The 100 Mile Market
The 100 Mile Market in Meaford is a small grocery store bringing together local producers with local consumers. Foods on offer include organic grains, flours and cereals from Grass Roots Organic in Desboro, apples from Barbetta Orchards in Meaford, and local naturally raised beef, lamb, pork, free range chicken, duck, turkey, elk, emu, fresh/smoked/frozen fish, honey, maple syrup, preserves, fresh bread from Monkton Organic Bakery in Berkley and The Bakery in Flesherton, goat milk products from Rivers Edge Dairy in Arthur, organic yogurt and ice cream from Mapleton’s and artisan sheep milk cheeses from Monforte and Best Baa Farms. We try to source new products on a regular basis so come in, see what’s new at the market and help support your local farmers…
Finally–finally–I made it to Meaford, Ontario’s 100-mile market, a shop showcasing the farmers’ revolution that is currently underway in Grey County. It’s only been open for about 8 months and I hadn’t had a chance to go in and check out what’s on offer–I had a baby around the time it opened its doors. Well, my locavore travel plans took me there this week and what a place it is!
The shop is just up from the LCBO and the public library, round the back of one of the town’s Victorian heritage homes–think red brick, gingerbread woodwork and a wide front porch for sipping iced-mint tea upon a rocking chair–likely built by some businessman made wealthy by the area’s former profitable lumber trade.
On offer in the small shop are meats (lamb, beef, pork) and chicken as well as dairy products, baked goods, eggs, grains, some veg, honey and whatever else is in production in the area.
It opened last fall when the husband and wife team who own the place realized that many farmers in the area had food to sell all year-round — but no place to sell. Everyone–including the farmers themselves–shopped at one of the two local grocery stores, buying food that had been trucked in from farms thousands of kilometers away. (Or at the half-a-dozen big name grocery stores in nearby Owen Sound. The sight of grocery-store after grocery-store on the main retail strip of this small city in the middle of farming country was actually quite depressing. I counted 5 within a few minutes of driving into town. Inside, they sell American beef and carrots grown in Florida to beef farmers and carrot-growers. And the world is running out of oil… but more on that later.)
The 100-mile market has taken off. There are more than 40 local producers who have signed on with the market. The place is super popular–more than half-a-dozen women breezed in while I was there. (This is a small town, so half-a-dozen women in the middle of a work day is more than six in Toronto!) And the sense of community is palpable. I learned about Sean, a 29-year-old who grows organic, heritage grains with the help of the Mennonites (more on him later) and a woman who actually grows wheat, mills it on her farm, then bakes it into bread to sell. (I plan on visiting her this summer.)
The local food movement is all about becoming part of your food’s story. Well, that is certainly possible here. Walk in, and you are part of history in the making, helping farmers reclaim control of the food they grow.
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Posted by John Malloy
on Dec 29 2008. Filed under Barrie, Collingwood, Meaford, Owen Sound, Stayner, Thornbury, Wasaga Beach.
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Thank You you so much for your kind comments Edy and Larry. It was our pleasure here at John and Bogusia's…
John and Bogusia
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Driving through the town of Meaford, my eye was caught by a bright cheerful looking yellow sign and the words CABBAGE ROLLS jumped out at me, as I hate to make them but my husband loves to eat them. On came the brakes and we pulled a ..well we turned around. I must say we are very glad we did. Wonderful food and service, very clean and friendly people, we will definitly be back to Meaford. We were made to feel very special. Two thumbs up for the town of Meaford…Edy and Larry Booth of Eugenia.
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