Market Mondays

Last week, D. had a pretty brilliant idea for the seemingly impossible task of making Mondays less crummy: instead of heading home after work to cobble a meal together out of whatever is in the fridge, we would rendezvous with our friend and sort-of neighbour Jessica at the local farmer’s market and pull together a dinner from whatever we find there.

Toronto has about two dozen farmer’s markets, including a few that run all year long (I was pretty surprised to learn that a winter city like T.O. would have year-round farmer’s markets; by contrast, balmy Vancouver has none). We’re lucky that our move this fall took us from a neighbourhood with one all-year market in Dufferin Grove Park to another on Sorauren Street.

So, the first Market Monday rolled around and we trekked at dusk to the Sorauren Farmer’s Market, which is tucked up for the winter months in the tiny fieldhouse next to the park. The season being what it is, pickings were fairly slim, but we came out with some fat and spicy Berkshire pork sausages, potatoes and a loaf of crusty bread. Some kale and a bulb of fennel from the nearby supermarket later, we had the makings of our ad lib winter feast.

We tossed the potatoes, fennel and sausages in a casserole with some sliced onion, whole cloves of garlic and crumbled dry sage and let it roast over moderate eat for a good hour until the sausages were plump and crispy on the outside, the fennel and onions supple and sweet and the potatoes just crumbling. The kale was rinsed, trimmed and given a quick turn in a pan with some sliced garlic and finished off with a splash of cider vinegar until it was tender and glossy. Simple, warming and of the moment: a perfect way to open another working week. Wine was opened, and Monopoly real estate deals sharply contested. Market Mondays, I'm pleased to meet you.