Dear market friends,

From market manager Anne Freeman:

"John Ferrari will be bringing lots of blueberries from Matheson near Timmins this week. They're pricey, because it's nearing the end of the season, and also gas is steep. But they're compact and delicious. And Eva will be back with more of her wonderful flowers.

Also -- to be clear about parking on the park grass by the farmers' vans -- that's ONLY for farmers and food vendors, so they can store their backup produce. Any customer who parks on the grass will get lots of grief from the park staff, justifiably.

There's lots of room for parking on the north side of the park across from St.Mary's or across Dufferin Street at the mall parking lot."

From Jonathan Forbes of Forbes Wild Foods:

"I've got fresh wild chokecherries, highbush cranberries and some wild marjoram plus all my dried mushrooms, veggies and fruits."

From Colette Murphy:

"Urban Harvest will be at the market with seeds, amendments and plants. There is still time to plants carrots, beets, and all the greens such as arugula, kale, mizuna and lettuces.

Your plants will love a feeding at this time of year when they are all in heavy production whether it be fruit or flower or leaf. so if you haven't yet, do pick up some kelp, Green Wisdom Herbal Plant Food or Worm Casting Tea.

We have some 4" pots of thymes and rosemary; also some gallon pots of Joe-Pye Weed, Great Blue Lobelia (blue version of Cardinal flower) and also the native grasses: Big Bluestem, Little Bluestem and Indian Grass. These grasses provide structural interest for the winter garden and great fall colour.

Earthly Paradise will be at the market with all the usual lotions and potions. For those of you waiting patiently for the Calendula Moisturizer, the weather has been cool enough again to get it to emulsify so come and try out this batch. We also have some of the popular Rose Cream which we were out of while waiting for some of that wonderful rose oil."

From Mark of Greenfields:

"Great harvest weather at the farm this week, which means lots of fresh goodies are available. Starting with greens we have very nice Romaine, Red and Rainbow Chard, Great tasting Kale, both Red and Green Cabbages as well as Fresh Dill and Curly and Italian Parsley. Our Carrots are back this week, tasting very nice, all three varieties of Beet will be back, with great looking greens. Tomatoes are doing well, Field, Grape(taste great), Baby Romas and the German Stripped are available. Fresh Zucchini and Edamame(Soy Bean) are great additions to any meal. Excellent tasting Watermelons will be back but only a limited amount, so run don't walk. New this week is Kohlrabi. We have both Green and Purple bunched with tops. A very nice vegetable for steaming or eating raw if sliced thinly. Our Purple Cauliflower is tempting us, so be ready. I'll also have great local Sweet Corn. Valencia Oranges, Banana, Grapefruit, Lemons and Avocado will be here as well.

From Jessie Sosnicki:

Tomatoes are going strong this week. Lots of field slicing as well as Roma's and LOTS of cherry tomatoes in red and yellow at a price of $2.00 per pint considering we have so many. Our new patch of Roma/Plum paste tomatoes will be available all September long, so get ready for sauce making and canning during the cooler months once the kids are back in school. I want to try making sundried tomatoes here on the farm this year, so if anyone has any tips, let me know. Also available will be pickles and fresh dill, slicing salad cucumbers, (folks are asking why we only charge .50 for each huge salad cucumber, and the answer is simple: we have LOTS, they are easy to pick, wash and pack, so the reasonable price is passed on to our customers) cabbage, new crop of beets has started, potatoes in abundance that will be dug fresh and washed Wednesday, lettuce (Romaine, Red leaf and Batavian) is now doing ok with the cooler temps, probably some zuchinni and eggplants (I have to check the fields still) I'll also check the broccoli patch and pick as much as I can find. It's been a tough year on broccoli with the heat. Also, our watermelons are sizing up, so we'll pick some for market as well. I'll also cut some nice bunches of rainbow chard. Here's some pics I took this morning just after 7:00am.

A close up of one of my sunflowers with Sugar Babe being camera shy in the background

I know city folk don't care much for these messy critters, but Zazzoo is our temporary resident coon around the farm. He was abandoned, and I raised him from a tiny baby and he thinks he's a barn cat! Once he is older, (he's about 4 months old now) he will be encouraged to find his way in nature down by our creek. He loves our watermelons."

Friday Night Supper will have Mary Sylwester as the vegan cook and Anna Bekerman (back from Spain for a few weeks) as the meat cook. Anna's making lamb or goat curry and Mary's making a vegetable curry with the farmers' market bounty. This week's supper is in honour of the beginning of the Night of Dread Parade brainstorming about giant puppets. David Anderson invites anyone who wants to be involved in planning, to gather at his table, near the ovens around seven o-clock, after supper.

See you at the market!

Market web page:www.dufferinpark.ca/market

Park phone number: 416 392-0913.