Market Day and the Great Gilmore Garage Sale

Every Saturday (all year long!) is farmers' market day here. From mid-October to May they hold it inside a big building. During the nice months it takes up most of the parking lot just outside the building.

Some of the lovely things you can buy there:

• veggies, veggies, and more veggies (a lot of them organic)
  
• brown eggs, white eggs
• emu meat and oil
• buffalo meat
• organic beef
• pork
• cheese (cow and goat)
  
• locally roasted and ground coffee
• locally made goats' milk soap
• baked goods and ethnic foods
  
• crafts: pottery, wood, jewelry, knitting
• sprouts
• lamb
• fruits
• mushrooms (sometimes up to 5 different kinds)
• sweet potato fries (from local sweet potatoes -- yes, you can grow them in southern Ontario)
• apples, apples. and more apples (and cider from them in the fall and winter)
• and right now plants of all sorts are everywhere

They also have a much smaller scale market in the downtown on Wednesday mornings during the outdoor months.

A more recent tradition is the Great Gilmour St. Yard Sale on the fourth Saturday of May (so it usually falls on the weekend after the long weekend). Gilmour Street is in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. For two city blocks and little bit, the majority of yards are selling their own things or things for some non-profit group. Parking or driving on the street is impossible while the sale is going on. You simply park one or two blocks away. I did so and went out on the street with my grocery trolley.

An hour and half and $3.75 (CDN) later I had:

• a leather satchel big enough for legal size papers with lock and key
  
• a good wire strainer
• a meat thermometer (for the future solar cooker!)
• 2 stainless steel magnetic clips to hold memos or drying plastic bags on the fridge
• a long magnetic knife holder, which may be strong enough to hold tools in the shop
  
• a good-sized piano hinge
• a sturdy stainless steel soap holder, ideal for my garden hand-washing station
• 3 pint canning jars (with rings and lids)
  
• 15 half-pint canning jars (with rings and lids)
• 4 quarter-pint canning jars (with rings and lids)
• an aluminum pot big enough to hold most of the jars with lid. It's a good size for blanching and scalding things. It has a bail handle and grab handle on the back edge -- great for pouring out water.

I don't think I'll have to buy any more canning jars this year. Usually I get a few to take care of those that leave the house as gifts.

I was parked near the bulk food store I usually patronize, so I decided to take one of my jars in and get baking yeast. I could only get it in the usual plastic container or take the whole pound in the original packaging. I'm baking bread often enough now that I decided to stock up and got the full package.

I decided I might as well get the supplies I need for cherry melomel which I'll be making in the next month, so I went into the wine shop next to my parking spot to get wine yeast, pectic enzyme, and another fermentation lock.

Then it was off to a book discussion group with a brown bag lunch.

I stopped at another yard sale on my way home. I got two sturdy cart wheels for $2 and a couple of ornately cut hardboard screens for another $2 which I could put together with my piano hinge for a nice room divider. Serendipidy!