Sadly, this isn't particularly surprising

It seems, at least according to a recent report by the CBC, that the new farmers' market in Halifax is having some financial difficulties.

Sadly, this isn't really much of a surprise.

One of the issues that Neil and I discussed years ago when we first heard about the new facility was the location. Even though the last location was a little out of the way, this new location is hidden behind a hotel and isn't in a part of town that many locals would visit organically. Actually, given the concentration of tourism activities in the area it is even possible that the new farmers' market is in a location that many locals would actively avoid, particularly in the height of cruise ship season.

Related to the location problem is that there is also a parking/walking problem. I am not sure if the parking for the site is ideal. I kind of get the sense that there probably isn't enough parking during peak times.

Alongside the parking issue is a walking issue. The new site is incredibly unpleasant to reach on foot. There are a few cross-walks that seem to be missing from the mix that would allow pedestrians to conveniently access the market.

All of this is to say that transportation-wise, things don't appear to be well designed so that the location is easy to access.

I suspect that another problem that the Halifax farmers' market is having is that many of their vendors aren't really farmers'. It's one thing to buy an omelette or some freshly prepared food on a Saturday morning, but I am not sure that the food-service vendors are really attracting people during the week when the market is open. At least when I visited on during the afternoon last week most of these places weren't open.

Actually, another problem, and a tricky one, is that the market may be open but most of the vendors aren't. When I was last there it seemed as though only a few of the vendors were open for business. And if the market doesn't have enough selection to allow a shopper to forgo a trip to the supermarket they may instead to forgo the trip to the market.

So being a little out of the way and having an incomplete slate of vendors likely means that an extra trip to farmers' market just isn't worth it for most people during their day-to-day grocery buying activities.

Oh, and not that I am always one for 'character' in a building, but the warehouse feel of the new location does not really induce me to visit.

The worst part is, aside from scaling back to only being open once or twice a week, I really don't know what they can do about the problem as the building has now been constructed and a location change is off the table. Hopefully they manage to come up with something in the near future as it would be disappointing to see the collapse of such a well-respected Halifax institution.

A strange contrast is. the Wolfville farmers' market. They too recently acquired a newly remodelled building and, while I don't know the particulars of their finances, I get the sense that things are going quite well.

It can be funny how things work out sometimes.

A Few Quick Notes 488

-Amazingly, much of the evidence of yesterday's flash snowfall has vanished. Maybe even more surprising is the fact that today was actually quite a nice day, it even went so far as to be above freezing.

-Yesterday I purchased a package of red peppers from the grocery store only to find that they were some of the worst red peppers I have ever had. What is strange is that while they don't appear to be spoiled they are definitely note quite as crisp as they should be and they are certainly lacking the flavour I am accustomed to finding in most of my red peppers. Hopefully I will have better luck next time.

-On a related note, Jeannette and I took a trip to the local farmers' market only to make a single substantive purchase (a $1 turnip). Of course, to find this turnip we had to brave dense groups and elbow our way past the better part of Halifax's aging yuppy population.

-Our Ultimate game didn't go particularly poorly tonight though we were at least a few points behind for most of the game. In the end the result was less than surprising and ended with us getting the loss. One of the most enjoyable aspect of the game was running across a member of the opposing team who happened to be on my first Ultimate team in St. John's in 2005.

-I am starting to think about getting ready for Christmas, for better or worse this hasn't yet meant that I have actually done that much to get ready.

-Aside from our Ultimate game and trip to the market, I feel as though I spent most of my day marking. Fortunately I am now just about done for the night/day/term. Before it I know it I will be back to studying for my comps.

Training Wheels Fail

Today we made our way to both the old and new farmer's markets. While we were in the old farmer's market we happened to see a kid on a training wheel clad bike peddling aggressively but not getting anywhere. At times he was really givin' 'er. While I was able to catch a little bit of this activity on camera, I, sadly, missed some of the most aggressive peddling.



[Embedded video]

Buddy was definitely givin' 'er.

A Few Quick Notes 450

-As expected, today was incredibly hot (kind of like the past few days). The humidity made the relatively high temperatures incredibly unpleasant and sweat inducing. As the evening has started to set in the temperature has started to drop, amazingly this hasn't seemed to caused much change in our apartment (presumably because of the heat retaining power of our apartment building's bricks).

-Today, because of the expected arrival of Hurricane Earl, a number of non-standard actions were taken in Halifax. One of the first of these actions that I learned about was the holding of an auxiliary farmer's market this afternoon. Strangely, they seemed to suggest that tomorrow morning's edition of the farmer's market was also expected to go ahead (I guess I will have to wait and see if this actually happens). The second somewhat unusual going on was that Halifax closed all of its sports fields for the long-weekend in anticipation of the storm. The result of the closure is that our final regular season Ultimate game of the season has been cancelled. As much as it might have been nice to play one more regular season Ultimate game, I am particularly pleased to know that the game won't be going ahead several days ahead of time.

-Jeannette and I ended up visiting the auxiliary farmer's market this afternoon. The trip was definitely a waste of time, there were very few vendors and basically no deals to be had (a fact that was driven home by a recent trip to the Valley, where they have real deals).

-Hurricane Earl is definitely on course to hit the Maritimes in the next few hours. That being said, I am not entirely convinced that Halifax will be hit to hard (at least if the imagery is to be believed).



(Source: National Hurricane Center)

On the other hand, it looks as though the North coast of the province will be hit pretty hard. Of course, this is of increased interest to our apartment now that Rebecca's brother, Nick, lives on that side of the province.

-We discovered more mouse activity in our apartment this evening. Hopefully all available food has been secured and any incentives for further presence removed.

-Tonight Neil signed up for a Costco membership. Because I was there, reside at the same address as Neil, and have a drivers license I was given the second membership card. We then went on to purchase quite a number of item, very few of which were complete extravagances.

-Just a few minutes ago I reported the advertising graffiti that wrote about earlier. Hopefully the city will clamp down on the offending company and consequently discourage other companies from adopting similar practices. I guess for any thing to happen the city will actually have to take action, which likely won't happen until after the long weekend.

A Few Quick Notes 223

-Today was a pretty beautiful day, though I wasn't really able to take advantage of the above average weather. One thing that is noticeable is that the temperatures are starting to drop as fall approaches. Right now one would likely want a jacket if they had to spend a prolonged period of time outside.

-The baby shower Rebecca will be hosting at our apartment is to take place tomorrow afternoon. Though I previously mentioned an aversion to baby shower games it seems that they have somehow crept onto the agenda (this may be been because of constant badgering on the topic).

Along with the scheduling, progress is also being made on the food side of things. During a break from school work I made some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and during another break I made a batch of humus. Rebecca is presently in the midst of making a layered ice ring for the punch. Neil and I have also made plans to make bacon wrapped scallops before we head out.

-Several days ago Rebecca told Neil and I that she had witnessed two of the neighbourhood boys jumping on the closed dumpster just outside our apartment. This afternoon, while sitting at my desk studying, I heard what sounded like a man peeing against a building. Soon after looking through my window I was able to see that I wasn't too far off in my assessment of the sound, instead of it being a man it was a young boy (he was peeing on an out-building associated with the neighbouring apartment building). Soon after he finished urinating he and a friend, who until then had been out of sight, began to climb on the dumpster and jump up and down on the lids. They started to jump from the top of the out building over an opening in the dumpster to one of the lid segments. Fortunately neither of the kids fell into the dumpster during their play session. I was also glad that it didn't last too long as it was rather loud and distracting.

-Today I read a section of Lord Durham's 1839 report about the governance of Upper and Lower Canada. I was somewhat shocked to read that he seemed to be advocating the 'execution' and 'obliteration' of French Canadian society, particularly when some of the recommendations would seem to accommodate the simultaneous existence of two or more cultures (particularly if they inhabited mutually exclusive territories).

-Tomorrow morning Neil and I are hoping to head to the local farmer's market. One reason for going is to get us out of bed at a reasonable time, though I should note that I am going with the intention of buying some celery, and possibly some onions.

-I should get back to work. I would like to read a few more things before I call it a night.

Tomorrow will be more of the same, reading and writing from dawn to dusk (or at least that is what I am imagining 3 hours of work will feel like).