Jack Hanna
Tomatoes just peachy at Elgin Street farmers market
Tomatoes are the big seasonal item at the Elgin Street farmers market right now. They are at their juiciest and available in several varieties.
Niagara peaches and Ottawa-area raspberries, along with root vegetables such as beets and squash, flow into the market stalls in late summer, says market manager Chris Penton. And Brussels sprouts.
The corn still is excellent.
And of course, there’s everything else the market offers every Sunday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Boushey Square: craft beer, cider, honey, bread and pies; Lebanese and Italian foods; and even carpets.
Take a walk through Centretown’s history
The Centretown history walking tours on Sunday mornings will continue through the autumn.
There are two walks, offered on alternating Sundays.
Blunders and Beauties focuses on historic booboos in downtown Ottawa made by those who govern, and Centretown’s architectural beauty. It looks back millennia to the last ice age and the Champlain Sea, and discusses why buildings in the heart of Ottawa crack.
The other tour, Canal and Communities, looks at the building of the local portion of the Rideau Canal, and at the communities that have lived on Centretown lands, from indigenous encampments to the canal builders’ shantytown and early villages.
The walks, each about one kilometre, leave from the Elgin entrance to the Elgin Street farmers market Sundays at 11 a.m. There’s no cost, although donations to the Centretown Community Association (CCA) are gratefully accepted.
Kids can go fly a kite – after they make it
The CCA’s Fall Festival will be rich in activities for kids, including the opportunity to make a kite.
The festival will be held on Saturday, September 24 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. in Dundonald Park.
Kids also can plant daffodil bulbs, paint a rock, learn about bees and other pollinators, or sit on the grass and listen to stories being read aloud.
For adults, there’s instruction in drawing trees, demonstrations of Chinese drumming and dance, and displays on everything from nurturing Centretown’s trees to the tool library.
The festival is jointly sponsored by the CCA and the Centretown Community Health Centre.
Don’t steal plants
Through years of work, dozens of volunteer gardeners have transformed the huge garden spaces in Dundonald Park from weed beds into expanses of flowers and shrubs.
The leaders of the volunteer gardeners hope new signs, highlighting the volunteer effort, will cause potential thieves to pause.
This summer there’s been a lot of thefts of plants, including rose bushes, from the gardens. The new signs state the gardens were created by volunteers and ask folks to “be respectful.”