Harvest Festival at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market!

Woman Harvester by Kanuty Rusiecki, 1844.

This is a press release from the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market:

Well folks, we are drawing close to the end of another North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market season...

WAIT! IT’S NOT OVER YET!!

This coming Saturday September 19, the Downtown Farmers’ Market will be hosting

their Annual Harvest Festival. Friends & family are welcome to visit the

same great location – the parking lot on McIntyre St. East – across from City Hall.

This Saturday only from 9:00 am to 12:00 pm, kids can stay & play awhile at the FREE

Activity Centre. There will even be pumpkins to decorate!! There are a limited number of FREE

giveaways, so get there early to claim yours! Kids are also welcome to enter the

Harvest Festival Colouring Contest and prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place.

Participation at the Activity Centre including the colouring contest is FREE!

All kids will receive a Certificate and goodies for joining in the fun.

There is lots of free parking, and the Market is OPEN until Thanksgiving weekend (October 10th) “rain or shine”, every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m.

See what your North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market, has to offer you!

For more upcoming Special Event dates & information, or to learn more about the Market’s vendors please visit the NEW Market website at: http://www.northbayfarmersmarket.com/

Buy Local, Share Local

Yesterday at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market Buy Local, Share Local had a booth for the day.

By Local, Share Local is a food security campaign sponsored by the Ontario Association of Food Banks and the RBC Foundation, along with partners Ontario Federation of Agriculture, Turkey Farmers of Ontario, Homegrown Ontario, and Ontario Farm Animal Council.

The project has been touring farmers markets across Ontario, where they are encouraging folks to buy local produce and to donate some to food banks, along with accepting food donations on the spot.

When they stopped by North Bay yesterday, they were collecting food for the North Bay Food Bank, and we had many generous folks stopping by the Locavore booth to purchase food to donate!

I am not quite sure how much food donations were collected, but the information should be on the Buy Local, Share Local blog. To see the rest of the farmers markets they will be stopping at
(and where they have already been) click here.

Corn Festival at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market!

Photo from Vassia Atanassova

Here is info about the upcoming Corn Festival at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market from the Market's website:

On Saturday August 22nd the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market will be hosting it’s Annual Corn Festival. Bring the whole family to experience a wide variety of quality locally gown and handmade products. Get to the market early on this day to get your cobs for corn-roast season!! Bags and bags of super-sweet corn will be available from select vendors!

Support the Market by visiting the Market Booth (located in or about the centre of the Market) to get your drinks and snacks. And on August 22nd only you can enjoy hot, buttered corn served fresh on the cob and piping hot. Seasoned with salt and pepper and slathered with butter, corn on the cob is a taste treat that is enjoyed by people universally. You can buy a sweet, juicy, delicious cob of corn for $1.00 each. All proceeds from the Corn Festival go towards the dream of a permanent home.

There is lots of FREE parking and the Market is open “rain or shine” every Saturday from 8:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. Bring your friends & family to the same great location --parking lot #11 on McIntyre St. across from City Hall {behind the TD Canada Trust on Main St.}

Hope to see you there!

A Great Video on Local Food from Northern Edge Algonquin

Near North Locavore member and kitchen and garden manager at Northern Edge Algonquin Greg Waters talks with Todd Lucier (also of Northern Edge) about local and organic food, and
gives a tour of the garden at Northern Edge and local farmers' markets. This video was shot last summer.

Enjoy the video!

Strawberry Festival!

Strawberries by Adriaen Coorte {1696}

Due to the crops not being ready, the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market Strawberry Festival has been postponed again this year until Saturday July 11th.

Here is a blurb from the Market website:

Be sure to get to the Market early that day to buy your strawberries – all vendors were sold out before 11:00am last year. The Market Booth will have a limited number of flats of strawberries available for sale this year, but they go fast!

Everyone can look forward to many delicious strawberry treats made by the vendors – including Strawberry Shortcakes being sold at the Market Booth the day of the Strawberry Festival. Help support the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market as all proceeds go towards making the dream of a permanent home for North Bay’s Downtown Farmers’ Market come true.

Hope to see you all there!

The Locavores Need Volunteers for the Farmers' Market!

Right now the Near North Locavores are looking for members in the community who would be interested in volunteering at our booth for the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market.

The Market runs every Saturday until October 10th, and the booth is opened from 8 am to 1 pm. If you would be interested in helping, please email us at nearnorthlocavores(at)hotmail.com along with the date(s) you would like to volunteer. If you have any questions, feel free to drop us a line as well.

Near North Ontario Farmers' Markets

Argyle Farmers' Market (Port Loring)

North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market

Powassan Farmers' Market

Riverside Farmers' Market (New Liskeard)

West Nipissing Farmers' Market (Sturgeon Falls)

Farmers Market Season Starts!

This is a photo of our booth last year at the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market. We will be there again this year!

Here is an article from the North Bay Nugget giving details about various farmers' markets in the Near North region. Many open this Victoria Day weekend, including the North Bay Downtown Farmers' Market on Saturday and we will be there!

Farmers' market outgrows its home
By MARIA CALABRESE
Source found here.

The buzz around buying local is taking the sting out of trying to find a place for producers to market their goods.

Board’s Honey Farm has been selling its golden nectar at the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market since the venue opened eight years ago when there was less noise about leaving a carbon footprint.

“It’s about food value, quality and taste,” says Ann Board after tapping some honey at the farm nestled in Restoule, about 65 kilometres southwest of North Bay.

The market gives the public a chance to buy direct from the producers and build a trust that the food is safe, Board says.
“It’s bringing the country into the city.”

The busy beekeepers have a dozen hive locations and a menu of honey flavours depending on what flowers are in bloom, like wildflowers, meadow blend, basswood and buckwheat.

There’s scores of value-added goods like skin products, candles, creamed honey, and there’s relish and salsa made with their sweet yield instead of sugar.

The North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market opens for the season Saturday with small business owners, crafters, artists and producers selling locally grown and handmade products.

While market manager Ron Warman is pleased to see the explosion of interest from vendors and buyers, he’s frustrated to cap the number of vendors at 30 and turn away 17 others who are interested in joining this year because there isn’t enough space for them at the current location on McIntyre Street across from city hall.

He won’t bump crafters who have supported the market in its lean years in favour of new producers who want to plant their roots now that homegrown, handmade goods are hot commodities.

“That’s our problem right now is trying to accommodate this new interest,” says Warman, adding seniors and young families prefer that central spot with free parking and within walking distance for downtown residents. “We’re hesitant to move, but we can’t grow in that location.”

Friends of the Waterfront offered an area in front of the Discovery North Bay museum, but it’s too small to fit the growing market, Warman says.

It needs an area that’s at least 30-by-60 metres to accommodate 40 vendor spots — some vendors need more than one spot — with access to electricity, parking and washrooms, although Warman would like to see a bigger space so the market can bloom.

Warman would also like some kind of covering, whether it’s a tent or permanent structure, when the weather isn’t on their side. Exposure to biting wind and blowing sand is the main reason the market abandoned its first haunts on Oak Street.

“I’m not going to move unless it’s a step up,” he says.

The cost and global impact of transporting foreign foods to grocery stores and a push to eat local has even spawned a reality TV show with six families from Mission, B.C., volunteering to only eat food that has been produced within 100 miles, named after the book of the same name.

This year’s farmers’ market will offer a new baker and steady favourites, with maple products, perennials, jewelers, crafters, handmade soaps, woodworking, fresh-grown produce and other goods.

There’s also a booth with hot drinks and a new coffee club to reward repeat customers.

Also new this year is a pancake festival May 30 with syrup provided by vendor Matthews Maple Syrup of Powassan.

The market is open every Saturday rain or shine until the Thanksgiving weekend.

On the web: northbayfarmersmarket.ca

mcalabrese@nugget.ca

A Little Bit About the Near North Locavores

Welcome to our blog!

The Near North Locavores is a grassroots, not-for-profit organization that was started up in Feburary 2008. Our main goal is to promote local food production and consumption of the Near North region of Ontario, Canada.

We are a diverse group comprised of current and aspiring producers, people in business and health care, environmentalists, gardeners, people concerned about food security, and consumers who want access to more locally produced food.

In our first year we had a table at the North Bay Downtown Farmers’ Market, where we helped to sell local producers’ food, and distributed information. We will be back at the Market for the 2009 season starting on May 16th and we will be there every Saturday until the closing of the Market on October 10th.

We are currently have many exciting projects underway, including a community garden (partnered with Amelia Rising Sexual Assault Centre, North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit, and the Take Heart Program); a local producer database, and a partnership with Vested Interest to establish a central location to purchase local produce year round!

For more information, you can check out our Facebook group or email us at nearnorthlocavores(at)hotmail.com.