Danforth A to B

Behind Danforth Avenue, somewhere between Sun Valley Foods and the bank. Rare lengthy entry:

I went to the farmers' market at Withrow Park this morning. Got sweet small cucumbers, two kinds of parsley, chard, and green cubanelles. Also yellow cherry toms, which mmlike candy.

Good to know where this stuff comes from. Mostly, it's local farm growers outside the GTA, trucking their produce around the parks in the city. It's a good system and growing fast. Some of this stuff is grown in the suburbs, on hard-fought-for patches of turf*. Vendors are here from small organic ops, like the girls who sold me the delicious parsley--sweet moses it's good. I got green onions too; they're huge. I've been buying them from the same guy all summer. He's so generous. Last week I bought a head of kale that was so huge I had to separate it into two bundles to fit in the fridge.

I was slipping through the back lanes on my way home when I met Nikolaus (above), clutchin' his Tim Hortons coffee like a drunk with a bottle in a bag. We chatted for a bit. He was nice, a local like me, dodging from A to B in this high traffic neighbourhood.

Then I just got into it in the kitchen, green day style--concocting excruciatingly nutritious food for the week. Before you mistake me for a self-sanctimonious healthnut freak, cut to: me last night, post-shower, pinchin' tokes and munchin' chips like it's the end of the world, watching a rerun of the Rampage Jackson / Dragon Machita UFC match. What year, I don't know, it wasn't a championship match. Man it was close. I'd already given it to Machida. He outmoved Jackson the whole time. But then Jackson freakin owned the center of the octagon. Like forget it.

Normally I heft all my fresh produce in on Saturdays, wash and leave it for Sunday afternoon greenfest. However, tomorrow I have a reconnaissance mission--to secure a place for my best friend who has to hastily relocate from Montreal (Ville Ray) to Oshawa for her new job at UOiT. Go lady! My mission will involve free lunch with my Mom and her man, a spin (and photoshoot) around the UOiT campus, and a tour of Oshawa, while judiciously avoiding certain parts of town (micro-history for another time about the notorious biker gang wars between Outlaws, Para Dice Riders, you name it, and the Quebec Hells Angels, since the 1980s). This trip is going to be good.


* I know some of the growers from my work. Backstory sometime about how my research on social movement media lead me unexpectedly into the Food Justice movement, booming in this town. These people are in it for everything. Many are low income and landed immigrants living in crappy public housing who have lobbied local councils and property managers to let them create growing space amidst high rise complexes and concrete jungles.


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What I made:

Today's side salads are perfect for serving with pastas, pulses, or cold meats if you dig it like that. They need way better titles.

Mediterranean-style tomatoes and cucumber:
> 3 small cucumbers, diced.
> 1 Pint yellow cherry tomatoes, sliced in half. Plus few red ones for colour.
> 3 green onions
> a few sprigs parsley
> a few sun dried tomatoes, thinly sliced.
It's all marinating right now in a mix of:
> pesto (made with the also gigantic bush of basil I got from Kale dude last week)
> balsamic reduction
> salt 'n peppa


Roasted marinated peppers:
> 6-8 green cubanelles: trimmed, seeded, roasted
Marinating in
> rice vinager
> fresh squeezed lime
> toasted sesame oil
> ground: sea salt; sesame seeds and jasmine green tea.