dancing-in-the-park event at 6:30 pm. You’ll hear the celtic music….Great exercise, both physically and mentally, and loads of toe-tapping fun! Hope to see you there tripping the light fantastic with us.

But wait, there’s news about the food, too:

The Sosnicki Organic Produce report: “Tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes and peppers! Red Shepherds and bells! Cabbage, kale, sweet onions, rainbow carrots! Still have cases of Romas, too, so folks can order at the booth or just grab a case.

Wild foods are bountiful right now. Jonathan Forbes writes: “We will have fresh wild blueberries with a special: 2 L for $32. Plus, we will have fresh chanterelles, lobster mushrooms, and this year’s first Hedgehog mushrooms.”

We’ll have a couple of absences:

From Erika and Andrew at Waymac Mushrooms: “It looks like we truly won’t be able to make it this week. We are still having substantial cooler and production issues.”

Sorry to say that Urban Harvest/Earthly Paradise won’t be at market this week as Pablo and Colette will be north of Kingston at a seed breeding workshop with Dr Michael Mazourek from Cornell University, talking about breeding open-pollinated vegetable seed for organic growers in the North East. See you all next week.”

Other notes:

Jennifer Osborne will be bringing more lamb, wool and ice cream from All Sorts Acres.

Debbie Wiecha‘s peaches continue to dazzle tastebuds and dribble juice down chins. Brace yourselves, they will probably be available for just one more sweet week.

TC’s Tibetan MoMos and Fressy Bessie Ice Pops will be visiting.

Mike Fohr will be sharpening knives up by the rinkhouse, where you can take advantage of our ATM if you need extra cash.

In the hustle-bustle last time, an astonishing number of bags from our free ‘bag depot’ were used to haul away delicious purchases. WE NEED MORE BAGS! Please round up any clean and useful bags you can contribute for re-use and bring them to the market info-table. On a related topic, you can help vendors cut costs and reduce waste by bringing along your own containers. Savvy shoppers, take note: if you bring a cup, you can pay what you choose for the small size of ChocoSol’s refreshing cold chocolate beverage.

See you at the market!
Anne Freeman

Vendors this week:

Ali Harris
All Sorts Acres

Bees Universe
Best Baa
Chocosol
Country Meadows
Culture City
DeFloured
Dufferin Park Bakers
Earth & City
Everdale Organic Farm
Evelyn’s Crackers
Floralora Flowers
Forbes Wild Foods
Jackie Kwitko (Fressy Bessie) ice pops
JK Fries
Kind Organics
Knuckle Down Farm

Marvellous Edibles
Mike the Knife Guy
Niagara Lavender
Pine River Organic Farm
Plan B
Shared Harvest Community Farm
Sosnicki Organic Produce
Spade & Spoon
Tapioca Gourmet
TC’s Tibetan MoMos

Thorpe’s Organic Produce
Ujamaa Farm
VQA Wines: Tawse Winery
Ying Ying Soy Food