Downsview Park Merchants & Farmers Market

by Guest Market Bloggers Matt & Lindsay 

It was bright and early on the first day of summer when we decided to visit the Downsview Farmers  Market to quench our desire for fresh Ontario fruits and veggies. We made sure we had our camera, cash to avoid those nasty ABM service charges, and our reusable bags to carry all the glorious bounty we were about to acquire. As we pulled up on the large building our expectations were high for some local organic goodies.

When we first walked into the market we realized that the farmers market only makes up a small portion of the building and the rest is occupied by a flea market.

We will concentrate the review on the farmers market but there are some interesting goods in the flea market and a large international food court if you want to explore the inner part of the building.

The food court was probably the most impressive thing at the market. It was made up of many little multicultural food booths representing countries & cuisine from all over! You'll find the Dominican Republic, Afghani, Mexican, Vietnamese, Dominican, Italian, Filipino, Caribbean, Lebanese, Salvadoran yummies -- cooked fresh just for you. This would be the perfect place to introduce yourself to new cuisine you'd otherwise pass on. The phrase “Food Court” usually scares me off, but this area was clean, spacious & relaxed, and if Matt had been more patient, we would have stuck around longer to try something new to eat.

On the outer part of the building is the medium sized farmers market which was a disappointment in terms of selection of locally grown produce.

We did see a nice selection of imported cherries, mangoes, and peaches which were curiously packaged in local fruit baskets but to our disappointment ended up being made in the “USA”. To our surprise we did not find any local tomatoes or strawberries and only one stand had local asparagus for sale. There was not one vendor who had organic produce and very few local options to select from. One vendor was offering a flat of California strawberries for five dollars as a Father’s Day special but we were looking for local organic fruit so once again we were disappointed.

We didn’t want to leave empty handed so we looked around more and did find a hefty bunch of perfectly yellow bananas for two dollars and a basket of mini red potatoes for three.

One other thing that caught our eye was the sugar cane stand where they squeeze out the fresh sugar cane in a see-through machine right before your eyes. Unfortunately that made up the majority of our excitement as the only two samples we received were from the European Meat stand which offered a small sample of unidentified dried meat, and Mr. Nuts who offered a variety of mixed nuts that came straight from a factory sealed bag. Neither of the samples did much to inspire, but further sadness occurred when we realized there was no cheese stand anywhere to be seen.

That was pretty much the last disappointment we could take so we headed home with the few items we had purchased and with a renewed appreciation for the local goodies we have found on our travels out of the city.

Once home, we took out our “USA” peaches and Lindsay produced the best peach cobbler a father could ever dream of.

Maybe next week we will have fresh strawberry shortcake when we return to our regular market to support our local Ontario farmers.

Our guest market post this week comes from Matt & Lindsay, a dynamic duo who strive to find the freshest eats and the tastiest treats in the big smoke. They are also the minds behind Trendydog.ca - functional and fashionable hand made collars. We met Matt on twitter where he mentioned driving by the Downsview Market regularly but having never stopped in.  You can find him tweeting @Matt_James_I All photos courtesy of Matt & Lindsay.

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