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Weekly Market Notes Library

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Weekly Market Notes for September 12, 2013

Hello Market Friends:

The F- word, on September 5th. I was shocked when Alvaro from Plan B wrote to say that temperatures dropped all the way to zero on the night following last week's market, and they had FROST! A premature end to the season for some tender crops on their farm, but Plan B will still be coming for a while yet. Most of the other farms have been spared so far, but the crazy yoyo temperatures of 2013 continue, so who knows what another week or two could bring. For now, feast on corn on the cob and sweet basil one more time, and enjoy all the other greatest hits of the turning season, including beautiful eggplants.

Ratatouille, Parmigiana, Caponata, Baba Ghanoush! Any vegetable that inspires recipe names this fun to say must be good. Eggplants are one of the few vegetables that benefit from overcooking; it brings out the best in them. You could tuck a pan of them in the oven to roast while you're making this recipe:

Lazy, Delicious Sauce

• 3 pounds Roma tomatoes
• 1 bulb garlic
• olive oil, salt and a little organic sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Split the tomatoes in half and spread them all over a rimmed baking sheet. Break the garlic bulb into cloves and scatter them between the tomatoes. Drizzle with oil, sprinkle generously with salt and lightly with sugar. Put the pan in the oven and return to reading that excellent novel, or whatever else you were doing. Roast until the garlic is very soft and about half of the moisture has gone out of the tomatoes, roughly half an hour. The longer you roast, the thicker the sauce will be. Remove from the oven, read one more chapter while the pan cools, then pull off the garlic skin and blend the tomatoes, garlic, and any oil on the pan in a food processor until desired texture is achieved. Serve over your favourite pasta, include in Eggplant Parmigiana, or use in any other recipe calling for full-flavoured tomato sauce. Freezes well, too.

Shared Harvest reports: "This week we will be bringing lots of fall standards. Leeks, celeriac, carrots, beets, turnips, radish, roma tomatoes by the bushel, celery, onions, garlic, beans, bok choy, baby bok choy, lemongrass, ground cherries, purple tomatillos, eggplants, peppers, heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, winter squash and holy basil to boot! Also be sure to ask about our live ferments!" Kevin

Sosnickis' contribution: "Lots of beautiful, fresh Broccoli for Dufferin! Green Beans, Romas, Peppers of all colours - YES, sweet Red Peppers too! Cherry Tomatoes, glorious HUGE bunches of Kale, Spuds, Massive Sweet Onions, Beets with gorgeous tops, Red Onions, more Sweet Corn (probably last week for corn folks!!), Garlic, Basil and perhaps Chard, Cauli and Cabbage if there's enough time to harvest :)" Jess & Ben

Urban Harvest news: "Hi all, this will be our last market until Oct 3rd. Going on a little holiday to the olde country. Yea! In honour of that, all seeds will be 50% off this week only." Colette and Pablo

See you at the market!

Anne Freeman

P.S. Lots of food and farming issues are calling for attention. We will have postcards about the beekeepers campaign against neonicotinoid pesticides, and the newest flyers and petitions against GMO alfalfa at the market, and (with his permission) I am including an excerpt from a letter written by Elliott McWhirter about a US campaign:

''I've been a customer of the Dufferin Grove Market for several years now and believe it has the potential to greatly influence consumers in the fight against Big Ag.

As you likely know, the good food movement is under constant attack from multiple parties. One of the most pressing is a proposed move by the FDA which would allow the government agency to, without any due process, almost immediately force small farms to comply with the same expensive testing and record-keeping requirements for factory farms — potentially forcing many out of business instantly.

Now, you may balk at this and say 'This is an American issue that doesn't concern the Canadian market let alone the Dufferin Grove Market.' My response would be that any move by a government agency that threatens small farms with closures is a direct assault on our way of life and the consumers freedom of choice. It also establishes a menacing precedent that other countries could soon follow. Big Ag has the money and power to lobby the Canadian government just like they do the US government.

I'm writing this email to ask you to consider sending an email out to your followers letting them know about this issue and asking them to print out and sign a proxy letter in support of the Cornucopia Institute's efforts to address this issue. It's important to note that all hard copies must be submitted by September 26th.

Here are the relevant links:

http://www.cornucopia.org/food-safety/ http://www.cornucopia.org/FoodSafety/ActionAlert.pdf

I hope you'll consider supporting this action and do want to reiterate that I don't have any affiliation to the Cornucopia Institute. I just care about the quality of food and where it comes from and believe that our only chance to keep all food free from Big Ag's influence is to band together and fight :)''

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