Abuzz with Excitement

Hello Market Friends:

For beekeepers, the first warm days of spring can be an anxious time, as they check hives for winter damage. I have been working with John and Irina Alecu of Bees Universe for 15 years (give or take a few) and I have never seen John so pleased with what he found as he was last week. Their hives are absolutely loaded with healthy honeybees! He says it’s the best start to spring he has had in all his years of beekeeping in southern Ontario. 

The worrying isn’t over yet. Now we have to hope that there are no deep freezes before spring fully settles in. Only then can we be reasonably sure of a sweet year ahead.

Chag sameach to everyone celebrating Passover right now. We were hoping to have fresh horseradish in time,  but in this part of the world it’s remarkable to find anything edible sprouting up where there were huge piles of snow just a couple of weeks ago. Christine from COSC dug a few fresh roots for us this week if you are craving it!

Also in the category of Impossibly Early Things from the Ground, both COSC and Marvellous Edibles have freshly dug Jerusalem Artichokes, and Aldergrove has more superb Candy Carrots!

In a related category, Outrageously Early Green Foods, we’ve got spinach grown by Plan B and Marvellous Edibles along with flowering mizuna, baby salad mix, and baby mustard leaves, as well as daikon radish and pea shoots, sunflower sprouts, and seedling mix grown by Essa. It gets better each week!

Everyone who has chickens reports that they are laying more eggs now that the days are longer. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. In case you didn’t know, battery-caged hens are subjected to artificial light to trick them into laying more. Not so on our market farms. Here are some of the lovely colours of eggs laid by the various breeds of chickens in the flock at Canadian Organic Seed Co.

Magic Oven has expanded their already delicious menu with the addition of 3 kinds of Burritos:

Brunch (with eggs & cheese), Butter Chicken (with root veg) and Vegan Cauliflower. YUM!

A friendly reminder:

Our policy is that everyone who comes to pick up orders at 270 Gladstone must wear a properly fitting mask both when lining up and in the order pickup area, and try to maintain 2 metres physical distance from others.

If you forget to bring a mask, give us a wave from the parking area and we will bring you a disposable one.

If you, or the person picking up your order cannot or will not wear a mask, please tell us before joining the line, or even better, include a note on your order so we know to send a staff member out to the parking area with it.

Also, please be sure to follow Nicole’s instructions about where to wait while your order is being assembled.

Thanks for helping to ensure that order pickups are safe for all and the market can continue to operate through these challenging times.We will give a list of the people who didn’t get their Urban Harvest products last week to our pickup and delivery teams, but if you haven’t told us yet whether you want to receive your item(s) this week or prefer a market credit, do drop us a line.

Whether you are celebrating Passover, Holi or Easter, or simply enjoying the change of seasons, we wish you health and joy in the coming days.

Anne & the Market Crew 

P.S. It will be a busy week at St. Anne’s! They asked us to share this invitation with you: