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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for December 29, 2011

Hello Market Friends:

Just a quick note this week to let you know a bit about what's coming in. We'll have a few absences as some vendors take a well-earned break, but plenty of ingredients for home cooked winter feasts--or meals you don't have to cook yourself. Angelos just wrote to say he'll be in with fresh eggs, cheeses and oil, Ming will bring tofu, Mathieu will have lots of chocolate and coffee, Ted and Plan B will have a good selection of fresh veggies, Alli Harris will be making rotis and sandwiches, Ionel/John will be in with honey, and of course the Park Bakers will be busy. This list could have one or two additions or deletions, but should be pretty accurate. Everyone will be inside where it's cozy.

Sosnickis' news: "We hope everyone is having a great Holiday season and we wish everyone a Happy New Year full of good food, friends, family and laughs! Ben will be there with our usual stock of storage vegetables and coolers full of foods! Enjoy the frozen Sweet Corn this time of year - that's what we do it for!! Perogies are plentiful and I'll send him with some vegan cabbage rolls too! We are busy this time of year grading out storage cabbages and other crops and finding the right time (since it's been so mild and muddy) to put down straw on our huge new strawberry patch!! Lots to look forward to during 2012!!" Jess & Ben

Here's news from Yo Utano on an effort you may have helped out with:

Happy Holidays, Dufferin Market people!

Some of you might remember when I was raising money for Japan last spring by selling little Japanesey cakes. I want to send a long overdue thank-you note and a little update. It was about $1,900 altogether. I had a technical trouble with transferring it to the NGOs, so in the end I sent it to my mother's account. My family had started an evacuation support program in the island, which needed houses, hydro, furniture, appliances, cars and bikes, etc. to have evacuees stay. So the money went to that (not to buy stuff as most things were donated or lent, so it covered repairs, transportation, and utility bills). All of the people who came to my island were from Kanto area, which is closer to Tokyo than Fukushima. Two families settled and have been helping others. The rest moved back by fall, but some have come to visit since then. Here is a little story about the evacuees in my island.

(http://yoat.blog.fc2.com/blog-entry-17.html#more

I was back home for two months in the summer, working on the stop-nuclear campaign. The island where I am from is far from Fukushima, but is close to one of the most dangerous reactors in the country. Well, there are so many dangerous reactors, whether it is old, uses MOX fuels, or on a geographically unsafe place. Preventing the second Fukushima disaster is the least thing we can do for the victims of the disaster. At the same time, there are issues of contaminated forests, seawater, groundwater, radioactive rubble, food, insufficient evacuation, recovery of quake and tsunami affected area, etc., not to mention the Fukushima plant whose trouble is still going.

But the anti-nuclear campaign and people's awareness are growing, keeping suspended reactors from reopening (reactors have to go through general maintenance every 13 months, and usually start again after a few months but none has reopened since the quake). On Christmas day, the last working reactor in Kyushu (the southernmost mainland where my island belongs to) stopped, making Kyushu island nuclear-free for the first time since 1981. At the moment, only 6 of 54 reactors are working in the country. To reduce oil and gas usage, we have to reorganize the power supply system and shift to renewable energy. But if we don't have to fear for nuclear explosion or insoluble waste issue, we can be more motivated to move forward. So for now, I'll celebrate for no-nuclear Kyushu! Ah, and here's a link to a hardworking no-nuke movement in Toronto (http://www.ontariosgreenfuture.ca/nonukesnews.php

Thanks so much again. Wishing you all a very happy new year.

Yo

It's great to be part of this community of wonderful and interesting people.

See you at the market!

Anne Freeman

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