My Greatest Weakness

Farmer’s markets are a great weakness to me. I don’t think I’ve ever been able to resist spending money at a farmer’s market save one time when I didn’t have my wallet on me. It’s damned near impossible for me to resist the urge to get fruits, vegetables and bread that are easily of a higher quality than any supermarket around.

Maybe it’s something about the fresh air or the fact that the vendors sitting in their tents peddling their goods are the very people who have grown, picked, concocted or invented whatever it is they are selling, but I am a complete sucker for them. When I lived in BC farmers markets were a dime a dozen and I would always show up at the house with heaps of fresh ingredients that I would turn into a feast for myself and any one of my starving roommates who would always appear “magically” right when I got done cooking.

Today I took my lunch at the Metro Hall Farmer’s Market and, boy howdy, did I drop a nice wad of coin. Before I knew it I had a delicious burger with peameal bacon on it, bought some beef jerky and pepperoni sticks, ate a bunch of fruit including yellow watermelons and a butter tart that Kelly, who met up with me there, insisted I try. I did and it was awesome. If I wasn’t on the way back to the office I would have bought a ton of stuff. The Metro Hall market is on till Oct 16th then they are gone like the dodo till next year but I will probably get there before that with a huge backpack and a healthy appetite. My wallet is already weeping but it’ll be worth it.

Sometimes I go to the Wychwood Barn farmers market at St. Clair and Christie or the Trinity Bellwoods one and it’s not too bad with some of the same vendors as the Metro Hall one but in my opinion, Metro Hall is awesome. I’m told that there’s one at Nathan Phillips Square so I’ll be checking it out. By no means am I any kind of expert on farmer’s markets but they seem to keep finding me. I’m definitely putting someone’s kid through college just like I am doing for that guy who walks around downtown with roses. He always finds me, puckers up with a pathetic face and thrusts some roses into my hands. If you’ve ever been to Loser karaoke at Tequila Sunrise you know who I’m talking about. He keeps getting my money because 50% of the time he comes round it’s someone’s birthday or I’m with a lady. Bastard.

Ken Seto, my colleague and CEO of Massive Damage Inc, creators of a great and super fun iPhone and iPad location-based zombie killin’ game called “Please Stay Calm” has recently picked up an obsession with “bulletproof” coffee (or was it called bullet coffee?). The main ingredient apparently is “grassfed” butter and I took a look for the stuff with no success today. I thought I saw a tub off it but the vendor wasn’t sure what that was and looked at me like I was mad before handing me a piece of cheese and telling me to bugger off. If any of you have any idea what that is and where to get it let me know. I’m making it my farmer’s market quest.

This entry was posted by Michael on September 15, 2011 at 5:15 pm, and is filed under sustenance. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0.You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.

http://twitter.com/danjacobs_ Dan Jacobs

Love farmers markets. We just came back from Quebec City where they had a HUGE one, easily 5 times the size of any other one I’ve seen in the GTA. Plus they had vintners, maple syrup producers, all kinds of really cool stuff.

http://michaelnus.com Michael Nus

Dammit. Now I’ll have to go to Quebec city!

http://twitter.com/danjacobs_ Dan Jacobs

No doubt. Free sampling of the wine too, and one thing I’ve found typical in Toronto is everything is “pre-packaged”, be it in bushels, bags, baskets, etc….and the choice looking items are of course on top. In Quebec everything we saw was laid out like grocery store bins, and it all looked excellent!

http://michaelnus.com Michael Nus

Yeah I’d better go there with my accountant. Maybe he can find some way to write off a part of the huge amounts of cash I would spend there.

http://danjacobstoronto.wordpress.com/ Dan Jacobs

Ah hah! Figured out how to reply to these properly.

You could always form a sole proprietorship involving your blog as a freelance writing company, use it as a content search…that will give you at least a couple of years where you don’t have to show a profit.
http://michaelnus.com Michael Nus

You smart SOB!

http://www.robloach.net/ Rob Loach

Nom nom nom.

http://michaelnus.com Michael Nus

We should go to one.

http://twitter.com/andreat76 Andrea T

I’m a farmer’s market whore, but you know that. Foursquare Mayor of 2 and a regular at a 3rd. I cross into the east end on Sundays just to go to the Leslieville market. It opened a couple of months ago and I’ve been most weeks. On Saturdays I try to make my plans for later in the day because I know that once I get to Wychwood it’s hard to leave- though the week you joined me was a slower week there and it was later in the day. I like Trinity Bellwoods and Dufferin too. It so great to talk to farmers and get close with freshly picked goodness. There’s a great energy at many of the markets, though ones such as Metro Hall and City Hall feel kind of corporate to me, rather than the community feel I get from others. I guess the farmer’s markets in parks are the ones I like best. The ones in parking lots feel odd to me.

http://michaelnus.com Michael Nus

You totally are a farmer’s market hoebag I didn’t really feel the metro hall one was that corporate. Sure it’s surrounded by the hustle and bustle of downtown but a lot of the vendors from Wychwood are there too but there are even more booths.

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