Farmers Wanted for the Byron Farmer's Market

Greetings all! I am happy to announce that the Byron Farmer”s Market has found a home in the Byron United Church parking lot, corner of Boler Rd. and Byron Base Line. This is smack dab in the middle of Byron, next to a commercial area and very visible from the street.  The Byron United Church has offered the space for two days a week.  I”m thinking it would be nice to have the market on Wednesdays and Saturdays but am open to changing the week day. I am now looking for farmers in the London area to fill this market. The produce does not have to be organic but I am looking for direct sales as much as possible. I am open to crafts and prepared foods as well. The charge to participate in this market will be as low as I can make it, I”m not looking to make any money from this so it will just cover the insurance and small rental charge the church charges me.  I plan to promote this market as much as possible and expect to have it well attended throughout the summer. I”m also trying to get the Byron United Church band, who practices on Saturday, to play outside for the market! I hope to make this a real community space and event. If you are a farmer and are interested in participating in this market, please let me know.  If you would like to participate but need someone to sell your produce for you, we can talk about this. If you know of other farmers in the area who might wish to participate in this by-weekly market, please forward this email on to them. Thank you for your time. Take care, Ryan Ryan J. Craven M.Sc. cell: 519-476-6534 ryanjcraven@gmail.com  Read More

New North London Market

It has been a very busy 2 weeks. I forgot how Spring jolts us out of our winter cocoon and shakes us all awake. I have been camping, fishing, canoeing, exploring and of course fitting my work weeks into somewhere there as well. This weekend was spent almost fully in the garden, sorting things out. In fact, after I post this I plan on getting right back out there! I have been surveying my cucumber plants that I planted just before the long weekend and they look like they may have to be sacrificed . As you all know we got some mighty chilly weather over the May long weekend. It is doubly sad when you grow something from seed and then have to pull it all out, but we”ll see. My tomato plants should be okay because I planted them this week, and it has been nothing but sunny and warm – fingers crossed! Last Friday was the opening of the North London Market and I missed it because I headed up North for a little camping. This week I made sure to get there this Friday at lunch hour. I took Sean and two other friends from work with me to check it out. The market is open from 8 am – 1 pm. I apologize for the less than desirable picture, but I only had my camera phone on me. My intention was to show you just how big the market is, it was much bigger (more vendors) than I imagined it would be. First off, as you may be a dedicated local food eater – and I assume this because you are reading this blog –  I would like to say that this Market is not a Farmers Market in my opinion – and that is all a matter of my opinion. You see, there are many (many!) vendors that are selling very unlocal vegetables and fruits that they just did not produce themselves. I once again,saw the Foodland Ontario signs being used on food that was DEFINITELY not from Ontario. As long as you know this ahead of time and are aware of it,I am sure you will still enjoy it. I guess what I am saying is make sure you have your locavore thinking cap on as you head into the Market and you will do just fine. On to the good food stuff! One of the great vendors I found at the Market was Bayfield Berry Farm. As the obvious title of the farm suggests, they are from Bayfield. They were there selling freshly baked breads, pies, tarts and squares. They also had tons of really interesting looking preserves. For instance I spied some pumpkin jam! This vendor was a hit for me, so I purchased some rye bread, a raspberry pie and two meat pies that I will post about later – delish! The person who grows the Ontario Kettle Corn was there selling local popcorn, which was a big hit with one of my friends that joined me on this “Lunch Market Run”. There was also someone there selling a Garlic spread product called the “Incredible Edible Spread ”Em”, which we had to buy because Sean insisted! I asked her if she grew the garlic for it and she assured me that yes, the garlic was grown in Ontario. It is a margarine type thing, and I am a pure butter type of girl, so you know, enough said.  There were a few different flower merchants there selling beautiful flowers for your garden and I am happy to report that City Garden Project was there selling Heirloom Tomato seedlings. The awesome Jeff Pastorius was there with his booth On the Move Organics. I bought rhubarb from Jeff as well as some spinach, tarragon and oregano. He also had some local organic asparagus that he was bringing in from the Tillsonberg area. I have blogged about Jeff before, but the cool thing about Jeff is he likes to tell you exactly where the Organic Food he sells is coming from. For instance he tells you the farmers name, where the farm is located and the conditions it is grown under if possible. Jeff – if you are reading this – the asparagus was awesome! There are many other great vendors at the new North London Market. Whether they are selling local products or not, everyone was very friendly and the atmosphere there is oozing with goodness. I feel very lucky that someone has decided to make-a- go of this market because we did not have anything like this before in the north end. Time will tell how busy it will be, but the day that I visited it was flush with people. It was great to find some new products and well as see some old friends! North London Market Located at the Southeast corner of Fanshawe and Richmond intersection (behind Hakim Optical & Nash jewellers) Open Fridays 8am –  1 pm  Read More

Trails End Farmers Market

Hot hot heat did not keep me out of the market today. I hit the Trails End Market at about noon today, it was very hot, very sweaty and very unsexy. Well.. except for all the fresh cherries and raspberries… now that”s sexy! Yes, that”s right readers.. the time has arrived for cherries and raspberries! The photo above is what I decided to haul out of there today. I bought red currants, raspberries, cherries (2 kinds) green and yellow zucchinis, dill, small cukes, dill weed, zucchini flowers, and 3 gia-normous yams. There were a ton of vendors at the Trails End market. I don”t make it out there very often, as it is open only on Saturdays and it is a bit of a jog from my diggs,but I have to admit that I wish I lived closer. It is jam packed full of vendors,and people! These are some of the things that I saw available at the market today (but definitely not all!):Cherries, raspberries, red currants, zucchini, yams, potatoes, snap peas, beans, lettuce, onions, every kind of herb, cucumbers. One small warning, there are alot of unlocal items there, masquerading as local food, if you are unsure at all, just ask the vendor, they are happy to let you know! Also, the inside portion of the market has all kinds of goodies like meats, eggs, poultry, baked goods and oodles of flea market finds. For the record.. I saw chicken feet for sale, I was going to photograph, but a man in front of me promptly bought up the last bag before my eyes.. apparently these are a popular item..who knew?! I believe that the Trails End Market is open year round, but the outdoor farmer stalls are open on Saturdays throughout the summer. Trails End Market4370 Dundas Street East, London, ON  Read More

Spinach – This One Goes Out to the Little Popeye in All of Us

photo: wikipedia commons I should have written about spinach before strawberries, as it does come in much earlier than the little red berries. Good news though – now that the strawberries are in and the spinach has been in for a while (it likes cold spring weather) this means you can now make strawberry spinach salads with both tasty ingredients. There are not many other salad combos that are as delicious – and nutritious! I recommend hitting the Trails End Market, The Western Fair Farmers Market or the Covenant Garden Market for fresh spinach, they also have it at Mill Stream Farm in Mt. Brydges. Want some spinach facts? (These have been adapted from Wikipedia and its offerings on the plant, so take it with a leaf of spinach.) Spinach is a flowering plant. Yes, that”s right – it has flowers on it, I bet if you only ever bought it at the grocery store in those crinkly plastic bags, or in those new square plastic containers, you did not know it has flowers. Spinach is thought to have originated in ancient Persia (Iran). Catherine de Medici, of the 16th century, left her home of Florence, Italy,to marry the king of France,and when she did, she brought along her own cooks, who could prepare spinach the ways that she especially liked. Since this time, dishes prepared on a bed of spinach are referred to as “a la Florentine.” So now you can be all fancy when you go the market and ask for it, just kidding, I would not recommend messing with our local farmers, they are serious. Spinach is relatively high in iron, but it is a myth that it is the best thing to eat to increase the iron content in your blood – sorry to burst the iron bubble of all the spinach eating anemics out there! Alas, spinach is a wicked source of calcium, so eat it anyways, and eat lots of it. I do not wish to lead anyone astray on the nutritious values of spinach – so I went to Foodland Ontario for the these next vitamin facts: Spinach is an excellent source of both Vitamin A and folacin, and a source of both fibre, potassium and Vitamin C. Happy spinach eating!  Read More

Five Great Reasons to Eat Local

Eating Local and it”s effect on our environment.By choosing to eat local, you are saving the world”s lungs of up to 17 times the oil and gas that would usually be consumed just by getting the food to your plate. In the average North American home, when we sit down (or stand!) to eat, each ingredient has typically travelled at least 1,500 miles. That is a heck of a lot of carbon! Wake up your tastebuds – Taste Matters!When you shop at the Farmers Market, or your local grocer and choose to buy Ontario grown produce over imported produce that may have been shipped in from Mexico or California, you are eating food that has been picked at it”s prime, inside of 24 hours. You will find that this food is superior in taste, it has not been bred to withstand long, rough truck or ship rides and it has not been picked weeks (sometimes months!) early. This makes locally grown and harvested vegetables and foods better tasting, and all around nutritionally better for you. Get a Food EducationBe aware of what you are eating. It is much easier to find out if the farmer sprays his/her foods with anything or if your corn is a genetically modified product (GMO) if you decide to eat local. Less travel means that it is easier to get to the source of your food. Find out how it is actually grown. There are many reasons that sometimes locally produced food may be a tad more expensive, but these reasons are generally well justified and worth the extra cost involved. You will also have a new found respect for why an ontario strawberry tastes so much better in June,than a shipped strawberry from a far-away land in the middle of February. Get SocialBring back community. Talk to the people that grow your food. When you shop directly from the farmer,there is a wonderful benefit of a food and social education. You will find out about how your food grows, why it looks the way it does, who grew it, the history behind a certain variety of vegetable that may have deep roots within our community of London. Shopping local will connect you with the people around you in ways that benefit our community financially as well as socially. Being a locavore also makes you a local-tourist. Searching out your local suppliers and visiting them makes for some very reasonable mini-getaways with added food benefits! Drink Great Wine and Spirits!We are lucky enough to be within 100 miles of many great breweries, and wineries right here in Southwestern Ontario. This is a major bonus in the eating local challenge. Make sure to check out your 100 miles, you will see that it is alot farther and includes much more than you may think.  Read More