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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for May 22, 2014

Hello Market Friends:

Vendors and customers alike can take a deep breath and stretch this week as we move down to the summer path setup and mark the official start of the outdoor season. Leaves that were barely visible just days ago have turned into broad green shade-givers already, and it's heavenly outside.

The new kid on the (seasonal food) block is rhubarb! Blythe from Spade & Spoon called to say it's ready to cut. Rhubarb meringue pie, rhubarb crisp, rhubarb cake, chilled rhubarb soup and rhubarb cordial are on my short-list of favourite things. The leaves of rhubarb are poisonous, but (as well as making good hats and tinting the light in a room a lovely shade of green when you put a vase of them near a sunny window), on a visit to FoodShare this week I learned that they can be used to dye wool yellow. Now I want to try that!

Abundant asparagus, wild leeks, fiddle heads and cool-weather greens like spinach and baby kale will be other seasonal highlights this time.

Andrew McIlmoyle from Waymac Farms ended up selling out of mushrooms ahead of time last week (it's early days in their season...) but will be joining us with fresh shiitake mushrooms and yellow, brown and blue Oyster mushrooms.

Andrew Akiwenzie will be down to Dufferin. At time of writing he was out fishing, and Natasha had the smoked fish ready to go

. Announcing the next on our rotating roster of VQA wineries:

Frogpond Farm was the very first certified organic vineyard in Ontario, and remains a beautiful small family farm. You'll enjoy meeting Jens, who is passionate about organic farming as well as about wine. The farm is down in Niagara-on-the-Lake, next door to Debbie Wiecha's Niagara Lavender Farm (anybody dreaming of peaches out there?) Frogpond will visit the fourth Thursday of each month. Be sure to ask lots of questions of our wine folks. Having them come to the market offers opportunities to try and buy some wines you won't find at the LCBO, and each winery has something different to offer, including various options for delivery and ordering as well as their particular specialties.

The First Friday Night Supper of the season is next week, May 30, 6 pm: Supper will be around the bake oven as usual, at the picnic tables or bring a blanket. The main dish is a choice of meat or vegan, and a salad, with a $7 requested donation. Dessert is a $2.50 requested donation, and will feature Knuckle Down Farm's first fresh produce of the season, rhubarb! As has been the custom for some years, the first outdoor supper of the year will be cooked by staff and friends of the Children’s Storefront (it’s located at Bloor and Shaw), as a fundraiser to support the free programming offered there. Lea Ambros, now the cook at the Storefront, is the lead cook for May 30 – appropriately, since she started the popular park suppers, back in 2003, when she worked at the park. And way before that, the Children’s Storefront was the inspiration for much of what works well at the park playground – including having good food there for families.

Here are the vendors we expect:

• Akiwenzies Fish (fresh, frozen and smoked Georgia 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),
• Chocosol (coffee and chocolate, tortillas),
• Country Meadows (eggs, cheese, olives, oil, herb and vegetable seedlings),
• DeFloured (gluten-free baking),
• Dufferin Park Bakers (wood-fired oven breads, soups,and snacks),
• Earth and City (raw foods and smoothies)
• Field Sparrow Farm (pastured meats),
• Forbes Wild Foods (wild leeks, fiddleheads, dried mushrooms, nuts, syrup, preserves),
• Kind Organics (sprouts, kombucha, kefir, teas, greens,chocolate),
• Pine River Organic Farm (organic vegetables)
• Plan B Organic Farm (home-grown, local and imported organic produce),
• Spade & Spoon (jams, pickles, soups, rhubarb),
• Tapioca Gourmet (gluten-free pancakes with savoury or sweet fillings),
• Urban Harvest (seeds, plants, body care, soil amendments),
• VQA Wineries (a rotating roster of local organic wineries), Frogpond Farm Winery this week)
• Waymac Farms (shiitake and oyster mushrooms),
• Wildlife Gardening (native plants),
• Ying Ying Soy (tofus and miso).

See you at the market!

Anne Freeman

This weekend:

TORONTO GMO-FREE FESTIVAL, SATURDAY MAY 24 in Christie Pits Park

The Festival & Market​ will​ run from 12 - 6 p.m. and include speakers, musicians, vendors and a non-GMO/organic farmers' market. ​The goal is to raise awareness about the health and environmental impacts of GMOs while celebrating the wonderful non-GMO and organic farmers and businesses that serve the GTA.

http://www.TorontoNonGMOCoalition.org/

JOIN OUR E-NEWS LIST IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE WEEKLY UPDATES WITH PHOTOS AND LINKS.YOU CAN SIGN UP ON THE MARKET INFO. PAGE OR BY WRITING TO: market (at) dufferinpark.ca

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