ottawa foodies

Went to Parkdale today and picked up some things from Rochon farms

they had the following available,

-two kinds of cucumbers (mini's were 4 for $2)
-asparagus 3bunches for $7
-green onions $1/bunch
-peppers (all colours)
-tomatoes

YUM! asparagus on toast for dinner tonight!

i was planning on going tomorrow morning....do you know if their veggies are ready yet? i know sometimes they bring stuff in from the u.s. if their stuff isn't ready yet.

the Rochon's do not bring in veggies from elsewhere....they only bring what they have grown on the farm and in their greenhouses. All the stuff listed above is grown by them, and delicious! I've already snacked my way through 2 mini cucumbers!

So far I have only eaten their spinach and tomatoes both of which are very tasty. The tomatoes don't last long in my house though - they are so sweet I have been eating them like candy-;)

Every vendor has to post a placard that states what percentage of local produce they grow and sell. Rochon is 100% local grown on their farm.

Be careful at the parkdale market.. I remember a few years ago buying what I thought were canadian raspberries (during the peak of the season in Canada) because they were in the little baskets but I then noticed that an employee was simply opening plastic containers of US raspberries and pouring them in the little baskets that said "CANADA fancy" or whatever the category was.

My money now goes to the ottawa farmer's market for whatever I can't get at the Acorn Creek farm.

Bumping this for some more info on the Market-- I've just started going, and have found it really hard to decide which of the near-identical stalls to do my shopping at. I see some are vendors, some are vendors/part-farmers, and others are straight vendor/farmers, but that's all there is to differentiate them as far as I can tell.

For those who are (in)frequent shoppers here, which vendors do you prefer for your produce (and why)?

butwhoami I am an infrequent shopper at the Parkdale market but I can recommend Rochon Farms. They are a local farm and I have been pleased with the veggies I've been buying from them so far. If you go to the north end of the market you will find the Parkdale field house - another of my favourites - which carries only local products such as local meats, Bekings Farms eggs, Le Coprin mushrooms, Bryson Farms veggies, etc.

I go to Rochon first and then if they do not have it I go look elsewhere. Been dealing with them for a few years now and been very happy.

The are 2nd last from the bottom.

Highly recommend Rochon as well. I go to their Landsdowne and Byward stalls and have been very pleased with everything.

Love Rochon stall! Everything is always fresh and yummy. While they are open (until November) I only buy from them, except for bananas :)

Everything in the pic is from their farm (again except for the bananas, can't live without those).

Thanks for the suggestions-- we stopped by the Rochon stall and bought a couple things, but left quickly because the stall employee was a little too aggressive for us, following us around and shouting out names of vegetables we might want.. honestly :P

So we went over to the Denis Roy stall, where we had been before with good results, to shop again. Their stuff always looks great and the prices are solid. The vegs we bought from them last time lasted quite a while and tasted just dandy. Maybe we'll try Rochon again sometime, depending on who's manning the stall..

Hey everyone,

It's great to see so many people going to and chatting about the Parkdale Market! It's one of my favourite places in the neighbourhood, and a great place to get seasonal vegetables.

If you want to learn how to keep the fresh taste of all that amazing produce for the winter, you should come to one of the food preserving workshops at Credible Edibles (just down the street from the market!).

There are workshops on September 22 and September 27th on tomato canning, and fruit preserves.
More information and registration is here: www.credible-edibles.ca

Hope to see you there!

when shopping here make sure you look up at the name of the stall.....go to the "farmer's" stalls if you can, the others are "vendor"s" . Also Bryson farm sells veggies in that little brick building...lots of heirloom tomatoes!!!