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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for August 7, 2008

Hello Market Friends:

There's certainly a theme to the news from vendors this week, a four-letter word that can be a blessing or a curse:

From Jessie Sosnicki: "A challenge with all the rain. I've created a blog with pictures regarding substantial crop damage including tomato blight, potato beetles and powdery mildew. Log onto www.sosnickiorganicproduce.blogspot.com. Also good news blogs with pictures of combining our beautiful spelt crop this year, along with nice crop progress photos! We will have some cantaloupe this week, BUT the muskmelons are poor this year. The entire plant is dead now, so not much to offer. Watermelons look fine, will have some by next week! Fresh from our fields this time will be Green Beans, Green Bell Peppers, Broccoli, Sun Sugar Cherry tomatoes, roma, slicing and heirloom Tomatoes (not a lot of quantity yet on tomatoes, a large percentage of the crop has rotten cracked fruit, blight or is being ravaged by beetles), Zucchini, big sweet Onions, Beets, Garlic, Leeks, Dill (NO cucumbers, all dead with disease), Potatoes, Hot Banana Peppers, Jalapeno Peppers and parsley. Please be patient regarding corn. Soon, but we need hotter, dryer days. A lesson about corn, as sooo many folks are asking. YES, a lot of local corn is available, but we use untreated corn seed that must be planted in warm soil. Conventional corn seed is often chemically treated so that it will not rot when planted into early cold spring soil, hence the reason it's everywhere and ours is not yet ready. Thanks for understanding."

From Mark Skinner of Greenfields: "Can you believe it, more rain yesterday, and lots of it. The fields are very wet but the harvest continues. Green Kale, Black Kale and Chard are looking good. Our Parsley is a nice addition to any summer salad. Golden Beets have a stunning colour and taste great raw or cooked. Lots of Green Cabbages to satisfy all the Cabbage lovers. Purple Scallions have sized up and taste great, and of course our Garlic is a must. A nice selection of refreshing fruit will help during these hot summer days.// Please make sure to wish Monika well as she is leaving for Queen's University next week. She has done a fantastic job and will be missed by everyone at Greenfields as well as many customers. As we sadly say goodbye to our beloved Monika; make sure to welcome our new Market Manager, Lesley, and be nice!"

(I have to add a fond farewell to Monika too. She has been such a pleasure to work with: positive, organized, well-informed...these sound like good classroom skills, too! We all wish you every success in your teaching-farming future Monika!)

Greetings all, Seth here from Forbes Wild Foods. Well, it continues to rain which is proving to be just lovely weather if you are a mushroom. We have two types of Fresh Foraged Fungi arriving at this week's market, some Chanterelles and some of the remarkably seafood-like Lobster Mushrooms. Both of these flavors are not to be missed, so if you haven't tried them before come out and have a peek.

Best Baa Farms (ice cream, cheeses, lamb & yogurt) will be absent this week.

Deer Valley Farm will have fresh venison available at this week’s market. The grill will provide Venison Koftas (made with fresh sweet basil from Ted Thorpe).

From Laura Sabourin of Feast of Fields: "Wow, we have a great selection of fruit for this week. In addition to peaches, plums and apricots we will also have wild Blueberries from Temagami, our own raspberries, plus the first picking of our French Bartlett Pears and some heritage apples (mystery variety). IF it does not rain we may also have figs and mulberries."

And a nice note to finish on from Jutta Mason's August newsletter:

"European farmers’ markets often seem to be about half flowers. These venerable markets have a lot of wonderful food, but for Europeans, flowers seem to be another kind of nourishment, and you seldom see people leaving the markets without a bouquet. Since Shane Eby, Julia Hitchcock and Dan Riegler started bringing their wonderful variety of fresh flowers to Dufferin Grove, this market looks a bit European too. It’s not unusual for people to see friends at the market and buy them a bouquet right there, to take home. (Market customers are friendly!) The organically grown flowers often last and last, and Shane can tell you all their names (the traditional summer favorites plus some really unusual kinds)."

See you at the market!

Anne

p.s. Weather permitting, we hope to have a special treat at 6:00, a short Highland Dance performance by Megan Bold and some of the dancers from our neighbourhood's Bold Steps Dance Studio. Hope you can be there to enjoy it. Clay and Paper Theatre's "Horse Feathers" will be on at 7:30, too.

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