Fervor

There is a new addition to our town this week and a very welcome one at that. It is very rare that we venture into a supermarket these days. For about the past year we have done most of our shopping on Saturdays as a family. We start out with coffee in hand and go the butcher, the baker the cand.....y maker (ice cream really but you get the idea). Our fresh produce, dairy and dry goods are bought from an independent grocer in the area that has a great selection of organic food at great prices. They tend to showcase some really great small local businesses. They were a great find but I was thrilled this week when I opened up the local paper that E delivers to find out a farmers market was starting in the area each Saturday morning.
Rather than in the parking lot of some big box strip mall, this market is set in the centre of an up and coming village square. Complete with live music (to which K insisted she bring her trumpet next time so she could play too) we checked out most every stall. There were a few of the same local vendors that are available in the grocery store we like, but it was a fantastic place to see and sample some new things too. It is early in the growing season for many fresh fruits and veggies but we managed to get some asparagus, garlic snapes, strawberries and fresh herbs. One vendor who also had maitake mushrooms was extremely apologetic that they were all running out of produce. No one seemed to thing that the first day would bring so many people out- we were there and hour after opening! One vendor really caught our eyes. She sold sheeps cheese. We bought a maple sheep yogurt and a fresh ramembert (sheeps milk Camembert! get it!). At twice the calcium as cow milk products, I am looking forward to trying the Eweda (Gouda!).
I can't wait to see what is there next weekend.
We headed south on the street to check out a carpet store, unfortunately we had to leave early because they didn't have a washroom available for our toddler to use. I knew there was a hip little kids store in the next block, so we walked down there knowing they would most likely have a washroom she could use. A few really cute sale items later, and feeling old because E had no idea what the cassette tape shaped tote bag was supposed to be a picture of, we headed back to the carpet store. I had a double take as we walked the half block north and we ended up in a great store with hand painted kids furniture and the most unique and creative baby items.
After looking at carpet we thought we should head home for lunch, but a slight detour to head north again found us getting fish and chips and heading west to a lakeside park where we ate our lunch and fresh strawberries on the shore, skipped rocks and went to the playground to climb the rock walls and swing and slide.
Our day was fantastic!