Seasonal Ontario Food

Mr Ferdzy and I drive down to Windsor almost every month to visit his mother, who is now residing there. This time, we stopped in St Mary's and spent 2 nights there as a mini-vacation. Our final night was Friday, so we stopped by the farmers market very briefly on Saturday morning.

It's been a while since I've done a market visit! Partly because once you are growing most of your own vegetables, the appeal does wane and partly because we have been so busy these last few years. I do miss them though.

St Mary's farmers market is fairly small, but seems like a particularly nice market nevertheless. It starts at 8:00 am Saturday mornings between Victoria Day weekend and Halloween (aka the end of October). Most markets seem to stop after Thanksgiving so that's a nice little bonus 2 weeks.


This fun little sign advertising all things chicken (plus dog treats and garlic) caught my eye.


The last (getting there, anyway) of the peaches next to the first of the apples, plus pears, plums, and other fruits at this stand. Even without the neon labels they'd be very colourful.


These vegetables are almost as colourful. Perky greens, purple kohlrabi, a rainbow of peppers, beans, beets, garlic, shallots, summer squash, and there was even some of the elusive fennel bulbs.


Immigrants have done wonderful things for Canadian food in my lifetime and it seems at the moment that many farmers markets have a Syrian family selling their home-made dishes. That's what I call a win-win situation.


Corn! Haven't seen very much of it this year - mind you I haven't been looking since I shouldn't eat it - and potatoes. Hm, shouldn't eat them either. That leaves carrots, tomatoes, and what looks like homemade jams. Which I shouldn't be eating... oh well, more for the rest of you.


Big bunches of flowers give the fruits and vegetables a run for the title of "most colourful". Okay, I think they win!


Even the picnic tables got little arrangements.


Gladiolas - the quintessential end-of-summer flower. Wow!


Some really magnificent melons next to sign for a whole array of intriguing fruits and vegetables, behind them all kinds of pasture-raised pork products.


Okay, some canning I could eat! I think this company is based in London.


And finally, the one thing we actually bought - some 100% rye bread from Breadtopia. We've been eating it all week and it is amazing! The rest of the baking looked really lovely but less like things I could eat.

It hardly seems fair - not only is St. Mary's a beautiful little town in a very attractive setting with lots of walking and hiking in the area, they have an impressively good farmers market for their size. Now we wish we lived much closer. If you are nearby, it's definitely a market that should be checked out.

It's been a while since I've been to a new Farmers Market! We were in the Ottawa area over the weekend, though, and Carp Farmers Market was recommended as a place to visit. We arrived a bit late on Saturday morning (it runs from 8 am to 1 pm) and found it in full swing, in the Carp Fairgrounds on the main street.


There is a long, wide space with booths all around, which made it wide open and accessible, even though this was a very busy, popular market.


As you would expect from such a large market, there was a wide array of products. This was actually the only seller of plants that I saw, but they had a great selection of shrubs and perennials. 


I'm always excited to find a producer of oil - there are so few small local oil producers. This is Kricklewood Farm, with cold-pressed sunflower seed oil. We tried a sample and just had to buy a bottle. Delicious! Just the thing for salads or delicate cooking. 


There are very few cranberry producers in Ontario as well, but Upper Canada Cranberries supplies the Ottawa area at a number of markets. 


Buffalo and elk were available, along with turkey and eggs, from Bearbrook Game Meats Inc. Wait, what? Peacock eggs? Wow!


My mom was very interested in this display; in spite of which neither of us got good information about it. I believe though, that it may be a local spinners and weavers association. There was a good selection of high quality artisan crafts at the market; you cannot just rent a booth, you must be selected through a jury process. Like all the products, it's producers only - the market brochure says they are the largest producer based farmers market in Ontario.


There were quite a few vendors of fresh vegetables. This one is Rainbow Heritage Garden, with a rainbow of fresh crunchy roots and greens. 


Once we had finished looking around outside, we went inside. Inside was a long key shaped space, in the building seen in the first photograph. A long narrow shed culminated in an wider octagonal space at the front, although we went in the back. This is full of yet more vendors, many of them meat sellers who need access to electricity. There were also a lot of crafts, baked goods, maple syrup... this was a market with everything!


Some of the aforementioned baked goods, from Kym's Old Fashion Bakery in Arnprior.


This is Pork of Yore, about which I will have more to say later as our other little expedition on this trip was to visit the Pork of Yore farm. Their sign in the back says it all - they are all about the all-natural pork! Pastured Tamworth pork, to be precise. 


Let's finish up on a sweet note with a little something from Pat's Sweet Temptations. Pat makes all kind of cakes including West Indian fruitcake. Yummers!

As ever, the first place we want to go to when we travel are the local markets to see what's for sale. This one, I believe, was in Amasra; a small resort town on the Black Sea coast. For a small place it had a very good market. This is just one small bit of it. It seemed rather loose and sprawly, so no one shot of it gave a good idea of its size. We quickly learned that Thursday was the day to look for markets.

I did love all the middle-aged Turkish women in their traditional costume: babushka (wrong word, I know), slightly tatty acrylic cardigan, and baggy trousers or skirt in a dark, small floral print, none of which ever seemed to match. By the way, I was actually very impressed that in the month we were in Turkey I saw more middle-aged women on television than I think I've seen in 40 years of television in North America, and no-one ever seemed to feel that there was any reason to try to spiff them up, either. Excellent!



No idea what these are. (I'm going to be saying that quite a bit in this post.) I do think they are some sort of wild foraged green, but if anyone knows, I'd love to hear.


There were a lot of wild foraged greens. I recognize fennel in the front, but then...? Don't forget to click on the picture for a better view. Most of the remaing pictures were taken in Ayvalik, I believe.


Leeks in the upper right corner - Turkish leeks were spectacular; I've never seen such long white shanks - spinach next to them, fennel back in the lower left, with wild asparagus between it and the leeks. I don't know what's in the lower right. The vendor said it was "hot" and again, it seems to be a foraged vegetable.


Broccoli and cabbages, white turnips and black winter radishes - we saw a surprisingly large number of those - and some sort of cabbagey green. I bought something called "Black Cabbage" seed; I wonder if that's it?


All kinds of great things in this shot. Those show-stopping artichokes again, Romaine lettuce, red cabbage, radishes, green onions, fava beans, radishes, assorted herbs, carrots, tomatoes and lemons. Those roots in the clear plastic bag, lower centre of photo, are Jerusalem artichokes, or as they are called in Turkish, earth-apples. (Only, you know, actually in Turkish.) They were far more common than they are here, and they were fabulous. Large and smooth - Jerusalem artichokes can be awfully small and knobby - with very white, mild flesh. I wished I could have gotten some home.


Another treasure-trove of winter veggies. Look at the length of those leeks! I bought some seeds in the hope of emulating them. Then a large pile of celeriac (celery root). That was another root veggie that was far more common than it is here. The beets intrigued me, being a lighter red than beets here. I got some seed to try both of them too. Brussels sprouts were somewhat uncommon, while spinach seemed to be used a lot. We never got served any fennel though. There's the black radishes and turnips again, along with some lovely watermelon radishes.


The upper right is all foraged greens again. We saw a ton of these in the very large market in Ayvalik. I realized we'd seen people out foraging the day before, as we travelled to Ayvalik by bus. Lots of people out wandering around, eyes to the ground, carrying big plastic bags and a trowel. The white tubs in the foreground are raw olives. Ayvalik was a big olive growing and processing place, and the town was full of shops selling them in every way from bulk olives, to oil, to toiletries made with olives. Wish I could have brought back a big jug of oil, but yeah, that wasn't happening.


More foraged goodies, some home-pressed (?) olive oil, slices of squash, and in the background, a guy selling sausages. In general, not a lot of meat products in the markets. Cheese and dairy, yes. He looks very casual but these were a well-cured type of sausage, and he had some kind of certificate prominantly displayed.


Also there was generally a good selection of dried foods, from beans and grains, fruits, nuts and seeds, to all kinds of candy. We saw carob in pods quite a bit. (It's in a tub pretty much right in the centre there.) Sunflower seeds were a very popular snack, and they have varieties with amazingly huge seeds - and yes, we managed to get some as seed.



Most of this is repeat items, so I'll just talk about the bananas. Yes, they grow bananas in Turkey, along the south coast! They have their own variety, which is smaller and sweeter than the much more common Cavendish. Apparently Cavendish is becoming much more common there though, unfortunately.


Again, mostly repeat items, but I note the fruit in the back just below the cauliflowers. I can't tell if it's pears or quinces. It could be either, we saw them both. There were lots of quinces for sale in the markets, some of them apparently even for eating fresh! Another thing I wish I could have brought back. The man in the front is selecting some "black" carrots. They are used mostly, if not exclusively, for making juice. I was able to get some seed for them so we shall see how they do for us. Carrots are not our best crop. 

Once again, if anyone can identify some of those green veggies, I'd love to hear what they are and how they are used.

It's been quite a while since I've been to a new farmers market, but when I spent a week down visiting Dad & Trevor, we went off to the Dunnville Farmers Market. It's in a nice open-air but roofed building right near the Grand River. It's officially located on Market Street beside the Arena, and runs from March until the end of December, on Tuesdays and Saturdays, from 7:00 am to 12:00 pm. 


There are quite a few general produce farmers in the area, and there is a good selection.


More veggies, and some local crafts as well.


Melons! And looks like we could have gone to a giant corn maze, had our tastes so run...


Eggs, jam, honey... all the usual local Ontario farm stuff is here.


Including quite a lot of fruit from Niagara which is not that far away.


Even the flowers are local.


Maple syrup, baked goods...


The site is really close, as noted, to the mouth of the Grand River - and by the time it hits Dunnville, it really is quite Grand - and there is a nice little park there in which you could enjoy some of your market finds.

I mentioned in my post about travelling around with Robert Foreman to collect produce for his 100 Mile Produce farmers' market stand that we attended the Bruce-Huron Produce Auction. This is a new Mennonite-run produce auction held at 733 Kairshea Avenue (R.R.#3, Holyrood, ON) which is 2 kilometres east of Bruce Road 1, north of Lucknow.

The building is a new, purpose-built warehouse in a reclaimed gravel pit. It is surprisingly elegant, with natural stained board-and-batten sides and fibreglass (I think) skylights. At any rate, it's very rare to see something utilitarian and obviously built on a budget that's also attractive, and I commend the designers and builders.


Almost all the vendors arrive in horse-drawn wagons, which have their own entrance lane that runs around to the back of the building.



Behind the building there is a "truck" bay specifically designed for the wagons. The farmers quickly unload their produce and bring it into the building.



The auction is set up on carts and skids in rows, determined by marks on the floor. We arrived fairly early, and the first vendors were just getting set up.


The vendors fill out consignor tickets that get put with each lot of produce to be sold. These tickets will trace the vendor through to the purchaser, and determine what each purchasers is to pay, and what the vendors are to be paid.



There is a section walled off from the main area, which is full of packaging materials. Vendors take what packaging they need, and write the amount taken down in a notebook. Once a month, they are billed for the packaging materials they have taken. This keeps the produce in consistently sized lots from one vendor to another, and allows purchasers to get a similar product no matter who the vendor was, in quantity at least.


These beautiful Turban squash gave me a big smile. They were really lovely, but sadly, they sold for 5 cents each. Yes, I said 5 cents! As Robert succinctly said, "Won't see those here again." There's that problem with anything that isn't absolutely standard. People, when you see something unusual at the market, even if you don't know what to do with it - buy it! Figure it out! It's the only way to get new and interesting produce to show up.

Not surprisingly, that's way below cost for the farmer - Robert said that in general, regardless of size, if the farmers can sell squash for about 25 cents each, they will break even, and at 50 cents a piece they are making a reasonable return. He likes to bid up the prices towards the reasonable-return end of the scale, even if he doesn't intend to buy them. It's a dangerous game to play though - he ended up with a couple of bins of squash he didn't really need yet! Still, it's squash and it will keep, and he will sell it eventually.



The auction itself is surprisingly low-key, but very brisk. The auctioneer and three helpers start at the beginning of the first row of produce. The fellow to the auctioneer's left describes the produce. The auctioneer then begins his patter, and in under a minute the produce is sold. The two helpers to the right of him then get the successful bidder's bidder number, make sure it is added to the consignor ticket on the produce, and that a copy goes to the office where they are sorted by the bidders' numbers.


The auction moved along quickly, from one spot to another, with purchasers milling around. From my point of view, it was hard to tell who was bidding and who was scratching their nose, but the auctioneer always seemed to know.

And finally, after all these years, I figured out what the auctioneer is actually saying in that speed-talking patter that they do, and the answer is - nothing! Most of it is just filler sounds to keep up a sense of something happening. I told this marvellous insight to Mr. Ferdzy, and he stared at me in amazement for the fool that I am. Duh. Oh well. Some of us are just slow.



The Turban squash were probably the cheapest thing sold at the auction, but these giant pumpkins were probably the most expensive, at about $10 each.

There were a lot of different squash at the market - squash season has definitely begun, along with beets, potatoes, onions and carrots. There were huge numbers of pumpkins, and I was surprised to see that they all sold, and for much better prices than any of the other squash. Who knew?

Fortunately, for those of us still clinging to the end of summer, there were still some tomatoes, corn, melons, and green beans.



Once everything is sold the successful bidders go to the office to pay for their purchases.



While the purchasers are paying, the produce gets loaded into their vehicles. There were a number of teen aged boys there, who knew who the regulars were and who were happy to get them loaded up for a small consideration. The produce left the building as rapidly as it arrived, and an hour and half after we got there, we were driving out again.

This is the Huron-Bruce Produce Auction's first year in business, and I'd say it showed in that there is not yet a really high volume of goods going through yet. However, word is getting out about it and I expect that next year will be better for both sellers and buyers. Right now, for anyone who is able to do the driving to get there, it's likely that bargains can be found. There was certainly a pretty comprehensive selection of produce there.

There is a similar produce auction in Elmira that has been going on for a few years now. The lots there tend to be a fair bit larger. At the Bruce-Huron auction lots are still small enough that a family looking to fill their cold cellar and freezer could buy things here.

I was chatting to a man (as we both hung over a bin of delicious-smelling melons taking up the scent for free) who told me that these auctions are becoming very popular with Mennonite farmers, and that there are somewhere around 100 such auctions in the United States now. They are an effective way for Mennonite farmers, who are restricted in how far they can reasonably travel by buggy or wagon, and who often don't have large quantities, to get their produce to distributors. It's more practical for the distributors too, than travelling from farm to farm, often for fairly small quantities.

As a final note, you may have realized that there were no pictures of farmers in the first post about this trip. That's because Mennonite and Amish people have a strong preference not to be photographed. I did explain to the manager of the auction what I was doing, and asked for permission to take photos here, as it would have been otherwise impossible to give any sense of what was going on.