The market is at the corner of Adelaide Street West and Maud Street, right beside St. Andrews Playground in the Queen West area of Toronto.

Come out and taste the freshest produce in town!

Today’s opening was a bit small, since there isn’t a lot of local produce on yet, but more farmers will be showing up over the coming weeks. Today, we had:

• Bees Universe with honey and honey products (including beeswax)
• Thames River Melons with asparagus and the first local strawberries of the season
• Loffredo Fruit Farms with baked goods from their own fruit orchards
• Boz Toic with a wide variety of vegetables including wild garlic, spinach, onions, lettuce and other greens, carrots, potatoes, and potted tomato and herb plants
• Monckton Organic Farm & Bakery with whole grain organic bread and pasta
• A maple syrup producer from Milton whose name I missed, but looks like “Danbrie Farms” on the closeup of my photos

I went over just before the 9am opening, and found things mostly set up – they’ve all done this a thousand times before – and a few early customers starting to trickle in. I wandered around taking photos and talking to the vendors, and ended up with one of Loffredo’s freshly baked peach muffins to eat on the spot (delicious, and a deal at $1).

By 9:30, there was a steady crowd through the market, and when I left around 11 with my haul, it was still going strong. I returned just after 12:30 to find many less shoppers (it was due to close at 1pm), and a lot of depleted vendor tables: Loffredo’s and Monckton were both almost sold out of the baked goods and pies, Thames River’s strawberries were completely gone – at $6/pint! – (although they still had quite a bit of asparagus left), and even Boz Toic’s well-stocked vegetable table was sold out of a number of items.

Here’s what I took home, by the way:

• A baguette and whole wheat pasta from Monckton
• Chocolate zucchini loaf from Loffredo
• Asparagus from Thames River
• Wild garlic, spinach and basil from Boz Toic

I’m busy figuring out what to do with the wild garlic for dinner, since I’ve never used it before: I’ve blended some of the leaves with lemon and olive oil and used it as a dressing on the steamed and chilled asparagus to have for dinner, and I’ll chop the bulbs and cook chicken breasts with them and a bit of white wine.

The really cool thing about the market was how it became a place of conversation: neighbours met amongst the stalls, comparing purchases and examining babies and dogs (in this neighbourhood, there are many more of the latter than the former), and generally having a nice outing.

If you want to stay up to date on the St. Andrews market, join the Facebook group or follow us on Twitter. There will be more vendors coming each week as the fruit and vegetable season kicks in, and one farm is being certified right now to allow them to bring their (frozen) meat, including lamb and chicken. I, for one, am very happy to be buying local.

I went to the initial meeting that was held to gauge interest in a local market, and joined the advisory committee so have been involved in planning some of the community support around the market. FMO actually does most of the work: they get the farmers, plan out the site, provide the canopies, provide marketing and logistical support of all sorts, and have a market manager there to make sure that everything runs smoothly. The advisory committee, made up of those of us who live in the area and want to participate in making the market a success, looks after getting the community on board, doing local advertising/awareness, and staffing an information booth at the market as well as helping out with special events.

There are so many great reasons to support a local farmers’ market:

• The produce is the freshest possible, probably picked within the previous 24 hours. That means better tasting fruits and vegetables that ripen on the vine rather than on a truck.
• All of the farmers are (relatively) local, since they’re not driving more than a couple of hours to get to the market. That means a lower carbon footprint since all the produce travels a minimum distance to market. Also on the “save the planet” side is the fact that this brings a market within walking distance for many people (like me) who might have driven to a grocery store instead.
• You buy directly from the farmers rather than through multiple distribution layers. That means that the farmers get a fair price for their goods, which is good for the economy.

This won’t necessarily be the cheapest alternative: you can walk up Spadina and find cheaper fruits and vegetables, but those probably originated thousands of miles away and are past their prime. What you will find at the farmers’ market is great, fresh, local products, and you can feel good about helping the planet and the local farming economy by buying from them.

If you’re interested in more information, there’s a Facebook group, you can email the advisory committee to be put on the mailing list or get involved in the advisory committee, and I’ve started a Twitter account for the market that I’ll update regularly once things get rolling.

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