Organic Week News

Happy Organic Week! And it’s a beauty!

Sosnicki Organic Produce will have the first of their corn, with peak hitting next time! Are you wondering why we don’t have piles of corn all summer long? Good question for an Organic Week answer! First of all, you can’t plant corn early unless the seeds are treated with fungicide to prevent them from rotting in the cold ground, so organic corn is always a later crop. Second, corn is a heavy feeder. To keep their soil fertility strong, organic growers have to practice careful crop rotation (one of the key features of successful organic farming) instead of using chemical fertilizers. It’s challenging to grow corn without toxic pesticides, too, so you can see why they don’t plant endless quantities.

The sweet old-fashioned treat that our growers bring us is a vastly different crop from the corn grown for use in processed foods. For years the runoff from massive-scale, over-fertilized, mono-crop agriculture has had terrible impacts on the the Gulf of Mexico, causing algae blooms and increasing the temperature of the water. The magnified consequences that occurred when Hurricane Harvey hit that too-warm water are a grim reminder of the need for change.

Our local organic farmers are doing something extraordinary, difficult, and inspiring. And we get to eat the results!

Wolf Chrapko from Everdale writes: Hello hello! This Thursday we are happy to present the following items at our stall: arugula, basil, red beets, rainbow beets, orange carrots, rainbow carrots, rainbow chard, cilantro, cucumbers, dill, bulb fennel, gai lan (Chinese broccoli), LOCAL ORGANIC GINGER, black kale, green kale, purple kale, kohlrabi, leeks, green onions, red storage onions, yellow storage onions, parsley, sweet peppers, radish, salad mix, spinach, winter squash, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and salad turnips!
For a sneak peak at a day in the life of our farm team, have a look at this video. Happy autumn! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvCFphJp1S0

Shaina Agbayani of Rootcare is teaming up with a guest chef to offer Kuku Sabzi, an herb infused Persian frittata made with Leeks, Parsley, Dill, Cilantro, Fenugreek & Turmeric infused local organic eggs. They’ll also be serving Gluten Free & Vegan Cornbread & Purple Yam Waffles with Six Nations Corn Flour.

Our first ever Dufferin Grove Farmers’ Market Repair Café was such a success that we’re already talking about hosting another, maybe in the spring. We aim to make it a tradition! If you’ve got more stuff to fix in the meantime, the wonderful Repair Café folks will be at College-Shaw Library this Saturday, September 16th from 1 to 3 pm. www.repaircafetoronto.ca

This week, the market is hosting a Community Reading of the Truth and Reconciliation Report, facilitated by artist (and market regular) claude wittmann:

In a symbolic gesture of acknowledgment of the people who were first here, in relationship with the land that we farm and eat from, claude wittmann and Berenicci Hershorn will set up a table to invite market-goers to read one or a few pages from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report (TRC report) aloud. The emphasis will be on being present with the text, absolutely not on good reading. There won’t be any amplifiers, but, as part of a project started in 2016 and entitled “2894”, the readings will be broadcast on an internet radio that plays previous readers 24/7: http://claudewittmann.ca/stream/2894.html
If you have any questions, please write to claude at clowittmann@gmail.com

Background: In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of Canada published a long report on the residential schools that children of Indigenous ancestry were forced to attend, sometimes even until the 1990s. The Commission interviewed survivors of these schools, wrote their history and composed a series of 94 recommendations to work towards an equal relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Peoples.

After his visit last week, urban aquaponic grower Alec Wheeler of Waterwheel wrote to say, “Despite the weather, we had a lot of great conversations and we found it very helpful.” If you’re curious to see how fish and plants work together in aquaponics, as part of Toronto’s Urban Agriculture week, Alec will be offering tours on Friday, September 15 between 4:00pm – 7:00pm and Saturday, September 16 between 9:00am – 3:00pm, just down the street at 442 Dufferin Street, Unit B.

Here are a few more quick notes to help you plan your shopping:

• Waymac will be absent one more time.
• All Sorts Acre returns, and Jennifer will be taking pre-orders for Shepherd’s Pies.
• Due to popular demand, Baha’s Food will be bringing their delicious samosas every other week for the next while.
• Patti Robinson is back, with a fine selection of Robinson Bread sourdough loaves and pastries.

See you at the market!
Anne Freeman

This Week’s Vendors:
Ali Harris
All Sorts Acre
Baha’s Food (2nd and 4th weeks of the month)
Bees Universe
Chocosol
Country Meadows
Culture City
DeFloured
Dufferin Park Bakers
Earth & City
Everdale
Forbes Wild Foods
Frogpond Farm Wines (2nd market of the month)
Kind Organics
Knuckle Down Farm
Marvellous Edibles
Monforte Dairy
Pine River
Plan B
Robinson Bread (every other week)
Rootcare (2nd market of the month)
Shared Harvest
Sosnicki Organic Produce
Spade & Spoon
Stas
Tapioca Toronto
Ted Thorpe
Urban Harvest