Where the Farm Meets the City

Late last summer when my friend Kevin and I were out bike riding, we came across this market taking place in the Trout Lake Community Centre parking lot. We later found out that it there is a farmer’s market taking place there from May to October every Saturday. As the first weekend that it starts was yesterday (May 20th), Barb and I decided to go check it out. Since the last time that I had been to the market was on bike, I didn’t realize how difficult the parking would be. Given that most of the main parking lot of the community centre is taken up by the market, it stands to reason that parking would be in short supply but I think that it also has to do with the extra thousand or so people who turned up for the opening weekend of the farmer’s market.

Many of the vendors were selling organic items although this isn’t always the case. There were a couple of vendors selling produce but things like cheese and prepared items like bottles of fresh honey seemed to be more plentiful. Lots of vendors were offering large freezer orders of organic beef or pork.

As Barb and I were there for the first time, we were there mostly to explore and see what the general offering was at the farmer’s market. We ended up only buying some organic mushrooms (something that we never see at our grocery stores) and a few dessert snacks. We’ll come back again throughout the summer and see what different things are being offered as the seasons change.

After we had finished with the farmer’s market, we took the opportunity to walk around Trout Lake which was mere steps from the parking lot of the community centre.

There are numerous walking paths around and in the vicinity of Trout Lake and even though the sun was out only occasionally, the walk was quite enjoyable. Around the east side of the lake is a marshy area which is home to many types of birds and many of them were out swimming in the lake. There are several piers jutting into the lake and one floating in the middle so we expect that during the warmer days this is used as a swimming area as well.

Overall it was a nice to be out with Barb and experience the activities of the farmer’s market and the contrasting quiet of the walk around the lake and we’ll have to make this part of a regular routine.

Baden