Meet Some of the Farmers Vending at Your Ottawa Markets This Season
By Jazmin Bansagi
The Ottawa Markets team is hard at work preparing for an exciting and eventful 2022 market season. We are delighted to welcome back vendors, performers, and shoppers to the Byward and Parkdale Public Markets this spring and want to highlight a few of the exciting farmers you will be able to support this season.
What’s a CSA you ask?
CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) is a system that allows customers to pre-purchase their produce for the season and allows the farmer to have the capital to invest in the time, seeds and equipment needed to plant and cultivate the soil until the produce is ready to enjoy!
Vintage Soil Farm is a new farm that uses regenerative practices such as horse-powered farming rather than using tractors for zero emission planting. Interesting fact: Horses were used in agriculture as early as 4000BC! Isabelle Rodé is the strong female farmer and owner of Vintage Soil Farm. She is incorporating sustainable practices into the farm to enrich the soil health and quality in order for it to be productive and fruitful in the years to come.
Vintage Soil Farm also has a great CSA program this year for a total of 18 weeks, and offering 4 boxes in the fall season, with three different sizes based on the number of people in the household. Offering CSA pickups at the York Street Farmers Market, and fall boxes for pick up at the Byward Market and the Dominion City Brewing Company. Local produce will be available from June to December.
If you check out their website, you can also find some wonderful recipes through a cookbook that is available for free to download online: Our Cookbook — Vintage Soil Farm. The savoy cabbage wraps are delicious!
You have gotta meet Jaymie and Robbie and the team at Rutabaga Ranch!
Their energy is infectious. Be sure to follow them on Instagram for some awesome content. They purchased their farm in 2019 and have been hard at work restoring the land and the farmhouse, adding a greenhouse to the land that has yielded some gorgeous varieties of heirloom tomatoes in the 2021 season.
They’re currently offering a new “Friends of the Farm” card, customizable CSA shares for their members, and will be offering a new self-checkout system in their farm stand that will be able to process debit and credit. New crops will be on offer in 2022 such as pakchoy and fennel. They’ll also be extending their growing season for sweet peas since they were so popular last season. Last year, they chose to extend the growing season of some market favourites such as tomatoes and cucumbers - offering them in early June, which was a huge hit. Find Rutabaga Ranch at the York Street Farmers Market in May.
Aliments Farmhouse Foods was launched in March 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and as farmers markets and food supply chains were disrupted. They are a cooperative of small ecological farms in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec offering a weekly harvest box including fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, eggs, meat, grains and more, all produced within 150km of Parliament Hill.
The vegetables, fruit and eggs are all certified organic, while the meats and cheeses are produced using humane and regenerative agricultural practices. Pickups will be available at the Parkdale Night Market.
The variety in the box changes weekly, based on what is seasonally available. Every week will be a surprise as you get the chance to try new foods and recipes.
Ferme Rêveuse is a 330 acre farm with beef, cattle, and chickens. You have to try their chicken and beef sausages as well - a customer favorite!
They offer chicken and beef, sausages and more for pickup at the Parkdale Market every Saturday, year-round. They also make some delightful spaetzle, and brew their own kombucha in addition to offering farm fresh eggs. A few times a year, they also offer fresh chicken for pre-order or pick-up.
