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Italian flavour at Alliston Rurban Farmer’s Market

June 16, 2022   ·   0 Comments

One of the best things about the Alliston Rurban Farmer’s Market is you will always find something different and new.

Connie Arteaga of Connie’s Kitchen, sells all sorts of home farm-grown products including pickled peppers, maple syrup, and home baking.

When Connie and her husband retired, they bought a new property with ten acres in Mono.

“We retired, and we thought we should get a piece of land so we sold our house in Barrie,” Connie said of how she got started. “We wanted something to keep herself busy. Someone said, ‘Why don’t you go sell your baking at the Farmer’s Market?’ And I thought that was a good idea. I’ve been here ever week for eight years.”

Connie already grew vegetables on her property and realized that she grew way too much every season for just her family.

“Little by little, we started growing more,” Connie explained. “I planted 500 tomato plants and about 100 eggplants. I do sun-dried tomatoes which is a really hot seller.”

Many of her products have a distinctly Italian influence including her delicious tomato sauce.

Once she got started, her enterprise started to grow each year.

A neighbour pointed out that the stand of trees at the back of her property were sugar maples and the previous owner dabbled in making maple syrup. They have around 100 sugar maples on their property.

“I didn’t know anything about maple trees or maple syrup,” Connie explained. “We googled how to do maple syrup, and now we have the best. People love our maple syrup.”

The first year, Connie and her husband carried the buckets of freshly tapped syrup by hand. It was a lot of work and they since have a new trailer to carry the load as their production increased every year.

The next step in their enterprise was to get some bees. They now have hives on the property that not only pollinate local crops, they produce honey which Connie brings to the market.

In addition to the farm products, she brings a line-up of baked goods to the market every week.

“A lot of our products are Italian style,” Connie said. “But I also do the baking which is more Canadian. Many customers return every week just to buy our baked goods.”

The Alliston Rurban Farmer’s Market takes place every Saturday through the summer at the corner of Victoria Street and Centre Street.

By Brian Lockhart

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