Market Weekend

Baby's first lettuce--he ate it, but wasn't terribly impressed

This weekend was the first Trout Lake Farmers' Market of the year, so we packed Sprout into the shopping cart, er, stroller & headed eastward. It's only a 20-minute walk from our house, though we rarely go there, almost always heading points westward, for some reason.

It was nice to remind myself that this is the best way to shop--meet the producers of the food you're buying, listen to live music, all the while munching on buckwheat crepes & drinking organic apple juice. La Boheme Creperie was the main reason I went, honestly. I had 'la Quebecoise', which was a buckwheat crepe stuffed with cheese, apples, ham & maple syrup. Oli's crepe with fig jam was pretty tasty too.

bowl o' chocolate, coffee & a flatbread pizza (the Alsatian)

We didn't buy too much stuff: red leaf lettuce, rhubarb, cilantro & some pole beans to plant. It was more of a reconnaissance mission: next week we'll buy some tomato plants, possibly a teeny spruce or two, maybe some lavender plants, some kind of carnivorous plant (either a venus fly trap or a pitcher plant) & probably some other veggie starts for our garden.

Sprout & Papa contemplate the grocery offerings

Today we walked up to Marché St. George, which is just 12 blocks due South of us. Today's cabin fever precipitated the outing, despite the soggy weather. It's a stylish little cafe/grocery store with carefully curated, mostly local products like Birchwood Dairy ice cream, Gone Crackers, & D-Original Sausage. Marché St. George opened about six months ago & I've been meaning to go there for a while.

Their groceries are higher-end with prices to match, but hot drinks & snacks are comparable to most cafes around here. The hot chocolate I had was creamy & lovely, $3.50 for a large, served French style, in a small bowl. Next time I'd like to try the flatbread that our table-mate was eating. We shared one of the two tables inside (not a place for large groups...) with Fred, a former barber. He noticed how much hair Sprout had & struck up a conversation.

While we were drinking & chatting, a photographer was carefully documenting the shop, which we later found out was for a magazine article. Apparently, the little shop has already attracted several journalists & spawned a number of newspaper & magazine articles. & rightfully so--it's a charming place. If you're in the neighbourhood of East 28th Avenue & Saint George, you should defnitely stop by Marché St. George.