End of Summer at East Lynn Farmer's Market

A friend of mine asked me if I wanted to meet her at the Farmer's Market near her house.  I said yes because I was already thinking about going to get some fresh fruits and vegetables to restock my fridge before I get crazy busy during Tiff.  This year I want to try and stock grab and go foods in my fridge like cut up melon, carrot sticks, apples, cheese and just easy and quick stuff that I can grab before I head out the door for a long day of film stuff.  So we met up at the East Lynn Farmer's Market at the East Lynn Park near Woodbine and Danforth Ave.

It was a beautiful day for a farmer's market.  Always better to shop at a farmer's market on a nice day then to be stuck inside a grocery store with long lineups.  Natural sunlight is always a good thing, especially when you are armed with a camera.

I took a few shots using my barely used Nikon camera.  I usually just have my point and shoot Canon or my cell phone camera when I am out and about but I want to bump up my photo skills and get better at figuring out all the digital controls on the Nikon.  I am an old school camera user who learned to take photos when there was negative film and manual controls on cameras.   Now there is a ton of stuff you have to figure out and I haven't been able to keep up with all the technology and the cost of new equipment, although I try but haven't succeeded as much as I would have like to.

I have to say that sometimes it's a whole lot easier just to take pics with my cell and use Instagram filters to mess around with the photos.  But I need to step up my photography skills so I hope to work on that more.

Every market is different as I have mentioned in previous posts.   The Easy Lynn Market is a small but very nice market.  As I was taking photos when they were setting up their booths I spoke to a couple of the vendors.  One of the vendors was Lina from Lucifer Loaves.  She was very curious to see if I was media because she said she was new to the market and would like to spread the word.  She had a lovely selection of all kinds of Artisanal breads.   My friend and I picked up one of the fig and honey breads and I dug into it as soon as I got home.  It was delicious and had a nice crunch on the outside and a nice chew with a ton of flavour.   She had herb and cheese breads and other assorted breads.

Sometimes you find things at some markets that you generally don't find at other markets.  In this case I found some beautiful Tomatillos and purple carrots.  You don't always see purple carrots at markets because I suppose not all farmer's grow that variety.  You don't often see Tomatillos probably because most people don't know what to do with them.  The produce at this market was beautiful and when I stopped to take photos of the strawberries I could smell the sweetness of them so of course I had to pick some up.

Apparently there is an Arancini vendor who wasn't at the market that day and I would have gotten one of those for sure if he was.  There was also a meat vendor and the same french fry guy that I see at the Tuesday market at Mount Pleasant was there too.  The people from Triscuit were there doing some sampling of their new flavours as well.

I picked up a lot more things than I expected to.  The variety was so good and it all looked like it was at the peak of freshness so I couldn't resist.  Plus I didn't have lunch and was starving and you what happens when you shop hungry.   I actually had to take some bags to the car and go back again because it was getting hard to juggle money, cameras etc. My final tally of the food I picked up was the fig and honey loaf of bread, some purple carrots, 6 tomatillos, nectarines, some new variety of apples that I have never had before, tomatoes from Food Share, blueberries and strawberries,   and I had stopped at the North York market already earlier in the day and picked up kale and melons from there.

Mostly foods that I can prep and have in the fridge that should last for part of my crazy tiff schedule.

There was a lot of stuff I wanted to get but knew I wouldn't have time to eat it.  I probably should have picked up some artichokes.  My mom used to make them all the time but I get lazy and don't buy them as much as I probably should.  They are super healthy and low in calories too.

And then there is the parking which is usually my farmer's market aggravation.  I was lucky because I went early I got a nice close spot on the side street and didn't have to pay.  But there is meter parking on the Danforth, although I am not sure if you can park on both sides because this market runs from 3pm to 7pm and you know what parking is like from 4-6pm in Toronto.  I was there at 3pm so I knew I would be OK.  If you go early you get the first pick of stuff too.

This market gets my thumbs up for the quality of the products.