MARKET MUSINGS

July 9, 2014 · 0 Comments

By Jan Freedman

The arrival of summer has brought both lovely sunny weather and large crowds to the Farmers’ Market.
All of our farmers are now present and the amount of produce ripe and ready to harvest is growing by the week.
Apparently, because of the very harsh winter, raspberries are still a few weeks away. They will be followed by blackberries, currants and gooseberries in short order. Brooks Farm may have some Saskatoon berries this year, but it’s always a race to pick them before the birds get them!
As you know by now, Pillitteri Winery from Niagara-on-the-Lake is now part of the Market right through until October, with the other two wineries, Harwood Estates and Stanners Vineyard, returning for one more visit each later in the season.
Now I’d like to introduce you to another of our new vendors this year. She is Jennifer Fisher of Jennifer Fisher Essentials. She was born in Scarborough but moved to North Bay as a young child. She moved to Kitchener at the age of 16 and there began a new adventure. When she finished high school she began studying industrial mechanical engineering and made this area her career for twenty years.
Almost five years ago, she decided that it was time for a change and started down the path to her current passion. Her business started by studying her love of personal training and expanded to include medical aesthetician and registered reflexology diplomas. Along the way, she kept looking for a line of natural skin care that she could recommend to her clients. She decided to make some herself and Jennifer Fisher Essentials was born.
The initial line and labels were not sophisticated but the products always pure, healthy and clean.
Jennifer makes all her products with much love. She always has beautiful music playing when she’s making her product and before she begins. She clears her mind and focuses on making the product beneficial and healing to the person who buys it. Everything is a combination of energetic vibration for Jennifer. Beautiful music produces a positive vibration infusing each product with positive energy.
People are always asking why the products are named “eleven.” The number eleven seemed to show up frequently for Jennifer. Whether she looked at a watch, clock, license plate or electrical meter, she kept seeing the number eleven.
It became clear to her that she must make a cream to be named Eleven. She began the line with Eleven and Eleven Dark, a day and a night cream. Recently she expanded the line to include Eleven Brilliance Face Serum, Eleven Renew Face Cleanser, Eleven Resilience Face Mask and Eleven Bright Eye Cream. Each product contains eleven Skin Beautiful ingredients.
So please drop by Jennifer’s booth in the park and try some of her products. I’m trying her natural bug spray which is very effective.
Most of you already are familiar with the absolutely delicious baking of Megan and her Nutmeg Bakery. But did you know that she also makes the most wonderful cakes? Megan says that their approach is simple. They put their hearts and souls into offering their customers an array of seriously delicious baked goods. They use unique flavour and texture combinations but their creations remain uncomplicated.
Only premium quality, fresh and seasonal ingredients are used. Everything is made fresh and in-house, from their salted caramel sauce to their lemon curd to their candied pecans, all are made from scratch.
They believe that cakes should look like cakes so they leave their cakes “naked” so you can see each delicious layer. Although the cakes are always pretty, they are not fussy: their charm comes from the anticipation of eating them.
Nutmeg likes to bake with the seasons. They do brown butter/vanilla bean/lemon in the spring or ginger/cappuccino in the winter. There are always new combinations as the seasons change.
This past weekend saw another of our very successful Special Events during which we teamed with Kerry’s Place for their Appreciation Day and we had our annual Art in the Park day co-ordinated so ably by Deborah Campo. Thank you to all who participated, including the musicians, artists and artisans and, especially, to Deborah Campo. Thankfully, this year the weather was lovely.

See you at the Market!