The final stop in our weekend in Montreal was the Jean Talon Market.  This is the best place to go if you are looking to incorporate a meal into your visit.  Many of the vendors sell food that is ‘ready to eat’, and the market is surrounded by permanent shops, many of which offer take away or eat in service.

This is also the best place to visit during the growing season when the market spills out into a series of tents.  If it grows, they sell it here.

The trick is to arrive hungry and take the opportunity to sample from the vendors.  My favourite stops are the Fish Monger, who will deep fry calamari, shrimp or fish and chips for you on the spot.  In the winter I enjoy the sausage maker who sells small duck or wild boar sausages on a stick hot off the BBQ.

The highlights are too numerous to mention.  There were leeks the size of your arm; duck, chicken & quail eggs; white and purple eggplants of every shape and size; an entire booth dedicated to heirloom tomatoes.  But I was most impressed by ‘les Cochons Tout Ronds’.  I thought for a moment that I was back in Spain!

Cured ham, Rilettes, Terrines, and Sausages hanging to dry.  Not sure what you want?  No problem.  The knowledgeable staff are happy to let you sample their wares.  I was hard not to leave with a little bit of everything!

Then, after a long day of shopping, we agonized over our final decision.  Where to eat?  The perimeter of the Market is lined with small restaurants offering up every type of ethnic cuisine you can imagine!  You can choose from Moroccan, Asian, Mexican, Italian, Portuguese, the possibilities are endless.  After considerable debate, we settled on Mexican, mostly because the most lovely woman was grilling hand made tamales, tacos, and gorditas right in front of us, and the smell was irresistible.

After a hard day of marketing, it was just what we needed to fuel ourselves for the 2 hour ride back to Ottawa.

What a delicious end to a fantastic weekend!

Our relationship with Savour Ottawa has resulted in many excellent buying agreements with farmers and producers in the area.  Each year, Savour Ottawa and Just Food host the Chef-Farmer Meet & Greet, which we have attended each of the last 3 years – including this week!

The Meet & Greet is a fantastic event that has has been the beginning of many of our long-term relationships with cherished farmers and producers, including Ken Stewart from Fitzroy Beef Farmers, Colin from Jambican Studio Gardens, Bill from Heavenly Honey, and the list goes on.

This year ’s event was particularly fruitful.  We met the owners of the Fromagerie Les Folies Bergères, who raise sheep for milk, using the milk to make a selection of spectacular cheeses.  We decided to introduce their Fou Fou Feta (a creamy, smooth traditional Greek feta) to our select in-store assortment of outstanding local and regional cheeses. 

The crazy couple (their own description) who own and operate the Fromagerie produce a full line of lovely cheeses, and over the next few months we hope to introduce more of their products into our store.

We also met up with the Glengarry Cheese folks from Lancaster, who make an enticing assortment of cow’s-milk cheeses using milk from neighbouring family farms.  We sampled their blues, their washed rind cheeses, their semi-soft and bloomy rind cheeses, and their variety of Dutch- & Welsh-style pressed cheeses.  Since our space is limited we had to select one.  Our favourite was their Aged Lancaster, a beautifully aged, firm cheese that fills the mouth with its rich, round flavour.  Some decisions are hard to make.

We met a lovely woman from Donegal Farm in  Eganville who raises Organic & Heritage breeds of sheep, cows and pigs.   We talked to the folks at Trillium Meadows who raise red deer & wild boar.  We talked to Bill Barkley from Barkley’s Apple Orchard and placed an order for Apple Cider Vinegar and Apple Jelly.  We tasted some lovely wines from the Domaine Perrault, who grow their own grapes in Navan!  And we placed our first order with Andrew from Major Craig’s Chutney.

Starting with recipes from his great-great grandfather (Major Craig), Andrew has developed a line of four exciting chutneys, each loaded with local ingredients.  Two of his chutneys have received the Savour Ottawa stamp of approval, which assures that either the major ingredient or at least 50% of the ingredients are sourced from local growers and producers.

The most interesting of Andrew’s four chutneys was the Winter Butternut & Beer Chutney, made with local apples, butternut squash and Beau’s Lug Tread Ale.  Doesn’t get any more local than that!  My favourite, though, was the Date with Cranberry Chutney, made using Upper Canada Cranberries.  This chutney paired marvelously with a nice sharp blue cheese.

It was a great day and we are truly excited about our new food partners.

Often when I visit Montréal, I stay at the The Auberge du Vieux Port, located right on the waterfront in Old Montréal.  The location could not be more convenient, especially in the summer when the Old Port is abuzz.  The hotel also offers a number of 1 and 2 bedroom lofts in Old Montréal, all of which are converted heritage buildings with rustic beams, old wood floors, and lots of exposed brick and stone.  I have found the accommodations charming, the prices reasonable, and the staff super-friendly and helpful.

A trip to Montréal is not complete without a visit to at least one of the many Farmer’s Markets.  My two favourites are Atwater and Jean-Talon.

The theme of the weekend seemed to be duck!  At the Jean-Talon Market I bought a dozen blue duck eggs from the Egg Man.  The colour of the eggs was spectacular – a pale blue that would have made Martha Stewart drool.

A long walk up St. Laurent revealed a number of treasures, including a Greek bakery that makes old-fashioned chocolate-dipped donuts.  The woman who served us boasted that the she had been there for 37 years – same ownership all that time!

Further up, we discovered the Lac Brome Duck store – an entire store dedicated to duck products from the Lac Brome region.

You can’t imagine my excitement!  Duck legs, duck breasts, duck liver 5 different ways, duck pies, duck sausages, smoked duck…..and the staff knew their duck!  If you have a question about duck, this is the place to go.

Since 1912, this company has been producing duck and duck products for the Canadian market and for export.  The brome ducks are raised in good conditions and are not force fed.  I think their packaging and marketing is brilliant, and although we have often used Lac Brome duck in our meals, I had no idea the range of products they had to offer.

Our weekend was capped off with a visit to the Strom Spa – a newly built Nordic-type spa on  Île-des-Soeurs.  The facilities’ design is very clean & modern.  The baths and rest areas are plentiful.  They offer a full range of therapeutic and relaxation massage as well as an interesting assortment of body treatments.   After 2 hours of soaking and steaming,  I was scrubbed from head to toe in blueberries and sugar.  It was blissful!

At this time of year we are purchasing much of our produce for our weekly meals from Ottawa Farmer’s Market Vendors.  Our regular suppliers are Colin Samuels from Jambican Studio Gardens, Halls Apple Orchard, The Piggy Market and Le Coprin Mushrooms!

Many of the Farmer’s Market products are also available in our retail store including Pascale’s Ice Cream, Barkley’s Apple Butter and Strawberry Jam, and this week we received our first shipment of Mirabel’s Almonds!  We have been sampling these almonds at the market this summer and we had to have them in the store.  Hopefully we sell more of them than we consume ourselves!