Posted by Sheryl Kirby in market basket on May 9, 2007 at 7:28 pm
Okay, so there's not a lot of market offerings available yet, being so early in the season. Or at least, that's what I thought. Last Thursday I headed up to the Dufferin Grove Market and was astounded by the amount of produce available. On their website, Dufferin Grove bills itself as a "Farmer's Market", and yes, somewhere, farmers grew this produce - farmers in California and New Mexico, that is.
To be fair, all of the produce available was organic, which is the main mandate of this market. However, when I attend a "farmer's market" I sort of expect the goods to be from local farmers. There were local vendors there, selling everything from bread and cheese, to smoked fish, honey, raw cacao and various meats, but as there are no local kiwi or pineapple farms that I'm aware of, the inclusion of imported produce was a bit of a disappointment. If even the locavore advocates aren't willing to try eating locally, what hope is there for the rest of us?
My other issue with the market at Dufferin Grove, and this is a personal thing, is that it's way packed, even early in the day at 3pm. All of the vendors seem to be parked tightly together and the shoppers all seem very serious and sullen. There's often no room to get through the narrow aisles, especially when they're blocked by one of the numerous SUV-style strollers (complete with cupholder) that seem to be everywhere. Or bikes - come on, who is silly enough to bring a bike into the middle of a busy market? Lots of people apparently, as twice I had to move and make room for someone who couldn't bear to be parted from their wheels.
Unlike most other markets I visit, where strangers joke and talk about products and vendors seem genuinely happy to be there, the overall feeling I get from Dufferin Grove is that everyone is really cranky. As TasteTO writer Melissa Wocechowsky aptly put it, "It's got a bad vibe".
Besides the bad vibe, though, what it does have that makes fighting through the cranky yoga moms worth the effort is an onsite bread oven. And most of my market swag for this week does come from the bread oven table. That's a onion potato loaf on the left, with a loaf of their amazing lemon rosemary bread on the right. In front, some Eweda Cru, a raw sheep's milk cheese that paired with the rosemary bread really well. Also, a chunk of Oaxaca Gold, a confection made from raw cacao by the ChocoSol folks. I should get points for my super-strong willpower, as I was dying to snack on this during the walk home.
Rather slim pickings, but as more stuff comes into season, expect the Market Basket column to be overflowing with local goodness.
Want to take part? Just send us a photo of your Farmer's Market swag (no storebought stuff, please - this includes Kensington and the south St. Lawrence Markets - Farmer's Markets ONLY), tell us what you bought, where you got it, and what you plan to cook up with it, and we'll include it in our weekly market basket post.
