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News 2010

Market News 2010

Not Really News, but a Great Recipe! Happy 8th Birthday to Us, November 2010

Dufferin Market Birthday Cake (aka Vegan Ginger Carrot Cake with Orange Glaze)
adapted from May All be Fed: Diet for a New World by John Robbins

• ¾ cup apple cider
• ½ cup sunflower oil
• 1½ cups raisins
• ½ cup maple syrup
• grated zest of one orange
• 1½ cups grated carrots (about 3 medium)
• 2 tsp grated gingerroot
• 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour/ spelt flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg
• ½ tsp fine sea salt
• 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts(optional)
  

Orange Glaze:

• 3 Tbsp maple syrup
• 2 Tbsp fresh orange juice
  

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Lightly oil an 8 x 8 inch cake pan and dust with flour. Put cider, oil, 1/2 cup raisins, maple syrup and orange zest in a blender. Blend until smooth. Add carrots and ginger and pulse just to mix. In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking powder, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt together. Add cider mixture and combine. Do not overmix. Fold in remaining raisins and walnuts, if using. Pour batter into pan and spread evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean, 35 - 45 minutes. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, combine maple syrup and orange juice and stir until well blended. When the cake is done, let it cool for 10 minutes in the pan. Transfer to a wire rack, and while still warm, brush on glaze. Celebrate with friends!

From the October 2010 Newsletter:

DUFFERIN GROVE FARMERS’ MARKET, EVERY THURSDAY 3 TO 7 PM

The market will be on the rink pad every Thursday in October, to take advantage of the rink lights now that it’s getting dark before the end of the market time. After the sensational growing season, the farmer’s tables are groaning with produce. One great new addition for cooks is the Exact Edge knife sharpening table. Denzil not only does knives but also garden shears, chain saw chains, and pretty well anything that needs a sharp edge. Watching him at work is a treat – solid old tools and the shiny water wheel, and then a kitchen knife that’s twice as useful as before. The Dufferin Grove cooks have been taking all their knives in, and they love the results.

From the September 2010 Newsletter:

DUFFERIN GROVE FARMERS’ MARKET, EVERY THURSDAY 3 TO 7 PM

Excerpts from market manager Anne Freeman’s weekly market news (Sept.2): “September has arrived, and it may be even more bountiful than this year's superb August.  We wanted to mark this starting/ending point with something special, so Andrew Akiwenzie, with a little help from his family and good friend Alli Harris, will be bringing us a Georgian Bay Fish Fry this week!  Delicious fish, fries and market coleslaw--just add your own favourite mental image of the big blue lake to go with it....from Sosnickis: “TONS of sweet, juicy WATERMELONS, PEPPERS a plenty, HEIRLOOMS & BASIL, EGGPLANTS, ZUCS, fresh, huge heavy heads of purple and green CABBAGES, COOKING ONIONS, fresh dug Wednesday yellow & red POTATOES, still huge bunches of KALE (by the time we stop harvesting the original patch, the fall patch will be ready) and SWEET CORN. Lots of corn still - another whole patch not yet mature. I'm officially hitting the church hall kitchen to freeze corn next week. I think that's it? Ohhh, and I've been digging around in the sweet potato patch - they are sizing up and look fantastic. Almost forgot-- fresh bunches of CARROTS with tops & LEEKS too. I even found a baby cottontail bunny nest in the carrot patch. Sooo cute! Our new puppy sniffed it out. Wouldn't let him hurt them...”

To sign up for Anne’s weekly market news: dufferinpark.ca/markets

Shane Eby’s Nuffield Agricultural Scholarship for 2010 has begun

March 30, 2010

At the beginning of March market farmer Shane Eby of Under Ground Organics headed down to Washington DC and Pennsylvania for the first part of his year long farming scholarship. He sent this account of the experience to share with market readers.

The Nuffield group brought together all the scholars for 2010 for a week long conference addressing the question of how to appropriately work towards feeding a world with a growing population that is estimated to rise towards 9 billion people.

53 farmers from eight countries; Australia, New Zealand, England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, France, Canada and the United States came together to share and to learn from each other. Almost all the farmers are involved in different forms of agriculture including dairy, poultry, hog, goat and cattle farmers, bee keepers, foresters, greenhouse operators, vegetable growers, cotton farmers and heaps of farmers tending to large field crops of grains and pulses. There were also academics, educators and agricultural policy people involved for the week.

It was a busy and focused week with a very intense schedule. We received lectures from around a dozen world wide agricultural experts that had us discussing everything from climate concerns to world trade and political issues to small scale technology and knowledge transfer.

We were also lucky enough to be able to tour around a dozen farms and farming facilities around Pennsylvania including a large dairy operation that has been developing leading edge technology since the 1970s, a mushroom farm, the biggest compost making facility I’ve ever seen, a horse racing track (no big winners that nite), a manufacturing plant which makes New Holland farm machinery (which made me glad I work in the fields and not in the factory) an Amish farm that was located on Eby Road which is my family name (I can tell you a story about that), and a fruit tree research station where just by coincidence Under Ground Organics happened to buy our fruit trees from several years ago! I was able to learn a few inside tips that should help bring loads of fruit to the markets in the next couple of years – I hope!

The conference was the only time the 2010 Nuffield scholars will be getting together as one group with everyone now out on their own exploring their personal agricultural agenda. The conference was really great for connections for scholarship touring and for future trips away from the farm during the winter months. Actually, I was really happy about our Canadian winters on the trip because I realized that those few precious moments of rest aren’t available to many of the growers from more southern climates – a lot of them don’t get any breaks throughout the year at all.

Next up for is a trip to Wisconsin at the end of April for a technical seminar on Hop growing – that’s the focus for my scholarship. And just in case you didn’t know hops are one of the main ingredients in beer and although I’m not planning on brewing any beer any time soon, I’m hoping to supply some of our local brewers with some of the farm fresh hops that they’d like to be using.

More updates about Shane’s Nuffield Scholarship to come.

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