Great farm-fresh offerings, even in winter!
Every month or three, I get a chance to step into culinary overdrive for a week or so. The Ottawa Farmers’ Market has designed a great program to help showcase the abundance of delicious local products on offer year ‘round and I am honoured to participate. The premise is simple: a basket of carefully-curated local food is delivered to me and I develop a series of seasonally-appropriate recipes based on these ingredients. If you search the Constantly Cooking archives, you’ll find dozens of delicious dishes that previous editions of the Farmers’ Feast project have inspired.
This month, the emphasis is on holiday entertaining, and the timing is perfect. Not only am I quite the Christmas fanatic, but I also make a special emphasis to shop local at this time of year. What you might not know is that the Ottawa Farmers’ Market at Lansdowne Park is a great source of more than just fresh fruits and vegetables – there are lots of absolutely scrumptious prepared foods too. Sweet and savoury baked goods, sauces, chutneys, jams and so much more; you could easily pick up an entire buffet table’s worth of goodies at the Aberdeen Pavilion. With the Ottawa Farmers’ Market special Christmas Market operating for three more weekends (December 5, 6, 12, 13, 19 and 20), you’ll also find terrific gift items crafted by local artisans in addition to edibles from our many area’s talented farmers and food producers. Why not visit the Christmas Market and add something uniquely local to your holiday menus and gift giving?
Here are the vendors and their products I’ll be cooking with over the next week; I’ll add links below to the recipes as I develop them. I hope you’ll consider cooking along with the Holiday 2015 edition of the Farmers’ Feast project.
- Canreg Station – Corvecciu semi-hard sheep’s milk cheese
- Milkhouse Farm & Dairy – Minced lamb
- Abbatoir Lefaivre – Wild Boar leg steaks
- Acorn Creek Garden Farm – BBQ spice rub
- Bryson Farms – Tomato-Ginger Chutney and Sweet-Spicy Corn Chutney
- Barkley’s Apple Orchard – Heirloom corn flour
- Warner’s Farm – Pears, persimmons and walnuts
- Roots Down Organic Farm – Sweet potatoes
- Hall’s Apple Market – Apple syrup
- Bekings – Extra-large brown eggs
- Terra Foods – Extra-virgin olive oil
- Amandine Baked Goods – Sweet brioche
- Halsall’s Honey – Creamed honey
- Maple Country Sugar Bush – Maple sugar
- Jambican Studio Gardens – Dutch Brown Beans
- Savoury Pursuits Fine Foods – Savoury Tarts (Ham, Cheddar & Broccoli; Apple, Stilton & Tarragon; Pear, Brie & Red Onion; Mushroom, Cheddar & Spinach)
Here are the recipes:
Constantly Cooking with Paula Roy 
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