Helped to raise 300 pounds of produce for the local food bank at Stratford Farmers’ Market this weekend, and made Aloo Gobi

Residents of Stratford generously donated 300 pounds of fresh produce to their local food bank, Stratford House of Blessing this past Saturday. The Buy Local Share Local booth made a stop at the Stratford farmers’ market on our tour of Ontario farmers’ markets.

Ontario cantaloupe

It turned out to be a beautiful day, and the market was teeming with customers as soon as it opened at 7:00 am. There was a huge variety of produce for sale from farms around the Stratford region (including the first of the Ontario apples!!) and market goers donated everything from potatoes and zucchini to peaches and pears.   

I couldn’t resist buying some of the fresh cauliflower at the market, and since I don’t usually buy cauliflower I needed a simple and easy way to cook it. I did some looking around online and decided to try making aloo gobi, a dish I had eaten in some Indian restaurants before. Aloo gobi is a dish with cauliflower, potato and spices, and was surprisingly easy to make, the only hard part was finding all of the spices in my grocery store. I used this recipe as a base but instead of using tomato I just added a bit of water before leaving everything to simmer. I also made a paste with the spices, ginger and a bit of water at the beginning to make sure they didn’t burn. It made a perfect side dish for dinner and tasted almost as good as what I’ve had in Indian restaurants (but not quite). There must be a secret ingredient missing!

White, purple and green cauliflower on for sale at the market

 This week we will be at: Peterborough (Wednesday) Farmers’ Market on Wednesday, Kingston Public Market on Thursday and Brickworks and Orangeville Farmers’ Markets on Saturday. I am thinking about getting some pears or apples so if anyone has any recipe suggestions let me know. Also if anyone has a different/more traditional aloo gobi recipe I would love to try it!

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