Farmers’ Markets: It’s Saturday Morning

… and everyone’s at the farmers’ market – townsfolk, country folk and tattooed teens, toddlers in strollers, the elderly with canes, hipsters, neighbours, shih tzus and schnauzers, the chic, the casual and the “wouldn’t-miss-a week” regulars.

They come rain or shine, May through October, for strawberry-rhubarb pie, fresh pork chops, 10-for-a-10-spot pepperettes, mushrooms, sunflower bouquets, butter tarts, pumpkin-raisin loaves, kale, carrots and golden, red and candy-cane beets, homemade soups and handmade soaps, knitwear and jewellery. And they come to mingle with friends and neighbours.

Story Continues Below Advertisements

Sometimes the market gets them young. Colourful fluttering signs on one stall announce, “Kids’ Market” and “Awesome Stuff!” The awesomeness includes self-published books (“I did it with my grandma”), handmade dolls (“I googled how, then I practised”), painted sticks (“Wands!”) and homemade dog treats.

Susan and Ron Des Cotes from Mono are among the regulars – along with their shelties Katy and Charlee. “I love a local market,” Susan says. “What other place brings people together that doesn’t involve politics or sports or competition? It makes it a community.”

Outdoors on summer Saturday mornings from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Orangeville Farmers’ Market is the community.

<

►

>

Pillitteri Estates Winery from Niagara-on-the Lake is represented with ultra-hirsute charm by Palgrave’s Ethan Lavereau. He also works the markets in Shelburne and Caledon, but Orangeville is the big one – sales of perhaps 40 bottles on a Saturday. But his main intent is promotion – distinguishing the brand from the plethora at the LCBO. When we spoke, a woman from the adjoining stall thoughtfully handed Ethan a bowl of homemade minestrone soup. Breakfast. “She makes a wonderful soup,” he said, touched. Illustration by Anthony Jenkins.