Twenty pounds of beef: the temptations of The Stop Farmer’s Market at Wychwood Barns

It takes a lot to get me to wander North of Bloor (NOB), the holy line that divides the real Toronto city dwellers and the rest of the population of the GTA.

The Stop’s Farmer’s Market at Wychwood Barns (just south of St.Clair on Christie) must be special, for I have ventured there not one, not two, but three times already. And I’m hooked.

I love Farmer’s Markets because you get fresh, beautiful products directly from people who make them. Their pride shines as you talk to them to find out more about how they grow or make their product, or to seek ideas about how to use it.

The one at Wychwood Barns is one of the rare Farmer’s Markets in Toronto that is open year round. So the first times I went it was winter, quite the antithesis of the Hollywood image of wandering around a sun-drenched market in a flowery dress and flip flops. And even in the middle of winter it was wonderful. In fact, it was a little less crowded, more relaxed. It gave me the time to wander around and discover some wonderful businesses like Chocosol, Evelyn’s Crackers and much, much more. Wychwood Barns is a perfect site for a wintertime Farmer’s Market and I especially loved the greenhouse that anyone can stroll through.

So the second time I was at the market I was waiting for my friend Asha to finish buying some fabulous looking mushrooms (with which she made me an even more fabulous tasting frittata!). Right next to the mushroom lady was the lady from Green Gate farms with coolers full of sustainably, humanely raised meat. Now, I’m used to buying sustainable, humane meat, but I generally buy it fresh from one of the butchers I’ve already mentioned. No matter, I was just browsing. And lo and behold, I found a cut of meat my husband had been desperately searching for: the rouladen cut. It’s very common in Germany but no one had heard of it until I spotted it at the Green Gate farms table. So I bought some and sure enough, it was the stuff.

We’ve got a busy couple of months now so it seemed like a good idea to stock up. We went to Green Gate farms’ website and found out that they have great deals on sampler boxes. We ordered a 20lb beef sampler box and some extra rouladen meat (that doesn’t automatically come with the sampler box). And lo and behold, yesterday we had 20 lbs of great beef, plus some roulade the farmer had freshly cut for us just the day before. Yum-o.

Here’s some info:
http://thestop.org/the-stop’s-farmers’-market
http://www.wix.com/greengatefarms/home

Barque: The post I almost don’t want to share

I almost didn’t want to share this post because then people might read it, and go to Barque, and make it even more difficult for me and my friends to make reservations there.
It’s that good. A fellow foodie ex-chef told me about it and we went there with our husbands. We left ourselves in the hands of the chef, asking for a feast for 4. And we ate, and ate, and ate and ate. And it was sooo good.
Oh I know everyone knows about it, Barque’s been named one of the 10 best new restaurants in Toronto recently. But I’ve been to some of the others (that shall go nameless). And they’re good, and the food is tasty. But more often than not, I end up shaking my head thinking ‘Toronto isn’t really a foodie city if they looked for the 10 best and this one made it’. But all accolades for Barque are well deserved.
And it’s not pretentious. Great food, great service, no pretentiousness? SOLD.
I’m not going to tell you any more about the food, nor where Barque’s located. I’ve revealed all I’m going to.