Chef Destiny Moser finds inspiration at the Kitchener Farmers' Market: Andrew Coppolino

A decade ago, chef Destiny Moser wanted to learn more about food and cooking, so she walked into the upstairs kitchen at the Kitchener Market for her first cooking class.

Now she's a chef with formal culinary training and two food-based businesses: FoodZen and Cedar Spoon Indigenous Catering. And she still finds inspiration when visiting the downtown market's wide range of food vendors year-round.

"We have a number of farmers' markets in the region, but the Kitchener Market is unique and just has great atmosphere," said Moser.

While spring has only just sprung and will need several more months before it yields the season's first produce, Moser notes that there are still many local crops that are in season that can provide inspiration for nutritious and delicious meals.

If you don't have an idea in mind, she says the market will inspire you, just like it inspired her 10 years ago.

"If you choose meat, for instance, start with a butcher and build your meal from there," Moser said as we took a tour of the many Market vendors on a busy Saturday morning.

Looking for venison, Moser stopped at a relatively new vendor to the Market: Kitchener's ForeQuarter Butcher Shop. While not local to Waterloo region specifically, the venison they sell is from a farm near Algonquin Park, said ForeQuarter's Brook Davis.

"It's farm-raised in a section of a forest and government-inspected," Davis said. "It's one of the few farms in the province that produce venison."

Moser noted that proteins like bison, deer and elk are not widely eaten across the population but are important food sources for many Indigenous people in Canada – and more difficult to source than beef, chicken and pork.

She added that restrictions on harvesting and processing game for sale has meant limited access for Indigenous cooks to purchase meats like venison.

While sausages and ground venison are the most popular choices, Moser selected a rarer cut, a frenched rack of venison.

If you want truly local game Moser points to Oakridge Acres, a ranch in Ayr popular for their herd of bison, a native Canadian species touted as a healthy protein source.

As an alternative to meat, Moser suggested using wild rice and to fill it with more vegetables.

"Mix roasted mushrooms and roasted root vegetables into the wild rice. Brussels sprouts can either be roasted or shaved uncooked and added," she said.

With vegetables in mind, we then headed to her next vendor destination: a longstanding local farm, Gmach Gardens, for winter produce.

The Gmach family has been farming in Waterloo region and selling at the Kitchener Market since 1934.

Despite March storms and lingering snow, local root vegetables like squash, rutabagas and potatoes have been stored and are theoretically in season. Moser spied Brussels sprouts and asked veteran farmer Karl Gmach about how they make it from field to market.

"Depending on the weather, at the end of November or December, we cut the whole stalk leaving the individual sprouts on the stalk. We store them in the cooler, and every week take out what we need for the market and peel them off the stalk." said Gmach.

To round out the plate, Moser selected mushrooms from a specialty vendor, who was selling a unique variety of mushrooms available like black pearls, lion's mane, blue oysters, pioppinis, alongside more familiar fungi such as shiitakes and cremini.

"Cinnamon caps have a nice earthy flavour and a crispy texture. They are excellent with eggs," said to Sean Declerc, co-owner of Fresh and Tasty Mushrooms of Amaranth, near Orangeville.

"I've never seen so many mushrooms," Moser told me. "I'm intrigued by the black pearls and their nuttiness which will be good with the venison. But I'm really curious about the lion's mane too. I've never seen anything like that. It looks like cauliflower."

Whether in St. Jacobs, Cambridge or Kitchener, farmers' markets are curators of the region's local foods, as well as being hosts to "farmer-driven" businesses selling nutritious food and offering an important knowledge base about how our food grows. 

Farmers' markets also lead the way for the upcoming bounty of the spring and early summer harvests — asparagus, rhubarb, ramps, radishes, and some lettuces — and can provide ideas for meal planning, according to Moser.

"The local vendors at farmers' markets are my inspiration for what is growing in our own backyard here in the region."