ottawa foodies

I love a trip to Farm Boy because of their great selection of fresh fruits & veggies (as kmennie said its fairly exotic for the burbs). And I find the prices pretty good as well.

I found today's selection (April 23, 2008) was really fresh vs the stuff I've seen recently in Loblaws etc. I find the grocery stores produce is looking "really tired" for this time of year. I got some great looking veggies at Farm Boy (no nicks, bruises or off spots), and also some fruits that looked as if they'd just been picked (blackberries, grapes, etc).

Their bagged salads are always marked "MADE FRESH on _____" and there are always a variety of styles (mixed greens, mesculan, baby spinach etc) as well as a variety of sizes, so it is easy to buy just the right amount.

I'm not normally too thrilled with gimmicky pre-sliced stuff. But. I am now a fan of their bags of ("made fresh TUESDAY," or whatever day you happen to go) shredded cabbage (w/a few carrot slivers). Half goes into a slaw, and half goes into a vegetable soup; it's fresh and crispy and nicely shredded. The little bits of pre-bagged lettuces are good, too; I wouldn't hesitate to buy anything that's been a bit prepped by them.

Also:

What a neat aisle of weird veg you don't normally see. I am now regretting not bringing the camera; it's exotic for the suburbs.

Great strong greens -- collard, kale, etc.

Nice selection of organic, with a lot of it fairly competitively priced.

Noted: three types of celery. (Organic. Bagged 'Dole'-branded pair of hearts. Celery celery.)

Picked up a 10 pound bag of small beets from Quebec for $3.49 at the Carling location. Guess who is doing some pickling on Sunday?

In two separate trips I bought some "fresh" mangosteen, but none of them from either trip were fresh at all. The inside of all of them were rotten or half rotten with a yellow substance, so I wont be buying them from this store again. Sadly fresh mangosteen are not easy to find as it is.