Millarville Farmers’ Market

There’s a definite morning chill in the air these days, a sure sign of the end of summer. But sunny days are still afoot and some of the girls and I took advantage of a crisp day last weekend to do a little road trip south.

Our first stop was the Millarville Farmers’ Market about 50 kilometres southwest of Calgary.

When you get to the entrance, volunteers collect a parking fee of $2. The parking lot is pretty much a grass field, so bring your rubber boots if it’s wet out as the market itself can get muddy too.

This market is huge. More than 160 vendors selling homemade foods, beautiful locally grown produce and organically raised meats, as well as arts and crafts. (I totally loved the homemade sock monkeys at one stand.)

The Three Sisters Pies booth, for example, sold pies of course, and jams and preserves made from organic fruit in either sweetened or sugar-free options.

Their Saskatoon berry pie was looking at me, but I couldn’t bring myself to bring it home when there’s just two of us. Though I have made a mental note for the next dinner or party I’m invited to.

I was also drawn to this bin simply marked: Slab bacon. I rarely see a hunk of bacon laid out like that, but now I know where to get it should I need to make breakfast for 30 people, or something like that.

Oh, something else for a big breakfast or a frittata you should consider is ostrich eggs. We saw a basket of fresh ones ($20 each) and the lady told us you just knock a hole in one end of it to get the equivalent of 18 chicken eggs!

Hm, breakfast for 30 is sounding more and more interesting…

Another thing this market has going for it is the yummy samples offered by almost every food table. I didn’t eat breakfast but my hunger rumblings were quickly calmed by all the goodies (lots of breakfast sausage and elk, bison, even llama pepperoni) on toothpicks.

The New Dale Hutterite Colony has a table with all the cheeses it produces and lots of samples too. I took home a block of medium gouda which was delicious.

However, I must admit I was a total goof and actually asked the nice men behind the table if I could snap a photo of them. As soon as the question was out of my mouth, I remembered Hutterites believe that consenting to have their photo taken is a sin. But they were very nice and suggested I take a picture of their cheese instead.

I don’t think any of us planned on buying much but we all left with reusable bags full of stuff (except Gwendolyn who stuffed her purse with jam and tomatoes).

I carted home:

• cherry tomatoes
• beet greens
• lamb from Driview Farms in Fort MacLeod
• homemade potato and bacon perogies ($5 a dozen)
• frozen cabbage rolls
• llama pepperoni
• green, yellow and purple beans

It was all delicious and obviously preservative-free — and a refreshing change to know exactly where it all came from.

Millarville Farmers’ Market, Saturday mornings, 8:30 a.m. to noon until Oct. 4, 2008. No dogs allowed.