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The Joys of June

June can be a busy month so get out your calendars and mark down these dates.

 Farmers’ Market Fifth Anniversary Festival

I know what you’re thinking…this is NOT the fifth year of the farmers’ market! I KNOW!  That’s what I thought too, but we all hunkered down and thought about it for a while and yes indeed, we are embarking on the fifth year of this little experiment.

Join us this Thursday as we celebrate five years fabulous. There will be lots of great activities and a very awesome new farmers’ market feature to be unveiled.  Watch this space for more info. The market runs each Thursday, 3-7 p.m. at East Lynn Park, on Danforth, west of Woodbine.

S Sense in Design 

S Sense in Design is a design studio that provides furniture, lighting and home accents. The products and art are made of eco-friendly, natural materials that are handcrafted in Canada. And it’s more than a shop. Owner, Laura Walters is a stylist who can help you find a style for your home with colour consultations, healthy home advice, upholstery service or wallpaper selection.

If you’re looking for a reason to visit, why not drop in on Sunday, June 24th from 12-4 p.m. for a Magical Tea Party. Enjoy a cup of tea from Tea Emporium, scones from Cake Town Cafe and the artwork of Mafalda Silva.  RSVP to Laura at Ssenseindesign@hotmail.com or 647-519-7743.

If that’s not your cup of tea, you may want to visit on Thursday, June 28th from 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.for the opening of Armandine In The Garden.

S Sense in Design is at 698 Coxwell, step north of Danforth.

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First Farmers’ Market Tonight!

Are you going to the East Lynn Farmers’ Market this today? Who else will be at the market this today?

Farmers!!! Some of our favorites from previous years plus some exciting new additions will be offering their goods this year.  You can find berries, eggs, dairy products, honey, organic meats, potatoes, corn, and so much more. I even hear there will be fresh coffee for sale.

Who else will be there you ask?  The good people from 32 Spokes will be at the market this week offering bicycle tune ups as well.  In fact, they’ll be there the first Thursday of each month.  So if your uni-, bi- or tricycle is in need of some love bring it by the market this week for some TLC.

And if you want to take in more of the creativity of the community, reps from Art of the Danforth will be on hand to tell you more about what you can take in the final days of the event.

Stay tuned for more info about next weeks official grand opening and 5th anniversary celebration of the East Lynn Farmers’ Market.

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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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Bananas For Broccoli

Have you spent the last few months awake at night worrying about how to make the perfect broccoli costume?

Didn’t think so. DECA’s Kat Senyk has.

She tossed over the duvet fabric she bought at Value Village. Would it be too abstract?

She opted instead for new fabric, sewing the florets by hand using pillow stuffing, buying dense batting for the structure, and searching supermarkets for organic broccoli stickers to copy, scan, enlarge, modify and print onto an iron-on heat transfer. (In the end, she torqued an organic banana sticker )

She even made her own bias binding tape, which if you know about this stuff, is a big deal.

“It was fun. It will be fun to see it. I don’t want to make anymore,” Kat told me when I picked up the fabulous costume from her house last week. Her 1.5 year old son Rayner was upstairs sleeping. Her husband, Tim, was all-but passed out on the couch from another long day working at the pool company they own together.  “If I hear one more word about broccoli….” he mumbled.

Why would anyone slave over a broccoli costume for DECA? For our farmers’ market, of course. You might have seen one of us dressed as a pea or carrot or apple outside the subway station with market flyers in hand last year?  We needed to boost our supply.

“We moved to the east end 1.5 year ago, and found both farmers markets were a walkable distance from our home,” Kat says. “I love going there with Rayner. We’ve met some good friends there this year.”

A secret: While Kat now works as a project manager for a local engineer firm, she was in the fashion industry for ten years, even running her own label, biokat, for a time. (http://www.biokatonline.com/Home.html). She is case-in-point of the talent we have in this hood.

Check out her work on your way next week. One of us will be wearing it outside your subway station handing out flyers.

Thanks so much Kat!

If you would like to help promote the market this year, we need you!  You can hand out post cards (in boring old regular clothes or in fabulous veggie wear). Let us know at natasha.granatastein(at)gmail.com

The 5th fabulous year of the East Lynn Farmers’ Market starts Thursday, June 7th. 3-7 p.m. at East Lynn Park, on Danforth west of Woodbine.

(This post cheerfully brought to you by Catherine Porter)

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How Can I Help?

Featured artist: Audrey Cooper

Art of the Danforth 2012 will be a month long festival that presents a variety of free public art displays and activities to, for and by the community of East Toronto. There will be more than 50 public and commercial venues along or within walking distance from Danforth Avenue, Greenwood to Woodbine from May 20 – June 10, 2012. The goals of Art of the Danforth are to:

•  encourage foot traffic along Danforth Avenue
•  increase community engagement
•  showcase local artistic talent
•  bring together people from various backgrounds, cultures and interests in the creation and appreciation of art.

Art of the Danforth is in the midst of recruiting volunteers to help out during the actual event.  If  you are interested in helping out, you can get more info and sign up at artofthedanforth.com

East Lynn Farmers Market

The East Lynn Farmers Market turns five this summer. In that time, every Thursday,  we’ve brought you fresh food, kids’ games, crafts, activities, music, and five festivals over the summer, including the fabulous movie-night-in-the-park and our strawberry-square-dance. A crew of seven volunteers – six women plus one grade school girl – have miraculously managed to pull this off for five years now, and they are feeling burnt out.

We need your help!

This summer, we’d like to have someone at our DECA booth every Thursday with community volunteers each on two-hour shifts, the first from 3 to 5 pm and the second from 5 pm to 7.

Manning the booth is easy and it’s a great way to meet

your neighbours. Your jobs would include: helping set up the kids’ play area and craft table; helping farmers with odd jobs; setting up the DECA table and answering questions. If you are on the later shift, you would also serve the farmers’ their dinner (volunteer cooks arrive with meals every week), and help take down both the DECA booth and the craft/face-painting areas.

Plus, you’ll be able to play on the giant Scrabble board Farmers’ Market devotee Shelley Darling has made this winter and try on our new broccoli costume!

If you’ve always wanted to help out and never found the right window, this is your chance.

Please email Catherine Porter at Catherine_porter(at)rogers.com. Let me know which Thursday from June 7 to October 25 you’d like to cover and which slot, 3-5 pm or 5-7 pm, and I’ll pen you into our calendar.

If you’d like to join the roster of neighbourhood cooks for the market this summer, email Shelley Darling at shelleydarling@yahoo.ca.

Thanks so much. We look forward to another amazing summer at the market.

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Cheers To The Chefs!

From DECA board member and farmers’ market team member, Catherine Porter…

The East Lynn Farmers Market turned four this year.

Our first season, Alison McMurray — a restaurant owner and Farmerlicious Femme — thought it might be nice gesture to cook for the farmers, who fold up their tables each week at dinner time.

A tradition was started.

For the fourth year in a row, community cooks showed up every Thursday evening with a pot of chili or stew or pasta to feed the farmers who feed us.

It’s a gesture of kindness, a marketing ploy, and a ingredient to cooking up community. For us, the farmers’ market isn’t just about eating healthy, local food. It’s about building a space where neighbours meet every week, twirl their friends in a square dance, settle in for a movie on the hill, and get dragged again by their kids into the face painting tent.

The farmers are part of that. What better way to build community than over a plate of home-baked lasagna?

Since our second year, DECA has paid a small honorarium to community members who cooked for our farmers. Most of the time, it didn’t cover their costs. They are generous souls. A few volunteered for the first time this summer, others are four-year veterans. A few cooked more than once. We want to thank them all individually.

You all helped to make our market a huge success again this year.

You rock.

If you’d like to throw on an apron and join us in cooking a meal next year, please e-mail Shelley at shelleydarling(at)yahoo.ca

Our beloved 2011 DECA cooks include:

Robin Forbes, Jessica Schmiedchen, Alisa Haggert, Frances Bartlett, Nicola St. John, Susan Crofts, Diana Gonzalez, Mary Egan, Shelley Pogue, Michael Polanya, Susan Spratley, Kirsten Hurd, Wayne Chee, Anne Conforzi, Sheila Behm, Caryn Thompson, Susan Spratley, Melissa Peretti, Catherine Porter and Alison McMurray.