Happy Solstice Market News

Happy Solstice Market News

This year’s winter solstice occurred at 5:44 am on Wednesday December 21st in Toronto, so now the sun is bringing the light back to us. In keeping with a few of the many ancient traditions celebrating the sun’s return, here’s this week’s to-do list: forget all grudges and quarrels, ignore rules of orderly behaviour, light fires, give gifts, and feast!

Before sharing this week’s news, I have to thank everyone–farmers, vendors and customers alike–who came to the market on the wild and windy day we had last Thursday. Go team!  Reports of lengthy and challenging drives home rolled in, but everybody made it.

This week, we’ll have a much longer list of vendors, and some will be setting up outside as well as in. Before you tuck in for a long winter’s nap, come and fill your shopping bags! No market next week, so you’ll want extra provisions to see you through until we return on January 5th, 2017.

The snow won’t quit up Alliston way, but neither will Bob Felhazi. His assistant Laura will be at market with Pine River’s famously clean and tasty organic vegetables. Shared Harvest, Marvellous Edibles, Plan B and Ted Thorpe will be bringing fresh produce, too, and Kind Organics will keep us nicely supplied with fresh salad blends from their greenhouses.

newfarm01

After a long and tiring move, All Sorts Acre is back! Tim and Jennifer have now moved to their own forever farm just north of Mount Forest. Those are some of the farm animals settling in nicely in the photos up top.  Jennifer is happy to be back right before the holidays. She’s bringing a fantastic selection to market:

  • A wide variety of cuts of 100 PERCENT GRASSFED LAMB: roasts, sausages, chops, steaks, racks, shanks, ground and stewing
  • PASTURED NON-GMO FEED DUCK: whole ducks, 6-8 pounds each
  • WOOL, YARN AND FLEECE: yarns and wool for knitting, felting and spinning, wool dryer balls, sheep milk soaps (with or without felt covers), farm raised and locally processed sheepskin fleeces in a variety of sizes, styles, and beautiful natural colours.

More bad luck for Sean Lovell of Lovell Trout Farm. He apologizes, but will be unable to attend until the first market of the new year.

This will be the last Dufferin market until early spring for Urban Harvest. Lots of seeds and body care to choose from this time.

Andrew McIlmoyle from Waymac Farms has a good crop of shiitakes to bring. We’ll probably fit him into the garage.

We’ll have plenty of baking (with and without gluten), including Ali Harris’s wonderful black cake if we’re lucky, plus wild foods, chocolate, turkey pieces, pickles, chutneys and other ingredients for holiday meals, as well as lots to choose from for last-minute gifts. We look forward to celebrating the turning of the light with you, and wish you much happiness over the holidays and in the New Year.
See you at the market!
Anne Freeman

This week’s vendors:

Ali Harris
All Sorts Acre
Bees Universe
Chocosol
Culture City
Country Meadows
DeFloured
Dufferin Park Bakers
Forbes Wild Foods
Kind Organics
Marvellous Edibles
Monforte Dairy
Pine River Organic Farm
Plan B
Shared Harvest Community Farm
Spade & Spoon
Ted Thorpe
Urban Harvest
Waymac Farms

 WE’LL BE BACK JANUARY 5th,, 2017!