Dear market friends,

Today there was an urgent phone call from Mary Lou of Beretta's: There was no actual fire at Beretta's, but there was the next worst thing -- one of their giant freezers malfunctioned yesterday and so their frozen meat began to defrost. It's all fine except it can't be refrozen and it has to be sold within three days. Mary Lou plans to bring a huge amount to the market -- none of it should be frozen again unless you cook with it and then the dish you make can be frozen. But Beretta's will offer all these wonderful things for at least 30% off -- steaks, roasts, pork sausages, schnitzel, hot dogs, ground beef, pork chops, spare ribs, lamb, ground pork -- basically every type of thing they sell. Our sympathies to all the hard-working farm crew at Beretta's, for this piece of bad luck -- but there will be bargain prices so that none of that good food is wasted.

From Greenfields:

The heat followed by the rain has made the fields explode with produce, we can barely keep up harvesting, let alone win the battle against the weeds! The first of the Eggplants are ready, Tomatoes have started, first of the Watermelons are ripe, an abundance of beautiful Zucchini, green and yellow Beans, Golden, candy-Stripe and Red Beets, bunches of Carrots, stunning "Red" Green Onions, Purslane (with Omega 3), Chinese Cabbage, Savoy Cabbage and of course Green Cabbage, Chard, Kale, Collards, Lettuce Mix, Batavian Lettuces, fresh Garlic, Spinach, Basil, Cilantro, Parsley and Dill are all being harvested fresh daily at the farm.

We'll keep you cool not only with melons but apples, mangos, oranges, plums, lemons and grapefruits. Avocados, Celery, local new Potatoes, Cucumbers and Watercress are also available for everyone's convenience.

This week we have a small film crew camping out with us, helping out and documenting the "simple farm life style" (or not). We'll keep you posted.

Maria of Oh Soy will not be there this week, nor will Rufus and his lamb-burgers. But everyone else will, and the park cooks will be scouting Beretta's meat to buy ahead for a memorable Friday Night Supper. (It's on for this Friday, in celebration of Caribana, the Civic Holiday weekend, and the blessing of cooler weather).

The park cooks have undertaken to try even harder to make sure that there's REALLY enough food for everyone on Friday. So they may end up making too much, but if they have lots of left-overs, no problem. They'll serve the left-overs at this Saturday's cob-building bee by the wading pool. The cob alcove/ wall is getting higher and higher and the windows are going in now. Lots of people have come down to contribute their foot-squelching to forming the clay building blocks. Georgie (cob building supervisor) says, if you want to add to the cob wall, this is your chance, they're almost done with this part (a good chance for any park friend wanting to leave their mark on the park, these cob walls can last over 700 years) -- www.dufferinpark.ca/cobcourtyard. And the food cart food will be wonderful, for when your creative labours make you hungry.

See you at the bargain-hunting, overflowing, farmers' market!

Market web page:www.dufferinpark.ca/market

Park phone number: 416 392-0913.