Thursday, 26 July 2012

Day 196 - Market and Mennonites


We got up and had breakfast, a rarity for our travels, before getting set to head off for some exploring of the local area. Our first stop of the day was at St Jacobs Farmers’ Market where we entered one of the buildings to have a look at the goods on offer. We were greeted with a plethora of culinary delights on the ground floor and so slowly made our way along the stalls, learning a little about maple syrup along the way, before we went upstairs to peruse some of the arts and craft stalls there.



Back outside we went around the building and then thought it’s be fun to go and check out one of the cattle auctions. Inside we got ourselves seated and waited for the bidding to commence. We then all saw the strangest looking cow enter the display pen… it was a horse! The bidding was fast and furious, with all four of us struggling to make out just one word of what was tumbling out of the auctioneer’s mouth. We sat as still as statues so as not to accidentally leave with a herd of horses and witnessed several more of these high speed events before leaving.


En route back to the car we strolled through the fruit and veg section of the market where a couple more purchases were made.

Next stop of the day was at St Jacobs village where we had our lunch. During the short wait for the table we both went for a quick walk along the street to check out a few of the little shops here. Lunch was good and we all left satisfied to pop next door but one for a look inside the Mennonite museum here. This was pretty interesting as neither of us two had heard of the Mennonites before and so it was good to learn a little about these people who lead a very simple and relatively care free life. This place was quite relevant too as there are many Mennonite people living in the area, many of which were at the market trading goods. 


On the way back to the house we stopped off briefly at the west Monrose covered bridge where Corrie got to snapping for 5 or so minutes.



After being back for about 20 minutes Alison’s daughter-in-law nipped in for a visit with her two kids. After a little while they left and we then got to arrange what the plan for tea was. Tonight we decided to go with one of the 6 pre-selected meals Douglas and Alison had picked from a kind of self-serve and instructed meal making place! It sounds strange but you pick a meal and then a leaflet guides you through what ingredients to gather and how to mix them all together. When you get the packs home you just have to freeze them until it’s time to cook them. Tonight we went with the marinated chicken breasts which were delicious and D & A prepared them with some rice, broccoli and quinoa. This was delicious and even better when finished off with some brownies, ice-cream and berries. We also introduced D & A to the trick of heating the brownie in the microwave to get it all gooey first… yum!

Then it was time to chill, with Corrie nipping out for a second night of photographing the Himalayan Dandelions, before bed.


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