One of the truly great things about all the new Farmer’s Markets that have sprung up this year is that pretty much everybody now has access to one. For years, the market at Nathan Phillips Square was the only weekday downtown market, but this year the Metro Hall market is quickly becoming a popular destination.

The gentlemen at Brantview Apples and Cider assured me that the Metro Hall market is the same “usual cast of characters” who vend at the Nathan Phillips Square Market, but the customers are completely different. Both markets do extremely well at the lunch hour, but even a few blocks can be a trek when you’ve only got an hour for lunch, and the folks who work around Metro Hall are delighted by the new, close proximity market. The farmers too are happy to have another place to vend and a whole new group of customers to buy their wares.

Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, July 4th »

I know, I know, I’m all about the strawberry photographs, three weeks in a row. They’re just too fascinating. Plus I got a new camera and I’m photographing pretty much everything, pushing the limits of its macro capacity, which continues to amaze me. In any case, yes, strawberries. I’ll switch to cherries or blueberries soon, I promise.
Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, June 20th »

In case you were wondering, you know, if maybe you weren’t sure, I just thought I’d let everyone know that it’s strawberry season. How’s that for a luscious image?

Despite all the recent fuss about certified markets, I still have a soft spot for the Wednesday market at Nathan Phillips Square. The idea of a market in front of city hall dates back to the first days of our city, and even if this market does include the occasional reseller with boxes of goods from the food terminal, there are still more than enough vendors who are selling their own produce to make it a worthwhile trip.

That’s not to say everyone isn’t feeling a bit of pressure from the whole idea of certifying farmers, despite the many faults the certification system currently has. Many of the vendors at the market today either had all of their produce tagged as being from Ontario or like the folks at Willowtree Farms, had signage indicating that everything they sold was grown on their own property. I noticed a couple of vendors with Foodland Ontario signage as well.

Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, June 13th »

Yes, folks, that photo that you see is indeed the very first local strawberries of the year, courtesy of the booth at Plan B Organic Farms in the shiny and new Trinity Bellwoods Farmers Market. Despite the chilly grey weather we all suffered through yesterday, summer is on its way.

I’ve got to say that I am totally impressed with the organization behind this new market. The choice of vendors is well-thought out, as all are complimentary. There is a great cross-section, so all the bases are covered - produce, meat, cheese, tea, coffee, flowers, and most importantly - snacks! There was a string trio playing in the centre of it all, and an information booth with helpful folks who had printed up info flyers complete with the cutest map ever to help people find all the vendors.

Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, June 6th »

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.

Continue reading Market Basket - Wednesday, May 30th »

Stuff’s coming up!

It was off to St. Lawrence Farmer’s Market this past Saturday so we could see what was popping out of the ground and available for eating.

The north Farmer’s Market location at Front Street East and Jarvis has been in operation for over two hundred years and while the building has been replaced a few times since then (the current structure was built in 1968), it has always been the place for Torontonians to come for fresh produce, meat and bread.

St. Lawrence Market has an incredibly comprehensive website that includes the history of the market, great old photos (including a couple of the various versions of the north market building), as well as lists of vendors in both the south retail market and the farmer’s market, complete with maps!

Continue reading Market Basket - Wednesday May 23rd »

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?

Continue reading The Market Basket - Wednesday, May 9th »

It’s almost that time of year again!

Yes, that’s right, market season.

Over on our events page, we’ve compiled a list of 20 farmer’s markets taking place weekly in the GTA, 9 of which are in downtown Toronto. Some of these are year-round, and the rest will be starting up within the next month or so.

New markets this year include Liberty Village on Sunday mornings, and new-to-us, a Thursday market at Metro Hall. Pretty much wherever you are in Toronto, there should be a farmer’s market reasonably close by.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be starting up a new column called “The Market Basket” where we celebrate the bounty of the season. Taste T.O. writers will be sharing the contents of their market baskets and we invite our readers to do so as well.

We’ll have more info on how to participate in the Market Basket column soon, and we look forward to seeing your market swag and hearing about the delicious dishes you plan to prepare.