What Ste-Anne-De-Bellevue Has That Montreal Doesn't

It seems like there are a lot of the same vendors at the Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue Farmers' Market and the Mile End and Plateau Farmers' Markets, so why trek out to Ste-Anne if you're not lucky enough to live there already? It's a bit touristy, a bit fake, and beautiful in a soon-to-be more touristy and fake kind of way. It's also a calm, beautiful escape from the city. It also has a whole lot more producers that don't make it into Montreal, like Ferme Tourne-Sol (such a great name: "Sunflower Farm", but more literally, "Turn the Soil Farm":

The abundance of produce is impressive. I think they get a lot more customers at this market. Supplies are limited at the other markets because they're smaller. Here there seems to be more of everything, and vendors don't run out of products until later in the morning. Farmers' Markets are not like stores where everything must be in stock all the time; they only bring what they expect to sell, or a little more if they're feeling lucky or outgoing or generous that day.

You won't see this in Mile End: Huge blocks of maple sugar to be grated. GRATED! It's like cheese.

Or choose from this vendor's whole line of maple products, including pure light (for waffles and pancakes), amber (a bit stronger) and dark maple syrups (bitter and strong like molasses), as well as crushed maple sugar, chocolates, fudge, suckers, and dessert sauces. If you can make it with maple, this guy has.

I saw these and was immediately confused, and then very impressed. Who buys enough bread that gets hard fast enough to care about buying a bread bag for them? Apparently some people do. These are double-lined to be specially-insulated. Since buying my favourite loaf of bread ever at the Plateau Market (hazelnut) and nearly dying of joy eating a few pieces that day, I was saddened to not return to bread heaven the next day at breakfast. I think the same bread-saving (non-hardening) effect can be achieved by wrapping the bread in a tea towel before putting it in a plastic bag, but these are just so beautiful, the bags, that for $5 if I had a bit of additional income, I'd invest. The woman who makes them loves her bags, and obviously loves her bread. I respect that. You can even get one bag to hold your baguette and one to hold your miche. Only the French...

I like the honeywine guy at the Plateau and Mile End Markets (Ferme Desrochers), but I like that the honeywine here in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue is from a different wine-maker: Les Trois Acres. Of the honeywine selection at the Montreal markets, the dessert wine is the only really great one (the Cuvée de la Diable). I might cook with the others (white, rosé, and red) but only for something that needed some extra sweetness, like the white in a chicken recipe with white wine, orange and a little honey in it anyway. These Trois Acres wines could be used similarly and are a little less expensive ($12 for the dry white. "Dry" being a relative term because it is honeywine after all). I also love that the name of the white wine is La Musicale.This doesn't make any sense at all. Perhaps drinking it leads to outbursts of song. Or you drink it while you're singing and it makes you seem better, or at it seems that you sing better.

Because it's not the Montreal markets, Les Trois Acres can also sell their skincare products, all made with beeswax. Or you can go for their vinaigrettes or honey-mustards. I think one of the nicest things about farmers' markets are the little info pages on each farm. You can just ask the vendor any questions you may have, but the pictures of the farms are worth a thousand words. I suppose I should stop writing now...

Oh, there was one more honey vendor whose products were too beautiful to not include. There were SO many kinds of honey. Now they're not my favourite Manuka honey from Australia that you can only get at St-Lawrence Market in Toronto and will cost you about $36 a bottle, and whose health benefits of it are incredible, but these are as close as you can come in Quebec. We just don't have the bees and the environment ("terroir") here. These clock in at about "no-where-near-as-good-for-you, but still a little bit so". The variety and price are incredible. It's also unpasteurized, and you're bound to find a creamy, clover or buckwheat variety that you like. 

They also do "cooking" demos here. I only put the quotation marks because the day I was there the demo happened to be a juicing demo, not so much cooking. I usually hate drinks sweetened with beets, but there were enough carrots in this mix to make it savoury enough for me. The apples didn't even bother me. If I see a used juicer I will buy it quickly. These things are expensive, and the old ones are generally stronger and better. Yard sales or friends looking to get rid of them? This is how I got a pasta maker...

If I had a car, a ride, or public transit that could get me to this market every week, I would want to go. I would skip the Thursday Mile End Market (sorry) and enjoy a leisurely morning in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. I'm not a country person, but this is just enough of an escape for me. 

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