Why I love the Farmer's Market

Every Saturday morning, the husband and I go to our local farmer's market on our weekly grocery trek. We've made it a habit to stop there because, thanks much to Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall & Jamie Oliver, I will now not eat chicken purchased from the supermarkets. I've been wanting for sometime to go as organic & natural as possible in terms of the food I put into my body & what sort of carbon footprint I leave with the chemicals I deposit into the environment. Besides, going to the farmer's market and purchasing the goods there puts money back into the local economy.

I stop at a booth run by Stephen Taylor's Farm to buy my eggs ($2.35 for a dozen, extra large, brown eggs - you can't beat that!). I will also buy my beef there. We stop at a place called Armstrong Cheese to purchase any cheese we may be craving. While not all organic, the family who runs this stall really take pride in their work. Cheese can be a smelly business, but they certainly enjoy it - and each time I go, I like to try something new. "Give me something... old & European," or, "zingy & French!" My favourite is old, English cheddar. There's a distinct flavour variation between English & Canadian cheddars. I find the English one just a bit more... zippy!

Next we get our fruits & veggies from a number of vendors. Arimosa is an organic farm just on the outskirts of the city. Hope Farms is another. Between the two of them, you can get just about anything. Carrots, an assortment of radish (including one that is black all the way though), lemon cucumbers, and this week I bought us some Italian beans. Long, thick & purple! But, when you cook them, they turn green. Very tasty too, slightly nutty. We've gotten in the habit of bringing back the containers the fruits & veg comes in. From the wooden boxes that held berries, to the cardboard ones with the handle on the top that carries apples & plums... we don't throw them out, we take them back for them to use again. And they do. And some days, if you have enough brought back, they give you a discount on your purchase. :)

Lastly, we stop at one of our favourite places, Springbank Farm. We get our pork & chicken there. And in two week's time we should be able to get some lamb. Now, this place, aside from great prices and grain fed livestock, is pretty amazing. The guys that work the stall there (and at the Dieppe Farmer's Market) are pretty darned amazing. We go in and they routinely knock a buck or two off of the price. Last time they gave me an extra packet of home-smoked bacon. The time before that they gave us two chicken carcasses for making broth (see picture). These two carcasses were roasted with some fresh herbs, salt, pepper & some olive oil (not too much, just enough for the herbs to stick). They were boiled with your basics - a large onions, a large carrot and a stalk of celery cut in two. The broth it made was decadent. And the best part, there was enough meat on the bones to tear off and use for making a soup, stew, or even sandwiches. And it was free. That's practically an entire meal, free, that we got from the Farmer's Market.

Free food. Organic livestock. Infusing the local economy. Making the indent of my carbon footprint a little shallower. Overall, superior quality & pride. These are the reasons why I love going to the Farmer's Market.