The Farmers’ Market is looking for new vendors and sponsors.
The BIA is also looking for a photographer to cover the market for future promotions.
If you’re interested in either opportunity, you can contact the BIA directly.
The Annual Weston Farmers’ Market will open June 5 this year, in the Artscape location again.
Thames River Melons, a Farmers’ Market regular, is again offering a ‘market box’ subscription this summer.
Thames River Melons will deliver a box of fresh produce grown on their farm (perhaps their neighbours) to your door every week. The boxes cost between $25 and $75, and there are discounts for full-season subscriptions and upfront payments.
The content depends on the season, but includes everything from asparagus to zucchini. They also have superb strawberries.
Here’s a taste of what was happening in Weston back in November 2010.
Some new steps had replaced the wooden ones at Mallaby Park, near St Phillips and Weston Road.
The Weston Farmers Market had wrapped up for another year.
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford nominated Councillor Frances Nunziata as Toronto Council Speaker; a powerful position she has held since then. She was being sued by a disgruntled ex-employee and Adam looked at her expenses.
Artscape was investigating the possibility of an arts hub in Weston and where it might be located.
The In Touch Retirement Home was under scrutiny after two residents and later, a third resident died.
A brand new soccer facility in Lions Park was almost complete.
Adam reported on what our local politicians had been up to.
The Clean Train Coalition was battling Metrolinx and rallying over electrification.
The 2020 Weston Farmers Market season got under way today in beautiful weather. As is normal for such season openers (usually in May), attendance seemed sparse and there was an added inconvenience for patrons to wait patiently until they were admitted into the market space. The market, second oldest in the city, is in almost exactly the same place it occupied five years ago although narrower and today had fewer stalls.
For years, traders have insisted that the specially designed market area at the end of John Street was too small and wouldn’t withstand the weight of delivery vehicles. The B.I.A. saved the day with the solution to use the Toronto Parking Authority lot on the other side of the building.
For the last few years the market has used the highly visible UP Express and Weston Baptist Church parking lots. That option is off the table. Unfortunately, the location at the end of John Street is invisible to traffic passing along Weston Road and so it will be a challenge to lure fresh customers to the site. In addition, former anchor tenant and actual farmer, Joe Gaeta has moved elsewhere.
Because the market now occupies the parking spaces intended for use by people visiting the er, market, John Street was in effect one-way thanks to parked vehicles occupying the inbound lane. As patron numbers increase, parking will become a greater issue. Let’s hope that some of the kinks can be worked out quickly. Incidentally, Grandpa Ken’s was there today.
Extra credit: How the Weston Hub was financed here.
There’s a couple of news items that have surfaced lately. One is a notorious chair throwing incident and another is a Metrolinx promise to a community.
Which is garnering the most attention?
Which is of greater consequence?
In February 2019, aspiring media celebrity Marcella Zoia, a teenager at the time, threw a folding chair from a downtown high rise. For some reason, the video of the incident was posted to social media and all hell broke loose. The press has given huge amounts of attention to the feckless Ms. Zoia’s case, hounding her during several court appearances where she eventually coughed up a guilty plea. After her sentencing (a hefty fine and community service), hanging judge John Tory has chimed in to to say that Ms. Zoia (AKA Chair Girl) should have gone to jail. Apparently the mayor believes that without the deterrence of a jail term, others will be inspired to fling furniture from tall buildings – where will it all end? Mayor Tory had no hesitation in criticizing the work of Justice Mara Greene who wisely ignored the Crown’s recommendation of a 6-month jail term. Let’s not get into the purposes of jail but suffice to say that it should be reserved for violent offenders rather than idiotic teens. This isn’t Georgia or Alabama.
Let’s take a moment to be grateful that the mayor is in a position where he is relatively inconsequential and move on to another news item.
In this story, Councillor Anthony Peruzza is complaining that Metrolinx is breaking a promise to donate a chunk of land in the Finch Avenue West and Yorkgate Boulevard area for the purpose of building a community hub. Here, you’ll not find hordes of reporters breathlessly pursuing Metrolinx executives for an answer. Lazy members of the press and Mayor Tory find items like this tedious. There are no dramatic foot chases no videos and no public outrage. Metrolinx spokesperson Anne-Marie Aikins says that Metrolinx cannot donate land to the City but indicated that there’s lots of time. to work something out. Translation: there’s time for the public to lose interest and for the story to be buried.
Sadly, that sums up the news cycle these days. Councillor Peruzza represents one of the poorest wards in the city and instead of government agencies joining forces to build up an impoverished community, they conspire to work against it. The press largely doesn’t care.
This is reminiscent of the Toronto Parking Authority sale of the 16 John Street parking lot in Weston, a piece of land that once belonged to the old town of Weston (in another one of the poorest wards in the city) and which could have formed the heart of a stand-alone Weston Hub. It wasn’t to be. People were seduced by the promise of a glitzy new home for the Weston Farmers Market along with community space and live/work artist accommodations. Council was swayed by the next-to-zero cost and the only downside was to be a 30-storey tower and podium, something not envisioned by Toronto’s 2011 feasibility study.
When the Weston Farmers Market opens a week on Saturday (August 1), it won’t be convening in the space that was a big part of the selling job.
Apparently traders don’t want to use it because it’s too small and their trucks (which they need close by) would damage the paving.
No, the market’s going back to almost the exact location where it began on John Street. The ample parking promised for the farmers market turns out to be the new market space itself. The space is larger than the fancy concept one and the paving can withstand trucks. If instead of selling the parking lot, the Toronto Parking Authority (a branch of city council) had donated the land to the community, things could have turned out differently. Sadly the press was focussed on other things and the public was seduced by fancy drawings. That’s the nature of news these days.
Maybe we can invite Marcella Zoia to cut the ribbon on August 1st.
If you can’t wait until the Weston Farmers’ Market opens August 1, you can get Thames River Melons produce at North of Brooklyn Pizza’s Sunday pop-up shop at 511 Rogers Road, Toronto from 12-5pm.
You’ll know Thames River Melons by their excellent asparagus, corn, and, yes, melons that they have sold at the Weston market for years.
And an apology. E told me about this ages ago, and I forgot to mention it until now. Sorry.