Lively it up!
Aug 22, 2019
Hello Market Friends: We have a very lively market lined up for you. The farmers’ tables will be piled high with a huge variety of summer harvests, there are snacks and dinner choices galore, and we have an extraordinary number of special guests joining us. Bring your kids or your pals (or both!) and plan to stay a while; it’s going to be fun. Lesley Brock from Red Dog Farm is visiting with 5 kinds of garlic for your culinary pleasure. It’s peak week for Wiechas’ peaches! Connie Wiecha will be coming with a big load of... Read More
Organic Pleasures
Aug 15, 2019
Hello Market Friends: Pile your baskets high with the beautiful harvests of August! From melons to mushrooms, we’ve got it all. We invite you to look for the Canadian Organic logo identifying our certified organic farmers. Right now we are particularly fortunate to have certified organic corn from Sosnicki Organic Produce and certified organic peaches from Niagara Lavender Farm two crops that are very rarely produced without the use of conventional methods. Thanks to stellar market volunteer Sarah Bilous for this photo of... Read More
What to Munch on This Week
Aug 8, 2019
Hello Market Friends: Three cheers for the support for biodiversity that is provided by organic farmers, and three more for all of you who have added pollinator-friendly plants to your gardens! Thanks to market fan Chang Liu for sending this image of a monarch caterpillar feasting on milkweed. Find out what can still be planted for a great fall garden at the Urban Harvest table this week. Extend the season! Colette and her team are also hoping to have more body care now that some ingredients have finally arrived. Niagara Lavender Farm‘s... Read More
Our Farmers are tops – and so are their veggies!
Aug 1, 2019
Hello Market Friends: Are you as excited as I am for the first market, and subsequently first day, of August (2019)? Yippee, right? And fyi, it’s me Nicole sending you the market news, as Anne is away this week enjoying some precious time at the cottage. That means you may have to endure a bit more of my usual hip-hip-hooraying at market this week. So last market as I was walking around to the different vendors, asking them how the day had been for them, I happened to stop and peer into the compost bin of Kevin Hamilton of Shared... Read More
What Goes Around, Comes Around
Jul 25, 2019
Hello Market Friends: We have a beautiful mix of newbies, old-timers, and everyone in between on our vendor list this year. Here’s a nostalgic note from Glynis of Aldergrove Organic Farm, who joined us a few months ago: “I was out harvesting these red strawflowers this morning when I had a memory from about twelve years ago, when I was an employee working at Dufferin Grove Park. Shane Eby was at the farmers’ market with his buckets spread out over the lawn, and I saw these very same flowers and couldn’t resist. Unaccustomed to... Read More
Great Green Deals
Jul 18, 2019
Hello Market Friends: Kevin Hamilton of Shared Harvest has a problem. The vegetables he brings to market are too darn big. He can’t sell you a head of lettuce that weighs about as much as your leg for a price that accurately reflects how large it is, so there are giant bargains on his tables. Compare the price, size and quality of celery you get in a supermarket these days to the great value you can get at the market, and make a deal to share the bounty with a strong-armed pal who will help you carry it home. Last week some customers... Read More
A Veggie and Fruit-Full Week
Jul 11, 2019
Hello Market Friends: Life may not always be a bowl of cherries, but this week, get at least two bowls full and leave those concerns aside while the juice runs down your chin. It’s that sweet, short time of the summer. Connie Wiecha of Niagara Lavender Farms (whose adorable harvester is pictured above) says she is bringing “lots of cherries, red raspberries and maybe just the start of the black raspberries – not too many out there yet – and lavender.” After several seasons when fruit would sell out about half an... Read More
Make Hay While the Sun Shines
Jul 4, 2019
Hello Market Friends: I don’t usually put a photo from someone who’ll be away at the top of the news, but I couldn’t resist Andrew McIlmoyle’s view of hay as far as the eye can see. In case you don’t know Andrew, he’s usually behind the Waymac Farms table of mushrooms. Like many a small-scale farmer, he needs diverse sources of income, and Andrew’s main crop is hay. After our soggy spring, it’s growing like mad, and he has to spend as many hours cutting as he can, and then all his other hours... Read More
Summer, with all the Fixings!
Jun 27, 2019
Hello Market Friends: This feels like the first full-on-summer market. So much coming in! So much going on! It is a BIG treat to have Kevin ‘The Greens Giant” Hamilton of Shared Harvest back with his signature gargantuan crops! Four pound Romaine Lettuces! Enormous Kale! And Parsley…Last week Market Staffer Nicole Jacobs was halfway through explaining how she had frozen and saved the last parsley pickings of 2018, when she glimpsed the size of the bunches in Kevin’s truck and just about burst into tears of happiness! Whatever is going... Read More
Summer Solstice Market News
Jun 20, 2019
Happy Solstice, Market Friends! Summer is officially here, and we sincerely hope you will join us even if we have a few showers once again. After all, you’ve got to eat, and so do the farmers! It has to be a great market day with this news from the Sosnickis: “Rain or shine – we are coming with an epic load of two different kinds of Strawberries to Dufferin! The early “Wendys” are smaller, sweet, perfect for jam and fresh eating! The “Jewels” are big, sweet and perfect for fresh eating and slicing... Read More