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Market, TEGH Open House & Madness Party

Farmers’ Market this week: Cookstown Greens, Little Libraries and Kid Fun.

If you’ve ever wondered about the farms and farmers that bring you their produce each week, you’re not alone. We’ll be featuring snippets about each farm on the blog on a regular basis. Here’s some interesting facts about one of our vendors.

Cookstown Greens — The unique and rare array of organic vegetables from Cookstown Greens travel just under 100km to get to our market. Although they bring a different selection of produce each week depending on what’s in season, recently they’ve had Welsh onions, Roosevelt potatoes, baby fingerling potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes (which are apparently not from Jerusalem, nor are they artichokes), basil seedlings, pea shoots, micro-Asians, coriander seedlings, rainbow chard, baby salad greens and broccoli brassica. Cookstown Greens’ produce is available at a number of markets and retail shops in the GTA, but they love coming to our market because, as farmer Gilbert says, you can tell the community knows there is a market going on. So why not try some of their greens this week and let us know what you think?

Don’t forget to stop by the DECA booth. This week you can hear about the Little Free Libraries project. Maybe you’ll be the next person to open a library in Toronto?

For the little ones:

  • Kindermusick with Nadia will start at 3:30 p.m.
  • Crafts with Ms. Darling will take place at 4:30 p.m. This week Mrs. Darling is hosting a velvet art colouring party. Kids can make beautiful vivid, fuzzy greeting cards or bookmarks. Supplies generously donated by Silly Goose.
  • the gang from Silly Goose will be back at 5:30 p.m. for some fun park activities.
craft

TEGH Open House

And if you are looking for even more to do on Thursday evening, Toronto East General Hospital will be hosting a Community Open House from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. Click here for more details.

Main Square Madness Party this Saturday

If that’s not enough community activity for you then you’ll want to check out the Main Square Madness Party on Saturday, July 14th hosted by Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon. The party includes bike tune up lessons from 32 Spokes & Bicycle Commons and the opportunity to help a gardening crew beautify the area, a local artist paint a mural and clean up litter with the councillor herself. Check out the flyer for more information.

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Books & Bikes at the Market this week

BOOKS!

Two amazing local children’s book authors will be at the East Lynn Farmer’s Market this week (Thursday, July 5) showcasing their work.

The first is Tak Bui (also a DECA Board Member!). We’ve discussed Tak’s book, Spot the Difference, here before. It’s an amazing collection of bright search-and-find illustrations that challenge readers to compare pictures and find the difference. Each illustration is a rich mixture of compare-it images, wordplay (there’s a school of fish, complete with blackboard) and hilarious scenes that invite storytelling – an unlikely group of animals form a wild street corner jazz band – to keep young readers intrigued. With great expectations of all kinds, this book will keep children amused for hours on end. In his spare time, Tak’s been donating his talents around the neighbourhood, including creating murals and community gardens around Main and Stephenson, painting whales in the wading pool in Stephenson Park, and designing posters for DECA activities.

The second book is Robin Green‘s The Day After Yesterday.

When three sixth graders discover strange marbles in a weedy yard near their school, they get more than they bargained for. The marbles grant them visions of a lost century and a farmhouse where a teenage girl has just died. When one of the friends goes missing, the others decide the marbles are for more than visions. They have a friend to rescue, and not one but many lives depend on them.

At about 4:30 p.m. a representative from the Toronto Public Library will be on hand for story time in the park.

BIKES!

If you have yet to dust off your spokes for the summer or perhaps have rode so much that you’re in need of a tune-up, bring your bike to the market this week. The friendly riders from 32 Spokes will be there providing bike tune-ups.

Reminder: Don’t forget your picnic blanket and bathing suits! It should be a hot one on Thursday and the wading pool is open for business.

The East Lynn Farmer’s Market runs every Thursday from 3-7 p.m. between June-October at East Lynn Park, located on the south side of Danforth Ave, just west of Woodbine Ave.

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East Lynn Wading Pool Opens Early

East Lynn park wading pool will be open from 3-7pm tomorrow, just in time for the heat wave!

The wading pool isn’t normally open before Canada Day, but Counsellor Mary-Margaret McMahon and Parks and Rec got together and made it happen.

Also, if you were planning on doing kids yoga, it’s postponed until later in the summer.

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Vivacious Veggies

A guy walks into the doctor’s office. A banana stuck in one of his ears, a broccoli stem in the other ear, and a carrot stuck in one nostril. The man says, “Doc, this is terrible. What’s wrong with me?” The doctor says, “Well, first of all, you need to eat more sensibly.” 

If you also need to eat more sensibly, you’re in luck. The East Lynn Farmers’ Market opens Thursday, June 7 from 3-7 p.m.  A sure sign that the market is near is when you start seeing your favourite fruit and vegetables loitering around at the subway station.

The Earl Haig Community Festival

Come one, come all Thursday, May 31st, 3:30-7 p.m. rain or shine. There will be BBQ items, baked goods, cake walk, spy-catching (don’t tell CSIS), crafts, silent auction and other delicious and creative items. Earl Haig is just south of Danforth and Coxwell with a nice big green space (how do they keep their grass so green?) and a great playground.
 Gledhill Neighbourhood Tree Tour

Join LEAF for a closer look at the trees surrounding Gledhill school and residential neighbourhood. You’ll learn about the special benefits of trees in schools, biodiversity, tree identification and care. You will never look at trees the same way again.  Meet in front of Gledhill Junior Public School at 2 Gledhill Ave. (east of Woodbine, north of Danforth). Saturday, June 16, 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. $5 donation please.


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Pumpkin People

Thank you Pumpkin People for helping make the 2nd annual Pumpkin Parade particularly pretty and perfectly peculiar. And thanks to Ron Grimes for these pics.

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Hats off to Heather Bean who couldn’t organize it this year because she was busy having a baby.  She did, however, get us started with a very thorough how-to guide.  Then Anita Schretlen and Sarah Kiriliuk took that guide and created a community event that was both kick-ass and magical.

Then, of course, there was the fabulous poster, designed once again by Tak Bui.  Thank you Tak!  And finally, the heroes who showed up after it was all over and hauled all those pumpkins into the pool so the good folks from the City of Toronto could come and pick them up the next morning.  Thanks to Melissa Peretti, Jason Pytel, Leo Gonzalez, Paul Haines, Joel Redmond, Beth Binnington and Sean Webb.

Farmers’ Market

Did you know that NOW Magazine voted the East Lynn Farmers’ Market the best farmers’ market for the Danforth area?  Well, now you do.  Did you also know that Ron Wilford wrote a paper for his course on Local and Global Food Systems about the East Lynn Farmers’ Market? Well he did. I present it here for you reading pleasure.  East Lynn Farmers’ Market

Opening and Closing

This neighbouhood has come a long way in terms of getting a decent cup of coffee.  We have a ways to go in terms of local pubs, especially now that Ten Feet Tall has closed . If you were a fan of Taps and Tales, you will be interested to know that it is being re-invented by a new owner (Hot House Cafe) as ‘Morgan’s.

The House That Went To The OMB

If you live near Coxwell you, no doubt, remember that this BIG house was the subject of an OMB hearing after the developer continued building even when the City refused his permit applications. Well, he’s apparently (I say apparently because I really don’t know) taken down what needed to be taken down and now has it on the market. How much?  Would you believe, almost a cool million?

Earl Beatty and Toronto Star

Word went out this week that ‘hard’ balls such as footballs and soccer balls are now banned from the Earl Beatty school yard. How do I spell kerfuffle anyway?

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**Update** Park People Park Talk – Thursday 6 p.m.

This meeting has now been moved to Cozy Cafe on the southwest corner of Danforth and Woodbine.  6 p.m. Everyone welcome.

Park People is a group of people (naturally) interested in, and working to improve and advocate on behalf of parks in Toronto. DECA is hosting the next Park Talk, which is open to people across the city.

The next six months will be the most critical time facing our parks since amalgamation and Park People is looking to develop a strategy for defending and improving our parks.The discussion will focus on how we can respond to  major changes facing our parks in the next six months:

  • potential budget cuts
  • a new city parks plan, and
  • new contract discussions for unionized city park staff.

We will be meeting on the hill in the park. In case of foul weather, we will meet instead just around the corner at the Cozy Café, 2075 Danforth. Everyone is invited.