Parkdale Pumpkins

One of the great things about living in this area is that we're a short walk away from the Parkdale farmers' market. Unlike other farmers' markets in Ottawa, the Parkdale market is devoted almost exclusively to fruits and veggies. The exceptions are in spring, when its mostly flowers, and around Christmas time when its, surprise surprise, Christmas trees.

I like the focus on food because it means the market serves a practical purpose and helps make this area more livable. Although there are some re-sellers (vendors who buy stuff from other people but don't grow it themselves) there are a lot of actual farmers selling their products there, which is nice.

It would be pretty hard  to live off solely off the stuff sold at the Parkdale farmers' market (until they invent a Sour-cream-and-Onion-potato-chip-tree) but its definitely become part of our routine to check out the market for anything in season.

Last Saturday was gorgeously sunny and Margot and I headed over to the market to buy our Halloween pumpkins.

It was tough deciding which one to buy.

Buy 1...or 20?

But eventually we settled on two round fatties. Margot was super tough and carried hers all by herself...

 ...with only a few sketchy moments where she thought she might drop the pumpkin along the way.

Eventually we made it home.

Job done right? WRONG. There are 3 people in our family. So back we walked to the market to buy one last pumpkin. Luckily, the best thing about the Parkdale market (from Margot's perspective) is that that there's a playground behind it.

Grocery shopping can be such a slog!