It was the first week of the market at Liberty Village this past Sunday. The Liberty Village market is affiliated with MyMarket, a group that promotes certified local farmers. That is, all products are certified to be both local and grown/created by the farmers selling them. Some vendors at other markets resell imported produce and MyMarket aims to ensure customers are getting a certified Farmers’ Market, featuring real farmers, selling only what they produce.

The official grand opening of the Liberty Village market is June 10th, but they will be open for business next Sunday as well. There are also a number of special events scheduled throughout the season, including a strawberries and cake day on July 1st, a Community Corn Fest on August 5th, a peach day on August 19th, Applemania on September 16th and a Pumpkinfest on October 28th.

Since everything is local and seasonal, there were actually only a few vendors out with wares, and among them, only two with produce.

There were a few plant and flower vendors, but as we live in an apartment with no balcony and two ferocious plant-eating cats, sadly we didn’t pay a lot of attention to that side of the market, other than to snap some photos.

Our market swag for this week includes a bunch of asparagus, a jar of almonds in cinnamon honey, a jar of maple butter and a stack of honey sticks. Not shown - the sweet potato tarts we ate on the way home.

Thames River Melons had piles of lovely crisp asparagus as well as rhurbarb. As their name implies, their main crop is melons of all varieties and I’m excited about them taking party in the Liberty Market. They also vend at Nathan Phillips Square, but I’ve usually got too much stuff to carry home and melons are awkward. On Sundays, I’ve got the husband to act as a pack mule and help me carry stuff, so there will be plenty of melons on our table this summer.

Bob and Julie Proracki of Ontario Sweet Potatoes were also present selling their crop of sweet potatoes and a selection of sweet potato baked goods, ranging from muffins to amazing tarts and pies, many of which are sugar and/or gluten-free.

The folks from Leitch’s Honey had a variety of honey, nut and honey preserves, beeswax candles and a selection of “honey sticks” - essentially a thin tube full of honey in various fun flavours such as lime, rootbeer and caramel. At 25 cents a pop, these were fun and tasty, and healthier than candy.

Speaking of candy, the award-winning products from McCutcheon’s Maple Syrup wowed us. The free tasting samples of syrup were delicious and we’re digging the maple butter we bought.

We’re looking forward to watching this market grow and thrive as the word spreads and the neighbourhood responds. It’s in the parking lot at Atlantic and Liberty and runs on Sunday mornings from 9am to 2pm.

Want to share your market swag? Send me a photo with a list of your goodies and what you plan to do with them and we’ll add it to next week’s post.