I swear I did not put that squash and those tomatoes in this baby carriage. This person’s just got it all figured out. I suppose you could have both a baby and a farmers’ market to go to, but then you’d need a second car.
Squash signals the end of the farming season for most, so besides Jean-Talon, Atwater, Maisonneuve and Lachine (the year-round markets), market sason is over. That means no Plateau Market, Verdun Market, Frontenac Market or Outremont Market.
But you can still take advantage of local produce: bags of beets and carrots at Jean-Talon are ripe for pickling. $1 cabbage makes killer saurkraut to ward off the winter blues. For some, the season means canning what produce is left, and for others it means feeling less bad about eating Mexican mangoes since nothing’s coming out of our grounds. Or just take advantage of Quebec-raised bison, organic poultry, or famous Kamouraska lamb. Either way, I say you should bring a cart or carriage with you to the market and save yourself a week of back pain. A few pounds of potatoes, some squash or sweet potatoes, carrots, and a pound of apples are awfully hard to bring home all by your lonesome. Here in Quebec we’re lucky that we could actually do an entirely local (100-mile?) Christmas if we wanted, including the turkey.
Though Thanksgiving is long gone, Christmas is also a season to be thankful, and after a beautiful summer of farmers’ markets, here’s my list:
1. The sourdough bread at LaPerle et Son Boulanger, Plateau market, Sundays 10am-3pm until October 17th. In two weeks I’m going to have to start making my own sourdough bread because this is the best stuff in the world and I don’t know where to get it outside of the bakeshop in Dunham. Montreal has other great bread, but this is heavenly – tangy and fresh – and the toasted hazelnut version makes my Sunday.
2. Chili peppers from Les Jardins du Matin. Every time I bought a pound of long red chili peppers I got a funny look, and then a smile.
3. The sense of community that the markets create – the producers, the consumers, sometimes the music – all outside under tents. It’s actually to the point where I see tents and automatically think farmers’ market.
I’ll also miss Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue because of the amazing feeling of standing on the edge of the water on a sunny summer day. I’ll miss the McGill market because it feels like it just started growing. Each week feels bigger, with different vendors and more students experiencing a market for the first time. Mostly I’ll miss the producers I met over the course of the summer – my farmer John and his tomatoes (that got better later in the summer. Good thing I stuck it out), and Stéphane from Jardin Biologique Kale et cie who doesn’t even know my name.
I won’t miss the beautiful teas from Ochado that I smelled every week and finally bought this week (both practical and in good etiquette since I’d had so many samples) because you can order them online. Also, the colder it gets, the more you need tea, but the less you want to make the trip to the farmers’ market to get it. It’s kind of counter-productive to make yourself cold in search of something to warm you up.
So if you really feel like you need a use for that cart come winter, maybe winter is a good season to start thinking about having a baby. But I say go to Jean-Talon and stock up on mangoes instead. I really love mangoes…
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