ottawa foodies

Have you been to Parkdale or Landsdowne/Brewer?

I LOVE the Byward Fruit Market. Hands-down the best place to go for local produce/specialty produce in Ottawa. I can't recommend it enough!

I love going in here, I always find something special.

The wild mushroom selection is great, they are just beautiful.

The "mini vegetable" section is adorable.

Great selection of exotic fruits, heirloom veggies, and local produce.

Hands down the best veggie/fruit market experience I get in this city. Miriam is so sweet and Issac so knowledgable. There are some things which are a bit overpriced (Green peppers, for example, but I don't like thoser anyway), but if you're looking for speciality fruits and the like...this is the place to go!

This is the best fruit and veg shop on the market. I stop there,in the summertime to pick up interesting fruits. Love the champagne grapes.

Love the Byward Fruit Market and agree its the best place to buy fruit and vegetables in Ottawa. The past 2 Christmases I have gotten some really nice and fresh Truffles..... if your there in truffle season ask Isaac for a whiff of the bag.... its heavenly.

If your into getting a variety of food consider joining the organics club. Its excellent and details on it can be found on their website. I've been a member for about a year and really quite enjoy it. I've had some of my best fruit and vegetable taste experiences as a result of the club.

cheers

bought 3 cantaloupes for $5, ripe, juicy and sweet; two eaten fresh, one into a smoothie; Carrots and zucchinis tasty and fresh ;-)

I give these folks top marks if not only because they had fresh morels when I was there in the late spring (just as lobster season was starting.) If you're wondering why you didn't get many morels when *you* went to The Byward Fruit Market, it's probably because I bought them out of stock the day we went in. I'm not kidding. Sorry about that.

Miriam and Isaac run the hands- down best fresh fruit and veggie market in Ottawa. Always willing to take the informed risk - they jump on new and highly unique produce (white French asparagus, Himalayan truffles and strange hybrid veg). They always have a great stock of meyer lemons, vidalia onions and a wide variety of tomatoes that taste like tomatoes!

Always willing to answer questions and offer advice. On more than one occasion they have sourced an ingredient or pointed me in a much better direction than I had intended. A great couple, fantastic staff.

Issac has also been outspoken on the issue of the Byward veggie sellers regular sale of US and other far-flung foods as so-called "local produce".

More: www.spcottawa.on.ca

I bought tomatillos here last weekend to make salsa verde. I was happy to find them in Ottawa; however, at $5.95 a pound they were quite pricey (they run about $2/pound at home in Chicago, which is understandable, as there is more demand). The other disappointment was that quite a few of them were too underripe to use immediately. Given the husk, it was hard to tell this when purchasing but once peeled at home, they were a pale yellow color. In the future, I'd pull back the husk a bit while at the store to ensure what I'm purchasing is ripe.

I believe the Byward Fruit Market has truffles in jars throughout the year. You can find them at the front beside the cash. But, they also get fresh black winter truffles starting sometime in December.

You likely will not see them out on display but if you speak with the owner (Isaac) he can tell you what they have available and what they are expecting in their upcoming shipment. The truffles in a jar will suit you if you need to get them out of season but they are nothing like the fresh ones.

The quality of all the produce is always good and there are careful to sell good quality truffles as well. The ones I bought in the Christmas of 2007 were incredible.

Cheers

Hi NU 3705: Usually if an ingredient or food is associated with a vendor (in this case, Byward Fruit Market - Finger Lime), it means you can buy it there. That said, I think finger limes might be one of those things that are not always available. I made the connection between the two, as I have seen them there on a semi-regular basis. It may, however, be wise to call ahead and ask.

where can I buy finger limes in Canada?