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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for January 31, 2008

Hello Market Friends:

Lots of news about people as well as what's good to eat this week....

Welcome back to the Akiwenzies, and special congratulations to Andrew, not just on his ski-coaching and fishing abilities, but for another talent. His "Edible Toronto" article, "Ancestral Traditions Kept Alive", was chosen as the best story out of hundreds of entries from 32 Edible magazines, winning the 2008 EDDY Award for Publishing Excellence in the category of "Best Editorial - Short" (under 1000 words). We're hoping for another box of magazines to arrive this week, so if you haven't had a chance to read the article yet, you can pick up a (free) copy.

Also, check out the work of another of our market's writers, Jessie Sosnicki:

Cold and windy today! Ben and I will have the usual storage crops and my foods once again, with an added bonus of vegetarian cabbage rolls coming too! If anyone is interested in a recipe for my mom's really, really good "Onion Soup" and to see and learn a bit about how we store our winter vegetables, check out our newly created farm blog at http://sosnickiorganicproduce.blogspot.com. Our website has been overhauled with new pictures and updated information, so all can check that out as well at www.sosnickiorganics.com My hope is to post a weekly blog with pictures of crops and how things are going on the farm along with recipes using our produce as ingredients! Check back often, as I'm really enjoying this 'blogging' idea, and it will be a snap to take a nice farm pic and share news with everyone on a regular basis! Cheers! Jessie & Ben.

Back in Toronto, here's some news from Jutta:

Stonegate Health Centre, a group that's been working with the park bakers to plan a bake oven for their farmers' market in a park in Etobicoke, got some disconcerting news last week. They were told that they'd never be able to build the oven because the Parks Department has developed a new policy prohibiting any more bake ovens in city parks. Oh dear! It was hard to track down the source, but eventually their city councillor's office said this prohibition comes from the new "open fires" policy that temporarily stopped the campfires last winter. Further probing revealed that the open-fires policy doesn't in fact prohibit bake ovens. That makes more sense -- since bake ovens enclose fires, and they have chimneys. So they can resume talks about having a bake oven for baking good local bread at their farmers' market. There sure are a lot of NO's around these days, though!

You get lots of my words in your weekly news, but in case you're curious about the market's adventures outside of the park, excerpts from my part in a panel at the Guelph Organic Conference last weekend are posted in the news section: http://www.dufferinpark.ca/market/wiki/wiki.php?n=News2008.FrontPage There were many familiar and friendly faces at the conference, and quite a sense of promise in the air, as appreciation for sustainably produced local food is on the rise. My favourite of the sessions I attended was the New Farmers Forum, where three young farmers shared some key points of their experiences so far with a keenly interested audience. Their generosity of spirit was wonderful, and there were lots of notes being taken. At one point an older farmer spoke up to say he had land and equipment, but needed younger people to put it to good use. An excited hum went through the room. Important connections of this sort are increasing; there is the will to find the way!

Let's finish with a few more good foods to look forward to:

Greenfields will have a great selection of fruits and veggies this week. Greenfields storage crops: Parsnips, Beets, Sunchokes and Celeriac. Excellent quality Broccoli, Carrots, Cauliflower, Green & Black Kale, Red Chard, Spinach and more. Plus a good variety of fruit. See you there. Mark

From Irene of Deer Valley: this will be a really good week for fresh venison.

See you at the market!

Anne
Dufferin Grove Organic Farmers' Market
Thursdays, 3-7, year-round

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