Founded in 1750, the Halifax Farmers’ Market is the oldest continuously operating farmers’ market in North America. Ironically the current market is housed in an ultra-modern LEED certified building newly constructed to house over 250 merchants and marketeers.
A quarter-of-a-millennium ago the market was spread out along the sidewalks of Halifax’s historic Market Street. While the venue has changed the produce and offerings have not, with a panoply of the freshest and choicest foods and other offerings spread across the new market’s airy property.
I had an opportunity to explore the market with Emily Forrest, a knowledgeable guide who recently opened a tour company designed to pamper the gustatory desires of visitors to Halifax. For a bargain price of twenty five dollars Emily leads guests through a tasting extravaganza.
Offerings include genuine Cornish Pasties (that’s a short “a” vowel sound, NOT pronounced like the burlesque garment of the same spelling) available the Maritime Pasty Company. Their Eccles cakes are yummy and be sure to try their Nellie Mott’s Non-Alcoholic Ginger Wine. Remember the password “Tiddy Og” for a dollar off all pastry offerings. (Don’t be put off by all the talk of “tiddies” and “pasties”; this IS a respectable establishment!)
Another not-to-miss shop is the Foxhill Cheese House. This outlet for a sixth generation family farm features non-homogenized chocolate and regular milk in traditional milk bottles. The chocolate milk is light and full of cocoa flavor, unlike the treacly, seaweed-spiked concoction that large dairies serve out. Also a must is to try out the authentic recipe gelato…best I’ve had since visiting Milan.
For scrumptious wraps and hearty Acadian dishes such as fricot, a beef or chicken and vegetable light stew just follow chef Darren Poirier’s rendering of traditional and not-so-traditional songs as he works away at the Wrap So D Catering establishment. He has served over 250,000 of his amazing cinnamon buns: “made with real butter,” he sniffs, unlike a certain other large chain which fancies its cinnamon buns as pretty “hot stuff”.
Whatever your taste, whether it’s specialty breads served by a former high-powered Manhattan lawyer…who looks like your grandma, to home-made soups guaranteed to cure the common cold, you’ll find it here on Halifax’s historic waterfront.
If You Go:
Local Tasting Tours
Halifax Seaport Farmer’s Market
Photo Credits
The Halifax Farmer’s Market – By Destination Halifax, A. Young – All Rights Reserved
All other images by George Burden – All Rights Reserved
First Published at Life As A Human
Guest Author Bio
George Burden
George Burden is a family physician in Elmsdale, Nova Scotia, a graduate of Dalhousie University Medical School, class of ’78. He is a freelance journalist who writes extensively for the national medical newspaper, The Medical Post, and also serves on the publication’s medical advisory board. Dr. Burden has served in the past as a Regional Director of the Canadian chapter of the Explorers Club and was recently designated a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society. He is a past recipient of the Governor General’s Medal.
Publications to date have included topics such as studying aviation medicine from the perspective of a CF-18 pilot during an aerial combat exercise, descending in both a Canadian naval SDL deep sea submersible as well as time aboard the Victoria class submarine, HMCS Windsor. Dr. Burden has also traveled to and written on all seven continents including the Antarctic, West Africa and Southeast Asia.
He has published articles on diseases depicted in ancient Egyptian art at the Cairo Museum and has done an analysis of the Edwin Smith Papyrus from a modern medical perspective. Medical history is also an interest of Dr Burden and he has co-authored a book on this subject entitled Amazing Medical Stories, published by Goose Lane Editions/University of Toronto Press.
Dr. Burden presently resides in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He won 3 awards at the 2010 North American Travel Journalism Awards.
Read George Burden’s full bio and over 180 articles by him at Life As A Human.
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