Dear market friends

This is a long one. First off, the picture (to the right, down a bit) shows the new Birds and Beans store in Etobicoke at 2413 Lakeshore W. I stopped in there on Tuesday -- David Pritchard showed me the big burlap sacks of coffee beans, the fire-engine-red bean roaster, the many bins on shelves at the back, labelled with the type of bean and date of roasting, the little space with coffee-drinking tables at the front, all so warm on a dark winter afternoon. A beautiful place, a fitting place of manufacture for all that wonderful coffee Birds and Beans brings to the market.

Birds and Beans new store
2413 Lakeshore W. Etobicoke

From Lorenz of Greenfields:

"There are still a few of our frozen soup hens left this week ($ 8.00/bird).

If you would like to pick them up at market, please pre order them by phone or e mail. They turned out to be rather large this time around and make a great soup for this type of weather. We have Royal Gala apples back in stock along with Fuji, Ambrosia and Golden Delicious. Local baby Boc Choy, Leeks, our super sweet Carrots, Chiogga Beets, the last few Celeriac, plenty of Sunchokes, Onions and Parsnips.Some more local Cabbage and sweet Potatoes. If you haven't yet try our Sweet Dumpling winter squash, which is great both in soups and baked. Thanks to our mineral rich soil conditions they are unusually sweet, just like our carrots ! Local Shiitake mushrooms are on special this week ! Lots of Romaine, Avocados, Collards, Kale and Chard this week as well.

Please note that tonight (Tuesday) is our last night for cut your own trees, but the roadside stand tree guy will be there right until X-mas with an overwhelming selection of potted and cut trees. We wish you all a Happy holiday season.Tara, Tarrah, Boris and Lorenz."

From Alvaro of Plan B Organics:

"we'll be bringing salad mix, carrots, 5 types of apples, pears, garlic, onions, sweet potatoes, leeks, possible some kale of our own, as well as lots of other fruit. Bananas, kiwis, lemons, pomegranates, lettuce, chard and collards from far away. Also, lots of fresh pressed apple cider and also many strawberries, of the frozen kind for yummy smoothies. See you then!"

From Kate Williamson of Best Friend Organic Pet Food:

"I am planning to have $5.00 gift bags, Cookies in a Can and giant Christmas bones as well as my regular stuff."

From Jonathan Forbes of Forbes Wild Foods:

"I can bring some mushroom Xmas baskets as well as the other wild foods."

From Jessie Sosnicki:

"You want perogies, you've got them!!! I've managed (with all those wonderful women!) to produce lots and lots of packages of perogies on Monday in the inspected kitchen!!! Working out the kinks in the 'huge' kitchen and getting used to the environment was easy, and the women were in great spirits and we all had a fun and very productive day. The only thing that happened, was after we finished peeling 3.5 bushels of potatoes, we found a mechanical POTATO PEELER hidden in one corner under a cover!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It didn't matter anyhow, as the older ladies never use those machines at the Ukrainian Hall, so no one knew how to run it anyhow!! I'll learn for next week for sure!

Ok, the specifics. The inspected kitchen I used was our local Royal Canadian Legion Kitchen from the Ladies Auxiliary in Waterford, branch 123. They soaked me $300 for the day (9 to 5), which I found really steep, and we had to move to produce, (BENNY EVEN HELPED...he spent the whole day with the women and finally saw how much work goes into making these gut-fillers!!!!) but the money is going to sponser a local bagpiper a trip to Scotland, so it's for a good cause...... I've adjusted the recipe, and I think they taste even better! I used butter in lieu of the shortening and it turned out wonderful!!! The dough was made using Organic Flour, Organic Butter, Organic Canola Oil, Organic Eggs, Water and a pinch of sea salt in each batch. The stuffing is mashed Organic Potatoes, Organic Eggs, Sea Salt and conventional Cheddar and Cottage. Until I find a good source for Organic Cheeses at a reasonable cost, I can't afford to use the organic cheese yet. If I did, I would have to charge way to much for the perogies. They are already $5.00 per package now. They are big (I was arguing with the ladies as I brought salmon tins to punch the circles in the dough and they were sqealing they were 'too big' as they use smaller 'soup' cans!) so they will feed 3 people as a side dish for under $2.00 a person. They were $4.00 per package last year, but I need that extra dollar this year."

My hunch is that lots of people will be happy to buy Jessie's perogies for any price she needs to charge, also for the deft touch of all those Ukrainian and Polish women. A privilege, just for our farmers' market.

Everyone else will be there except for Tauquir the curry guy (he'll be back next week). The final Christmas market is next week, Dec.23, so this week it's time to order the duck, the ham, etc., for Christmas dinner, also the tree if you haven't got one yet.

Last year's final pre-Christmas market brought us a visit from the Inspectors (see The Inspector Crisis, 2003) -- maybe they won't come this year. Maybe if I bring song sheets next week and we stand around the fire and sing some Christmas carols, that will keep the Inspectors away.....?

See you at the market!