Not Your Typical Grocery Store

It’s got arts. It’s got crafts. It’s got great food and a wagon ride. It’s a fun family destination, and you’ll leave with a week’s worth of fresh meat and produce, shortening your trip to that big-box supermarket later on.

It’s the Ottawa Farmers’ Market, open at Lansdowne Park for another season on Sundays from 8 am to 3 pm, now until October 30 and at Orleans Centrum on Fridays 11 am to 6 pm.

The market is a great chance to buy fresh, local and often organic products in a central location. If you don’t live nearby, consider making your visit part of a larger outing—perhaps a weekend family walk or bike ride along the canal. The market is also a great venue for an open-air meal or snack, available in the market’s food court area.

This year the market is offering free horse-drawn wagon rides throughout the Glebe and surrounding areas—so if you do live nearby, you may even be able to catch a ride home with your purchases.

Speaking of purchases, you might like to know that fruits and vegetables aren’t the only items for sale. You’ll also find exotic meats (including elk, bison and game meat stews), sweets and baked goods, garden plants and accessories, dairy and grocery products, art work and crafts, t-shirts, and even personal care products, such as beeswax soaps, candles, salves, soaps, shampoos, bath salts and deodorants.

The Farmers’ Market website offers a handy chart showing when particular items will be in season, with links to interesting recipes. The market is also planning a different theme or event for most weeks throughout the growing season.

Those who appreciate variety will be happy to hear that the Ottawa Farmers’ Market is not the only game in town. This year you can also pop by the Main Farmers’ Market at St. Paul’s University in Old Ottawa East. The market is open Saturdays from 9 am to 2 pm until September 27. Farmers at the market must come from within 100 miles of Old Ottawa East. Aside from the usual products, this market features live music, face-painting, cooking demonstrations, seed planting and harvesting demonstrations, grow-your-own plant activities for kids, and more.

Produce and meats that are grown locally need fewer preservatives, can be harvested when fully ripe, and generate fewer greenhouse gases and pollution, since they don’t need to be trucked long distances. Think of your visit to either of these markets as a great hands-on way to educate your kids about the local food movement—and support local farmers.

Or you can just think of it as good old fashioned fun.

Ottawa Farmers’ Market
www.ottawafarmersmarket.ca

Main Farmers Market
Website

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