Hello creatives.
You know how we talk about making a living being a creative? And how we, as creatives, should be making an effort to support our fellow creatives? There's no better place to start than at your local farmer's market. Farmers are creatives too! They create plants, food, recipes, soap, and more. I can't do most of what is on that list, so I'm impressed.
This past weekend, TJ and I went to our local market, Carleton Place Farmer's Market, to check it out. You can find it online
here. We've been farmer's market people for a while, and I even sold some of my work there last year, so this wasn't necessarily a new adventure for us but my most recent trip there has definitely renewed my commitment to support local producers.
This past Saturday was chilly (come on Mother Nature, enough already), so the market was slower than usual. Nonetheless there were people milling around and supporting their local farmers and artisans. High five, supporters!
One of the first things that caught my attention was this stuff. Soy wax melts, for electric or flame melters. They smelled SO good. So good I wanted to put them in my mouth. I didn't though. Just to be clear.
The same vendor made these delicious smelling felted soaps. Aren't they the cutest?
New this year at my local Farmer's Market is cooking demonstrations the second Saturday of every month. This is the BEST idea ever! Chefs from local restaurants or businesses come to the market and do a cooking demo, and the best part is, they let people sample the end result. This is Chef Roger Weldon who is the chef at
Generations Inn in the sumer, and also the chef for the Ottawa Senators. He showed up at the market with only a couple of wine bottles and sourced everything else for the demonstration from the market.
Black angus sausages, radishes, mixed greens, pickled garlic, and barbeque sauce. Yumm.
I LOVE this cooking table that the market had custom made for the cooking demos. Check out the mirror above that show all of the ingredients and what's going on. Brilliant. And mouth watering.
Chef, doing his thing.
The finished result!
I tried it, and it was as amazing as it looks. Again, I cannot say enough how psyched I am about the cooking demos at the market.
Speaking of talented chefs at the market, this is Derek Pennell. You may recognize him from Chopped Canada, which he WON (if you live in Canada, you can watch his episode
here). And he's from around here. Which means he'll be a market regular. Which makes me extremely happy. See, Derek makes smoked brisket with his own sauces and rubs, and it's serisously heavenly. If heaven melted in your mouth and tasted like smoked amazingness.
Here's that rub I was talking about.
And the barbeque sauce. You can buy it! Which of course, I did.
If you can look at this and not have your mouth fill up with saliva, you probably need to get your vision tested. Or you're a vegetarian, which is cool too, but you're missing out. Just saying.
TJ's face pretty much says it all. We'll be seeing you regularly, Chef Pennell. Check out his Facebook page
here.
On to the produce! Leaf greens, which also make my mouth water but in a different way.
There really is nothing quite like locally grown, fresh from the earth vegetables.
You can also buy your own plants here! Annuals, perennials, veggie plants... Awesome.
Nanaimo bars! And a whole mess of other delicious sweets. Get in ma belly.
One of my favourites market staples is the preserves. Relishes, jams, jellies, pickles... They are ALL delicious and have like a billion uses. You can use them as marinades, top crackers and cheese with them, wrap them in pastry with some brie, use them in sauce, as garnishes, and I'm sure a whole lot more.
One of my faves - red pepper jelly!
I hope my trip to the market has inspired you to check out your own local farmer's market next weekend. Get out there, support local, and hug a farmer!
Now I'm going to make lunch because I'm seriously hungry after looking at photos of all that delicious food.
Happy creating!
- Amy xo
Amy is a full-time photographer and blogger based in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. You can check out her work here and here.
