Farmers' Market

Yesterday was the first Queens County Farmers' Market in Caledonia.

Actually, there used to a regular farmers' market in in Caledonia about 20 years ago, before Farmers' Markets were generally fashionable. There were a few growers in the area at that time, and the market was a popular social event. Caledonia used to be an important growing area, in fact. If you look at historical records, this area was the main source of fruit and vegetables for the South Shore and further afield. Boats shipped produce out from Liverpool, which had been grown and carted from Caledonia and North/South Brookfield.

When we were scouting for a farm to buy several people 'in the know' told us that the micro-climate in Caledonia meant that we were out of the snow belt and probably had the best growing climate in Nova Scotia, after the Annapolis Valley. That, coupled with the fertile (if a little rocky) soil of a glacial drumlin on which the farm is situated and the south/south-east aspect, gave us high hopes.

We don't have a huge amount of produce yet, so we supplemented our offerings with some of Cindy and David's Pleasant Hill Farm Organics. They sell at the large Hubbards Market on a Saturday morning and it will be a while until Caledonia can rival the city for well-healed customers paying top dollar for organic produce!

The first market went really well. There were around a dozen vendors selling baked goods, garden produce, jewellery, stick furniture, raspberries - many vendors were sold out by 10am having underestimated the number of folk that would turn out to buy. All I spoke to were really pleased and said they would be back next time. The market is to run every other Saturday until end-October, so see y'all on August 2nd!