Printer friendly version | help

Weekly Market Notes Library

< June 12-2014 | Notes Library | June 26-2014 >

Weekly Market Notes for June 19, 2014

Hello Market Friends:

Where would you rather be on a lovely June afternoon than strolling through the market? With sunset past 9 pm on these longest days of the year, it's nice to linger longer in the park, too. This year's summer solstice will be at 6:51 Saturday morning in Toronto, and the sun rises at an impressive 5:36 that day. If you haven't been up that early in a while, you can bet our farmers have; ask any of the ones who attend Saturday morning markets what time they have their alarm clocks set for!

Lots of news from the vendors about the abundance coming in:

Matt Hilchey, the friendly face behind the table at Pine River Organic Farm, writes: “Our Beets will be ready for this week, along with Asparagus, Radish, Rhubarb, Swiss Chard and a little Spinach and Green Onions.”

From Kim Dawn, who is staffing the Everdale table now: "Our baby plants have finally become adults! So we have big beautiful green and red chard bunches, rainbow Swiss chard bunches, and lots more radish (see above)! We'll also have some lovely red kitten spinach and a variety of red and green head lettuces." [Editor's note: I have never heard of red kitten spinach, but I want some!]

Sosnickis' contribution: "Well, Thursday should be an exceptional June market day! We've got our Strawberries and Sugar Snap Peas! With Ben cultivating and the men hoeing, they all worked really hard to keep this huge pea patch clean and the crop looks excellent! Next week the English peas-in-a-pod will be ready too! Lots more large heads of field Lettuce and our cute Mini-Lettuces. Also large Bok Choy are ready and coming as well! I have a half freezer left of PEROGIES that I will be selling fast! For a really good price too, as I want to shut the freezer down. We have VEGAN ones and the DECADENT (potato, cheese and buttery onion). See everyone soon :)) Jess, Ben & Sadie

Wildlife Gardening will be away, but back next week.

Kind Organics news: "Tuesday night's storm really took a toll on our outdoor production, with hail damage to roughly 80% of our greens. Things will come back as they grow more but we might be short on lettuces and kales for a few weeks. We will bring some of course! On the bright side, we will have early Basil for sale this week and of course lots of sprouts. " Sandra

'Brixton Grill is back again, and in addition to our usual vegan barbeque fare we will now also be serving vegan/gluten-free/organic Ice-cream cookie bowls!' Jacob Saphra

Tawse Winery will be in the VQA Wine Tent this time. It is proving to be very pleasant bringing home local organic wine along with all our other local bounty. As W.C. Fields said, "I always cook with wine. Sometimes I even add it to the food."

We will have Jason Kun visiting to shuck oysters for market-goers as an extra delight for solstice week.

Natasha Akiwenzie reports that Andrew made it out between the wild weather tantrums on Tuesday to set his nets. He was out there again Wednesday so hopefully will have some fresh fish for market. She has been busy preparing their delicious smoked fish, too.

A request: You know you've got 'em. Our 'take a bag' depot at the market info. table, for people who forget to bring their own, has proven very popular of late, so we're asking for contributions of clean paper, plastic or fabric shopping bags. Please de-clutter your place and help us out at the same time!

See you at the market!

Anne Freeman

P.S. This just in, and we think it might include some familiar folks: “FOOD FIGHTERS, a documentary by local filmmaker Paula Kaston, shows how communities are coming together with urban agriculture initiatives and local food businesses to create food security.

FOOD FIGHTERS is screening at the Bloor Cinema on Thursday, June 26th and it's a free event! You'll see Toronto neighbourhoods in this film and learn about the big potential in tiny farms.”

Here are the vendors we expect:

• Akiwenzies Fish (fresh, frozen and smoked Georgian Bay fish),
• Ali Harris (rotis and fritters, hemp pesto and seeds),
• Bees Universe (honey and bee products),
• Beretta Farms (organic and naturally raised meats),
• Best Baa (cheeses, yogurt, sheep's milk, ice cream),
• Brixton Grill (vegan barbeque and ice cream sandwiches),
• Chocosol (coffee and chocolate, tortillas),
• Country Meadows (eggs, cheese, olives, oil),
• DeFloured (gluten-free baking),
• Dufferin Park Bakers (wood-fired oven breads, soups,and snacks),
• Earth and City (raw foods and smoothies),
• Evelyn's Crackers (crackers, granola & cookies made from organic ON grains),
• Everdale Organic Farm (organic vegetables),
• Field Sparrow Farm (pastured meats),
• Forbes Wild Foods (fresh and dried mushrooms, nuts, syrup, preserves),
• Jason Kun (guest vendor, fresh oysters),
• Kind Organics (sprouts, kombucha, kefir, teas, greens, chocolate),
• Knuckle Down Farm (vegetables),
• Pine River Organic Farm (organic vegetables)
• Plan B Organic Farm (home-grown, local and imported organic produce),
• Shared Harvest (organic vegetables, herbs and ferments),
• Sosnickis' Organic Produce (organic vegetables and strawberries),
• Spade & Spoon (jams, pickles, soups, rhubarb, peonies),
• Tapioca Gourmet (gluten-free pancakes with savoury or sweet fillings),
• Ted Thorpe (represented by Ron) (vegetables),
• Urban Harvest (seeds, plants, body care, soil amendments),
• VQA Wineries (a rotating roster of local organic wineries, Tawse Winery this week)
• Waymac Farms (shiitake and oyster mushrooms),
• Ying Ying Soy (tofus and miso).

hosted by parkcommons.ca | powered by pmwiki-2.2.83. Content last modified on June 18, 2014, at 08:46 PM EST