We don’t usually trade in hearsay here at WestonWeb, where we uphold the highest journalistic standards. I hope you’ll allow an exception today: I couldn’t make it to the opening of the Weston Farmers’ Market (I slept in and had a prior commitment), so my wife went in my stead.
She says it was was “Awesome”. There are many new vendors, including a high-protein cheese guy, Lebanese dips, Fred’s Breads, Collective Arts brewing, a new egg seller, and a swishy coffee vendor.
Almost all of the old favourites were back, too: Pina’s Italian meats, Thames River Melons, Mad Mexican, Grandpa Ken’s Bacon, the fruit and veg seller, the Wiff’s samosas and some others she couldn’t remember as she was getting into bed, though I did press her for the details.
I know that I wasn’t the only one worried about the market, which has had a few rough patches in the past few years, with the loss of some excellent vendors and several moves. It sounds like my worries were misplaced.
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.
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.
The entrance to the market on John street featuring new signs.
Patrons wait in line to be admitted.
The market cordoned off to allow for physical distancing.
Looking towards John Street, a panorama of the farmers market in almost the same location back in August 2015. Click to enlarge.
The much vaunted and intended home of the farmers market sits empty.
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.
The original spacious home of the Weston Farmers Market. (From Google Earth)
The intended home of the Weston Farmers Market. File.
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.
One of the concept drawings of the farmers market.
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.
The new home of the Weston Farmers Market (Google Earth).
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.
