Toronto St. Lawrence Market

Welcome to Toronto St. Lawrence Market

In this city, there is nothing more Toronto than the St. Lawrence Market.

When shoppers wander about St. Lawrence Market with their bagels, fish, fresh veggies, meat and poultry they are in the very heart of where it all began. Most momentous moments of the citys most significant history unfolded there.

Two of T.Os four city halls have been at the market. St. Lawrence Market is the oldest ongoing farmers market in all of Upper Canada, and the original market outdates the city itself.

Fate smiled even on the location of the heart-of-the-city market. Located near the Flatiron Building and the beautiful, in any season walkway leading to the majestic St. James Cathedral, is one of Torontos steeped in history treasures.

Back in 1796, Upper Canada lieutenant-governor Peter Hunter, who named the land north of Front, west of Jarvis, south of King and east of Church as the "Market Block", couldnt have known that he was bestowing on the masses a keepsake for all time.

It was only a simple wooden structure that went up on the northeast corner of the lot. As the future would unfold, by 1821 the wooden structure was destroyed and replaced by a new brick building, stretching from King to Front. In a long ago era when clerks were still literally burning midnight oil, the smart, new two-storey building included shops and offices for rent. A large open courtyard became part of the market building. Then came Torontos Great Fire of 1849, when the second Farmers Market, along with so many other buildings, was lost to ashes.

While the physical face of the structure changed over the years, the benevolent smile that best symbolizes the market atmosphere has always remained the same. The only difference between the clean-scrubbed farmers and their bustling wives of yesteryear is that some of their clothes were from generations past. To the present day, every Saturday you will find farmers from surrounding regions mounting their own freshly grown produce and cattle meat, while their wives smile behind pies browned in wood-burning ovens.

St. Lawrence Market is all that and so much more. For the gourmet cook, its a genuine Mecca. Whether shoppers come from their home city or from European capitals, unique, many of them on of a kind, items make the market a virtual shoppers heaven.

When you add in the craft stalls, there are some 70 stores in which to browse within the main market. For the 35,000 customers who flock to the market each week, there are about 50 more merchants in the farmers market, and thats not counting the roughly dozen more who set up outside shop between the months of May and October.

With so many tourists visiting St. Lawrence Market, its merchants can make the boast of serving the globe.

The fiercely proud merchants of the market, who populate their own community, can stand up with the best of them.

They are colourful characters and the source of a thousand and one anecdotes.

Theres Eugene of Churrasco St. Lawrence, who serves up the best chicken available anywhere in the city, always laced with a dash of humour.

Then theres the irrepressible Urs of the markets A Bisket A Basket, whose tempting array of hand-made preserves, jams and chutneys lured the likes of the much beloved Pope John Paul 11. It happens that the pontiff likes strawberry jam with his breakfast. In Toronto for Youth Day Celebrations the summer before last, he noted the outstanding taste of his breakfast favourite. It was a homemade strawberry jam from the markets A Bisket A Basket.

Thank you

• Features on St. Lawrence Market vendors and shops
• Upcoming St. Lawrence Market Events

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