By admin Tuesday, November 6, 2012

Winter is here and while I love all of the things you can do in Ontario during the winter I still miss spring and summer. One of the biggest things I miss is being able to get fresh produce from all of the markets and produce stands located all over Ontario. Every trip and adventure I went on I made sure to stop and grab some locally grown vegetables and fruit, which were always amazingly fresh.

So what does a fresh fruit and vegetable addict do when winter hits? That was what I asked my friends and the universal answer was: Elora Farmers Market.  During the spring and summer Elora Farmers’ Market is considered “the prettiest farmers’ market in Ontario”.  During the winter the market moves to Paddocks at the Grand River Raceway. It isn’t as big as the St. Jacobs Famers’ Market but it makes up for size with quality.

After a little while of talking to my friends we had decided to go to the Elora Farmers’ Market and try something new. We had created a challenge for ourselves of creating an entire dinner from items at the market. There were four of us that were going to go but we would be shopping for 8 since we each were going to bring someone.

It was the first day the market had been moved inside since last winter and it was busy. I can only imagine the smells of breads and other goodies were more intense since we were inside, and not out in the open, which had all of our mouths watering immediately.

We started off by looking for breakfast since we had to keep our strength up. One of my friends pointed out Bite Me Bagels, which has freshly made bagels ready to eat. We each got one and they were delicious. As we ate we stood and talked and planned our strategy. We needed an appetizer, a main dish, a side dish or two, and a dessert.

We stopped by Elora Bread Trading Company and picked up two loaves of delicious artisanal bread. It would make a great appetizer with goat’s milk cheese. Then we stopped by F&M Meats and grabbed 2 lbs of chicken breasts and a few steaks. We could easily season and grille them up with some fresh asparagus that we found at Thames River Melons’ stand, where we also grabbed some tomatoes. We needed one more side dish for those who didn’t like asparagus and decided to cut up some fresh peppers and onion, from Reroot Organic Farm, and throw them on the grille too.

 We had to get a little creative with the dessert but my friend Amy had a great recipe for honey glazed mixed nut bars so we picked up some Cedarwood Honey and stopped by Fraberts Fresh Foods for some mixed nuts.

All of the vendors were so nice and when we told them about our plan they thought it was such a great idea. It was a way to introduce people to fresh local produce in a fun and creative way. Hopefully more people will try it out. There has been a movement towards local and organic foods and coming up with different ways to introduce people to those foods is great.

We ended up making delicious grilled steak and chicken kabobs with fresh veggies and grilled asparagus. We are already planning our next trip to the market this winter and might check out some of the other great farmers’ markets Ontario has to offer. If you are looking for something fun to do in Ontario this winter you should check out Elora Farmers’ Market every Saturday morning through March at the Paddocks at Grand River Raceway.  For more information you can visit their website www.elorafarmersmarket.com or check out Elora and other farmers’ markets in Ontario here at summerfunguide.ca.