Monthly Archives: October 2021

Hello Market Friends:This week, we invite you behind the scenes at the market depot, to find out how our logistics team tackles one of the biggest challenges of running the market online: how to safely and quickly get delivery orders to our customers.There’s a problem that was formulated in 1930 which is still discussed in computer science courses today called the Travelling Salesperson problem. For our purposes, let’s call it the Market Delivery Captain problem. It goes something like this:Given a list of destinations and the distances between each pair of destinations, what is the shortest possible route that visits each destination exactly once and returns to the starting point?

If you ask my husband (aka Mr. Math) he will be delighted to explain (at considerable length) that the Market Delivery problem belongs to a class known as NP-complete, which basically means it’s a problem for which there is no simple solution. Fortunately, this problem has been intensively studied, so although you may be imagining the mysterious interior of the market depot looking like a supercomputer lab, we actually just use cell phones to map out the best circuits. However, optimizing routes is only one aspect of our mission.
First, we have to get our (frequently washed) hands on the inventory of about 38 vendors, including the earlybirds who wait for Inventory Captain Izak to open up at 7 am (Hi Nacho!), the unpredictables (will that be arriving Wednesday or Thursday Ruth?), and the (cough–occasionally–ahem) late arrivers (Rafael! You made it!). Then we count everything literally from soup to nuts. This is when we find out that there is a lonely pile of cabbages in Indy Kooner’s driveway that didn’t get on the truck, or that Carole’s multigrain loaves didn’t meet her high standards this morning.When inventory is complete we summon the whole crew outside for our weekly meeting. This is mainly a list of things to watch out for: yes, there really are 5 sizes of Holly and Ed’s sweet potatoes! 

Our elite squad of pickers and packers knows that the first orders need to get out the door early or the last ones will arrive in the moonlight! We have four stalwart drivers: Jay “Sr”, Jay “Jr”, Jonathan, and Lisa.

Jonathan, who is known for his photos taken along the way, just celebrated a year of driving for us, and Jay “Sr.” Brodbar is not far behind.

Recently, to augment our team, we have formed a great relationship with nrbi, a delivery company that uses e-bikes. I love to watch these guys loading up! They use two main bike designs: the Triobike and the Babboe, and some powerful human energy as well as electricity. Here’s Lucas packing the Babboe, which can carry up to 200 kg!

My favourite moment in the elaborate jigsaw required to fit several mega-orders in was when Lucas checked the height of the stalk of Brussels Sprouts to see if he could still close the hatch!When the last load goes out, we breathe a collective sigh of relief, and then start watching and worrying about any messages that come back telling tales of trouble. Our whole crew tries very hard to minimize errors, and we are constantly fine-tuning our systems. We are the first to admit that we are not perfect, though, and we really appreciate customers who understand that we are partners in this community endeavour, not Amazon staff. Cheers to a hard days work!

We should give a nod to all of you who pick up your orders, and the methods you have developed for getting them home safely. Here’s a dandy custom cart designed by one of our regulars, Chloe. It can be adapted for her rabbit to ride along too! Nicely done!

On to what the vendors’ are offering:Buschbeck Farms has a great selection of lamb to make hearty meals for chilly nights, and woolens to keep you cozy on chilly days!Whether you want stalks, towers, or baskets of Brussels Sprouts, The Greenhouse Eatery and Marvellous Edibles have got you covered. Lots of squash to choose from, too!Kooner Organics has a huge harvest of fresh cauliflower, a vegetable that can pretend to be rice, flour or potatoes if you are so inclined, or stand out on its own.  Summergreen’s mushroom production has ended for a few months, but gardeners take note: hardy trees and shrubs need to go through a hard frost before bare-root transplanting, so Derick will have some exciting options as soon as the weather gets colder!Forbes has enough fresh wild mushrooms this week to keep all our mycophiles happy!Ta Neter Farm is back this week with Scotch Bonnet peppers (be sure you know what you are doing with these extremely hot little peppers!), eggplants, and more.Enjoy seasonal eating at its best and support our farmers and vendors! Anne & the Market CrewP.S. Once again this week we will feature a display of stained glass pieces made by the late father of market supporter Aliana Mei Hung Chan. She is offering them to anyone who makes a donation to the market! These would make great gifts or lovely additions to your home. P.P.S. Next week, Nov 11, we have another Repair Cafe dropoff day, and we will be celebrating the Market’s Birthday with CAKE! Don’t miss it!

Hallowe’en week always makes me nostalgic for Dufferin Grove Markets of the past. Especially in years when Thursday came close to the 31st of October, we had a lot of silly fun. 

Some of you have only been connected to the market in its online form, and haven’t had a chance to meet our farmers, vendors and staff in their usual attire, let alone transformed for the occasion. I wouldn’t want to give you the impression that we are all a bit wacky, that is, if it were not true! You can’t be afraid of being labelled ‘different’ if you want to develop your own food business or make a life in organic farming; these choices require an independent spirit, a lot of imagination, a good sense of humour, and a touch of madness.

This year, along with the spooky fun, we have been intrigued to learn more about the days after Hallowe’en and the rich Mexican traditions of Dia de los Muertos. As explained by Erick Lopas, proprietor of Hola Alegrias, this is the time when the door of the spirit world opens, and those who have left this world return to visit. This is cause for celebration, and special foods and drinks are prepared to make sure that deceased loved ones are happy before they return to the spirit world once again.

Erick has been working tremendously hard to prepare calaveras (sugar skulls) for sale this week only. Some are made entirely of sugar, and slightly larger ones are made of chocolate and puffed amaranth. Each comes with a list of the symbolic meanings of the colours used in the decorations. The molds for these skulls are hard to come by, so Erick has been able to bake only 4 at a time, but he is working with a 3-D printer to make additional molds for next year, so he can increase production. Take a walk on the other side and support a growing business while you are at it!

Our Day of The Dead Mix will have these calaveras and freshly prepared tamales from our other Mexican food vendor, La Mexicana, delicious Peruvian dried mangoes from Lapapampa, and ChocoSol’s traditional Xococatl Drinking Chocolate to honour the occasion with treats for all! There is a new batch of witches’ brooms in adult and kid sizes on the way, and all sorts of other goods to go with the season on our special Spooky page. Don’t miss it!

The Greenhouse Eatery and Knuckle Down Farm return this week with garlic in many forms, greens and fall veggies. Great to have you both back, Audrey and Jenny!Carole Ferrari has made a dream come true: partially baked frozen Challah to finish baking at home so you can enjoy it at its very freshest without getting out of your pajamas! This dream was only realized for a few customers though as they’ve already sold out! Stay tuned for next week!

We’ve got beautiful cool weather greens galore: Swiss Chard, Tatsoi, Tokyo Bekana, Collards, Rapini, Arugula, Bok Choy, Spinach, Red-Veined Mizuna and lots of Kale. Wow, that’s a list!You may notice that our website has a fresh look. Big thanks to Peter Wills for taking the plunge and merging our old Dufferin Grove Market site with our new Shop site while keeping all the history of the market. Hope you enjoy browsing!Anne & the Market Crew

P.S. THIS SATURDAY:Clay & Paper Theatre presents the 22nd annual NIGHT OF DREAD, a parade of fearful pageantry, revels and mockery on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30TH, staged from Christie Pits Park (Crawford St) to Dovercourt Park* AT 6PM. At this much loved, family-friendly, community event, Torontonians are invited to call on, mock and banish their private and collective fears through parade and pageantry, music and ritual. This year, people will be able to enjoy the procession from the comfort of their front lawns, porches and sidewalks in this parade-in-place, performer-only event. In lieu of the traditional Night of Dread bonfire and other revels in the park, this year Clay and Paper Theatre will collect people’s fears during the parade with their Fear Catcher. Later, the Fire Master will name, mock and burn everyone’s fears for them in a ritual burning, which will be filmed and shared online at a later date. During the parade Clay and Paper Theatre encourages all audience members to raise a dreadful racket with pots and pans, drums and noismaking.Note: This year’s parade will begin at the top of Christie Pits Park along Crawford Street and move south to the alley north of Bloor St, cross over east to Shaw Street, travel north along Shaw St. to Hallam St., continue west until Westmoreland Ave, turn south on Westmoreland, and then continue parading around Dovercourt Park by way of Fernbeck  Ave, Bartlett Ave and Southview Ave, ending in Dovercourt Park itself. 

Hello Market Friends: I don’t know about you, but I have a new-found appreciation for my neighbours’ Hallowe’en displays. Last year was terribly gloomy and full of real fear, and I am looking forward to seeing more kids out having fun again, even a cautious, Covid-safe version of fun. Our friends from Clay and Paper Theatre weren’t sure until very recently if they would put on Night of Dread once again, but they have re-invented the event to go with the times. A full announcement is at the bottom of this newsletter. Matt and Peter have been working on a Spooky market page to inspire you, and next week, we hope to have more items not only for Hallowe’en, but for the rich and colourful traditions of Dia de los Muertes. Take a walk on the wild side, and try something new! Homemade costumes and decorations are always my favourites, and edible ones get bonus points! Maybe Julie Swanson needs a couple of fresh bitter melons? Visit the Web Shop Kawartha Broom Company is away, but Bobby is working overtime to bring us a great selection of brooms for witches, warlocks, domestic gods and goddesses, and scary neat freaks for next week. I had the very good fortune of visiting two of our market farms recently, on a day when it felt like summer would last forever. Tucked up against the Niagara Escarpment, Marvellous Edibles has a little micro-climate, and this year has been among their best ever for production. That’s their big field full of kale, chard, leeks and cabbages up top. If you didn’t know that a cabbage is a thing of beauty, look again. Even if it turns chilly, your next salad is safely under cover, and another hoophouse nearby contains these bottle gourds: Later in the day, we stopped at Buschbeck Farms for a tour complete with Lamb Therapy. This lovely little one was a quadruplet who needed extra TLC, and Rowan (one of our Canada Summer Jobs staffers this past summer) was quite happy to offer some. The atmosphere on the farm is very peaceful, and the Buschbecks’ respect and care for their sheep is evident in all they do. We have a few farms away this week, but our selection is huge just the same! We would like to hear from you if your schedule makes it difficult to pick up orders within the times we currently offer. We’ll do our best to help you out! Wishing you a healthy, hearty week. Anne P.S. Coming soon: Clay & Paper Theatre presents the 22nd annual NIGHT OF DREAD, a parade of fearful pageantry, revels and mockery on SATURDAY, OCTOBER 30TH, staged from Christie Pits Park (Crawford St) to Dovercourt Park*, from 6:30 to 7:30pm. At this much loved, family-friendly, community event, Torontonians are invited to call on, mock and banish their private and collective fears through parade and pageantry, music and ritual. This year, people will be able to enjoy the procession from the comfort of their front lawns, porches and sidewalks in this parade-in-place, performer-only event. In lieu of the traditional Night of Dread bonfire and other revels in the park, this year Clay and Paper Theatre will collect people’s fears during the parade with their Fear Catcher. Later, the Fire Master will name, mock and burn everyone’s fears for them in a ritual burning, which will be filmed and shared online at a later date. During the parade Clay and Paper Theatre encourages all audience members to raise a dreadful racket with pots and pans, drums and noismaking. Note: This year’s parade will begin at the top of Christie Pits Park along Crawford Street and move south to the alley north of Bloor St, cross over east to Shaw Street, travel north along Shaw St. to Hallam St., continue west until Westmoreland Ave, turn south on Westmoreland, and then continue parading around Dovercourt Park by way of Fernbeck  Ave, Bartlett Ave and Southview Ave, ending in Dovercourt Park itself.

Hello Market Friends:

Happy SPOOKtober, Matt is writing today and has had spiderwebs and pumpkin lanterns in his apartment since October 1st, so hopefully you don’t mind this week’s macabre intrusion in your inbox. A few vendor and market updates first:

We are considering extending our pickup hours! We are always trying to hit the sweet spot of short waits and more happy customers. Our delivery slots have been hitting capacity more and more frequently and we don’t have the means to add many more spots, but perhaps if we had pickups later into the evening more folks could come down to pickup? Please let us know if you would switch to pickup if we had slots until 6pm or if you have friends and neighbours who would start ordering if we were open later. Thank you in advance for the input!

Indy wrote to Anne about their growing methods and some updates at Kooner Organics and I’ve included a few fun organic farm tidbits for y’all:

‘We use LOTS of cow manure that comes from my neighbour’s farm, who raises pasture-raised cows; we also do crop rotation and never plant the same vegetable in the same spot the following year, which all helps make good soil, making our vegetables taste better and keeps pests/diseases down.

However, we do lose a lot of crop to diseases/pests, but that’s part of farming.I do have some good news; just as I’m writing this email my new steel building is being offloaded at Kooner Farm organics, which will be a 3000sq ft structure to be used for storage, and one section is going to have a state of the art washing/packing station.’

Indy goes on to say that the buildings will help his team use their time more efficiently when getting produce ready for markets. Without the new building Indy only has a small shed, so it makes cleaning, packaging, and storing food quite a task! 

Kawartha Lakes has been busy in their workshop! Witch brooms are back in stock, as well as many favourites like Lobby and Kids’ brooms. We’ve gone on about these amazing pieces of functional art in previous newsletters, so if you need any more convincing, feel free to check out the brooms at the on-the-spot table (set up every market day at 270 Gladstone during pickup hours).

I got to try my first La Mexicana tamale this week and was beyond impressed. I knew they would be scrumptious but I was really surprised at how filling they were! They now have multi-packs available too, if you’ve already fallen in love.

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In August, I wrote about the most beautiful bounties I’d found at the market. As we are officially in fall, huge bushels of peaches and towering crates of corn won’t be found at 270 Gladstone. Fall is my favourite time to be at the market, though. Chilly winds are tossing yellow leaves and dragging fog across damp pavement now. Cherry Tomatoes and Seedling Mixes with Petals are all well and good, but if you want it darker, here are my favourite strange, gnarled, and just creepy goods at the market. 

I think celeriac might just be too ugly to eat unmashed or unblended. Recipes like Apple and Celeriac soup are perfectly suited for fall with hearty and just-a-little-sweet flavours. Who would know that a vegetable that looks like the missing link between troll dolls and bridge trolls could be such a delicious starchy veg?

I fried up last week’s Mushroom Assortment from Forbes and threw them on top of homemade pizza. This is either a picture of those mushrooms or the skeletal remains of a polydactyl cryptid (I have a lot of weird stuff on my camera roll, could be either).

Forbes also has Pickled Milkweed Pods which they admit are “one of the tastiest and most unusual wild veggies available to us.” You might not be able to imagine a use for something you’ve never considered eating before, but pickled milkweed pods might just end up on the best charcuterie board you’ve ever made, if you’re willing to get a little adventurous.

Annatto is what makes Monforte’s memelette pumpkin orange. Sharp and mild with lovely notes of nutty sweetness, it’s a real crowd pleaser. In a world of old cheddars and mozzarellas, be a memelette. 

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For a vegetable yanked from the ground, daikon radishes are shockingly white. Massive and ghostly pale with stubby little leaves poking out the top, daikons can’t hold a candle to red or watermelon radishes in the looks department. However, daikons work harder than the average radish; they are fantastic pickled, raw or braised, and hey, I ain’t ‘fraid of no ghosts.

“Those tomatoes don’t look very ripe…” Actually those are tomatillos! A fruit which can often be used in place of tomatoes, they are a little more acidic and a little less sweet than tomatoes and are the only option if you want to make real deal salsa verde. Tomatillos can hang out on your counter much longer than a tomato too, so they don’t mind if you don’t have the time to cook them up this week.

The Suyo Cucumber is the Jekyll to the field cucumber’s Hyde. Just as mild, crisp, and slightly sweet as you want a cucumber, but darker in colour with deep ridges, wild curves, and covered in prickly spikes. If you ever looked listlessly at the cucumbers in the grocery store and thought “I wish these were goth,” boy do we have the fruit for you!

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Perfectly round Pumpkin Spice Macaroons or baskets of rosy red Honey Crisps shouldn’t get all the love! I hope you try something a little strange or even a little wicked this week. In October we’ll continue to have more pumpkins and other Halloween items, as well as delicious Día de Muertos treats. So stay tuned! And don’t forget to tell us what you think about extending our pickup hours.


Matt and the Market Crew

Photo credit: Buschbeck Farms

Hello Market Friends:

At approximately 4:32 last Thursday, fall blew into the depot. Just like that, everyone was wishing they had worn one more layer of clothing, and looking forward to something warm and hearty for dinner. You may want to wear a sweater or some wool socks, but this week’s trip to the depot will be well-rewarded, because we have a great wealth of gorgeous fall foods arriving Thursday!

From Marvellous Edibles: “We are slowly starting to pick for storage. We already picked most of the potatoes [choose from Agria, Purple Russian or Huckleberry Gold this week], lots of very large cabbages, winter squash, purple top turnips, daikon and watermelon radish. Lots of good stuff! Fall greens are coming along quite nicely too; spinach, baby red radishes, arugula, are either ready or almost ready.”

Audrey from The Greenhouse Eatery emerged from her massive truck with gargantuan stalks of brussels sprouts last market day. These extraordinary vegetables are often underappreciated! Photographer and Market Friend Laura Berman taught me how to prepare them in a very easy and delicious way: 

Cut all but the tiniest in half and toss them with plenty of slivered garlic and a little olive oil in a hot frying pan JUST until they turn very bright green. They should still have a good crunch.

Don’t miss Audrey’s sweet arrangements to decorate your table, and her bunches of lovely fresh assorted herbs.

I have been intrigued by Ta Neter’s listing of Mullein, a plant I love for its soft leaves and beautiful tall flower stalks. I knew that historically, mullein leaves were used as moccasin or boot liners, but I asked Shabaka to tell us more about why they grow it. Here is the information he sent back:

“Mullein or Great Mullein (Verbascum thapsus) is a biennial herb with single stems which grow from a taproot. It was introduced from Eurasia and usually grows along the roadsides and waste places.  At Ta Neter Farm we grow mullein for leaves, which contain large amounts of mucilage, which soothes mucous membranes and has been shown to be anti-inflammatory. Flowers and leaves were used traditionally to make teas for treating chest colds, asthma, bronchitis, coughs, kidney infections, diarrhea, and dysentery. The dried leaves were also smoked to relieve asthma, spasmodic coughing, and fevers. Teas should always be strained because the leaf fuzz may irritate sensitive skin and throat membranes.” Such a great plant!

Nature’s Way is bringing bags of Black Oilseed Sunflower heads. Nail one to a post or add some to your birdfeeders and make your feathered friends happy!

Forbes Wild Foods writes:”From one of the last Cranberry bogs in operation in Ontario (near Bala) we bring you a treat not to be missed. Just in time for Thanksgiving, the fresh cranberries have finished ripening and are ready to be turned into sauces, juices and treats. Only around for a few short weeks, so make sure to get yours while you still can.”AND they have the only tropical fruit native to Canada, pawpaws, which taste like a cross between a banana, custard and a papaya.”

Harley Farms has more fresh turkeys (naturally raised with GMO-free feed) this week, in three weight ranges.

Aldergrove is planning a short break, so this will be their last week until December. Better get some extras of your favourites! 

My Dad used to say that his favourite kind of pie was the one in front of him. How are you going to decide? We have Pear Plum Pie, Apple Pie, Cherry Hand Pies, and Pumpkin Pie with Ginger Cookie Crust to make it really difficult!

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Thanksgiving is a holiday which brings up mixed emotions for many, all the more when it falls just after Truth and Reconciliation Day. My hope is that by recognizing the wrongs of the past and committing to change, we can move towards a time when a true celebration of the earth’s bounty will bring us together.

I am sending this with heartfelt gratitude to our farmers, vendors, market staff and customers, and a wish that all will be well-fed.

Warmly,

Anne Freeman

p.s. The Repair Café returns next week! Gather your items in need of repair and bring them to the fixers! If they have already repaired something for you, remember to come and get it.