Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Farmers' Market and My Addiction to its Muffins

Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Farmers' Market

107 Ste-Anne Street, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC

I am addicted to these muffins. I'm almost 100% sure they're the from the same farm as my Plateau Farmers' Market muffins. It's a different guy who was doing the selling, but rest of the market stall's offerings were the same - the "healthy" seed cookies, the date squares, the same kinds of breads. If I had bought a bread I would know for sure. Alas, I stopped myself at a muffin.

I want to live in a quaint small town sometimes when I forget how much I love urban centres. It almost makes me want a cottage. I draw the line at a cottage, though. No, I think I draw the line at a dog. A cottage wouldn't be so bad. I mean, it's not like a cabin or anything (I'm from Newfoundland, where there's a HUGE difference between a cabin and a cottage. After moving to Toronto and venturing to Muskoka expecting no running water, I was a bit blown over by the satellite TVs everywhere...cottages are second home, or better homes, and cabins are shacks in the woods that your Grandfather maybe built himself) and Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue is close enough that it doesn't take an age to get there by car.

You could bike it, like one vendor does. She actually lives in my area and jumps on the Lachine Canal bikepath with all her handmade bags every Saturday. I thought about trying it once but I got lost looking for the Lachine Market, and that's supposed to be a whole lot closer.I figured it'd be a bit more dangerous to get a few hours into the trip and only then realize I'm horrendously lost. Maybe if I just stayed on the bike path I wouldn't end up on the highway going the wrong way like I did last time?

That's the nice thing about this market - the diversity of the products. It's a farmers' market, but it also has crafts and things that don't come from a farm. Some people aren't okay with this, like the Marché Fermier organization in Montreal that runs the Plateau and Mile End Markets.

One vendor here who sells beautiful photographs of flowers isn't allowed to have a booth at those markets because he's not food-related. Makes sense, but I bet no customers would mind. I suppose then it's not fair to artisans from Montreal who would want booths as well.

This market also felt bigger than both of those markets, which are the biggest farmers' markets in the city besides the public markets. I loved that I recognized some of the same vendors here, though. Stairsholme Farms was there with their organic beef products. The Wasselton family farm was represented with their sambusas, injera, sweet loaves and some produce (the producers for Organic Campus at McGill - check out my Food Audio tab above to access my radio feature on them). Then there was the Ochado Tea makers:

(they're so lovely, and have very high quality red, green, white and black tea blends)

They're not from a "farm" either, so the fairness is a bit sketchy, but they're "food and drink-related"). Then there's the apple donut, chili sauce and marmalade husband and wife team from the Plateau Market:

They're from McMillan Orchards and sell big bottles of fresh apple juice and cider for VERY reasonable prices. The wife is also the queen of canning. I need a weekend with her to learn these important things, but I fear the havoc to be wreaked on my digestive system from the apple donuts.

The cheese people from the Plateau and Mile End Markets, Le Ruban Bleu (the ones whose goats' milk cheese is used by every guest chef at the Mile End market), are represented here as well, but they offer more variety to sample and buy. Their name means "the Blue Ribbon" and they do specialize in very delicate blue cheeses (not stinky as you may expect - and I love) but they also have some very nice orange-ribbon-ed offerings with peppers and spices.

So these are the food-related vendors that you can find other places in Montreal, plus some of the non-food ones. Next post I'll feature the ones you can't find in the downtown area on any day of the week, plus a woman who makes special double-lined bread bags for specific kinds of loaves of bread. This woman...so very endearingly Québecoise.

Where: 107 Ste-Anne Street, Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue, QC

When: Saturdays, 9am-4pm (but supplies don't always last, especially for the muffins...)

Who: Some of the best of the province's organic producers and artisans