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.

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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.

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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.