Farmers’ Markets in Toronto – Sorauren

I’m getting increasingly more excited with the possibility of having fresh local produce, that I can paw through myself, and buy directly from someone that might have a connection to the source. I like talking to people about food, and some of my favourite folks are people that make food, and love making food.

Last Monday I went to the Sorauren Farmers’ Market, nearly every Monday I go to the Sorauren farmers market, but this day was special. It was beautiful outside, and even at 6pm (when I arrived) the market was filled with this great energy. Maybe it was just me. I had a good day of collaboration, it was the day after a phenomenal vegan dinner at the Rusholme Park Supper Club, everything was coming up MeShell.

I came with the intention of buying and then actually cooking up some fiddleheads. We bought some once on a trip to loblaws, but I let them sit on our counter, and then sit in the crisper in complete neglect until they left in the house in the compost bin a few weeks later. Not this time.

But first I needed to find lunch/dinner. I walked by Earth and City at first, thinking all they had were sweets (that’d I’d come back to again anyway), but collard green wraps caught my eye. A big green collard leaf, wrapped around a soft fresh spring roll. Count me in.

But there were also macaroons, chocolate and vanilla, that were saying “we’d be perfect for a vegan swap… hey you, yeah, send us to a swap partner… and eat us.” So after a brief moment of wondering how macaroons were talking to me, I did what they asked. Definitely going to watch for Earth and City at the Market in the future.

Chocosol was there with drinking chocolate and chocolate bars for sale. I think this might end up being a swap staple for me. I love sending people chocolate, and I’m pretty fond of Chocosol and their whole premise. While Chocosol is available at farmers’ market’s, and at some Noah’s locations (and probably more.) One of my favourite spots to pick it up is at Good Catch General Store on Queen West (because there are so many other interesting things to discover.)

One other vendor I see often around the city is Growing Spaces. Always with preserves and jellies. In the past we’ve bought the apple rosemary jelly, but recently I picked up a rhubarb chutney that is just so savory and well spiced. Always looking forward to seeing them and picking at least one jar of something up.

Then it was time to check out the fiddleheads. There were two vendors selling fiddleheads, but I opted to go with the forged ones from WildFoods. I ended up following the instructions on the handout from wildfoods – which was limited to just rinsing them repeatedly and boiling the fiddleheads twice. Simple, quick, and delicious. I’ll be taking a fiddlehead fermentation course with the West-End Food Coop tonight, so there are more fiddleheads in my future.

On my way out of the market, I picked up a giant bag full of apples. I’m conscious of prices, and one basket was $7. Felt a little steep, but they were big beautiful apples, there were lots of them, and I wanted to eat them right away.  I’m concerned about the apples in Ontario this year because of the strange weather that is hitting the Ontario Fruit Industry pretty hard. I love apples, but I will not be buying as many apples this year if my only options are non-Ontario apples. It just feels silly to get them from outside of a province that normally has such an abundant supply.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s Dufferin Grove Farmers Market.