Oh the Calgary Farmers’ Market (www.calgaryfarmersmarket.ca/). I’ve been wanting to go since arriving in Calgary over two years ago. So as usual, I just never went. In reviewing my 30 before 30 list, I thought about community-oriented activities that I want to do (…yes, it’s pretty open-ended). And since the Calgary Farmers’ Market (CFM) recently re-opened at its new Blackfoot Centre location, I knew this would be a place to support and visit. The CFM prides itself as a venue where Calgarians can get the best local food and products. Now, for convenience, I’m definitely one to go to Superstore and load up my entire selection of groceries. The fact is it can be quite expensive to buy all groceries from the market; nevertheless, I’m also all for supporting local farmers and vendors. So off to the Calgary Farmers’ Market I went.
I entered the CFM at around 3:30 pm, and I hadn’t even had my coffee for the day. So it was great to see Fratello Analog Cafe near the entrance. According to the website (www.fratellocoffee.com), Fratello Coffee Roasters is a second-generation boutique coffee roaster with experience sourcing beans chosen for their desirable taste profiles. Their coffee is consciously chosen, responsibly purchased, and carefully roasted. Sounds good to me! The staff was incredibly friendly, and though it was quite busy, I received my coffee in a timely manner. I ended up ordering a 12oz cup of Sumatra Aceh. This blend has a sweet clove aroma with a syrupy body and flavours of milk chocolate and roasted almonds. Sounds good to me. I’m a huge Starbucks fan, but I definitely enjoyed this fantastic blend much more!
After wandering with my coffee, I stopped at Simple Simon Pies (www.simplesimonpies.com). Simple Simon Pies is a locally owned and operated company that’s been producing pies for more than 20 years. They make 4″ individual serving pies which are all made by hand using the freshest ingredients. After taste-testing a chicken dijon pie, I was sold, and so I bought a chicken shepherd’s pie. Yum! I didn’t feel like cooking dinner Saturday night, so this made a great treat to myself.
My last stop was Gull Valley Greenhouses (www.gullvalley.ca). I was told by a colleague that their tomatoes are to die for. The tomatoes there are picked fully ripened, and handled only at the picking and selling stages. All of the produce is grown without the use of pesticides and herbicides. Sounds good to me! I still had many tomatoes in my fridge, so I opted to get Three Amigo Bruschetta to eat with some nachos I had at home. The bruschetta is now half gone. It’s really good.
After I bought the bruschetta, I headed out of the Farmers’ Market quite content with my purchases. I had a great cup of coffee, supported a local company by buying a pie for dinner, and now had some bruschetta made from local produce. I’ll definitely be going back to the market again. (To my breakfast buddy- If you’re reading this, we must go here! The coffee and food options are awesome!!). Does this mean I can now cross #26 off of my list? For the sake of the list, yes I will, but doing community-oriented activities doesn’t end with just one :)…
In an unrelated but much more important note, it is Mother’s Day today! Happy Mother’s Day to all the Mothers out there. And a special shout out to my Mummy! Thank you for everything, and I love you!!!
HIKES & HAMSTRINGS 
Ya – the next time I visit, I want to go to the market. Simple Simon Pies sound right up my alley. And funny – the nerd-caucus were unaware of the Simple Simon nursery rhyme http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_Simon_(nursery_rhyme). Weird.
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I don’t even think I’ve been to the Milton FM!
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