A cold and windy day

View of the neighboring farm from our living room window

sunset light out the French doors in the living room

We didn't get out to ski today as it was so windy (gusts close to 30 mph), and cold, down around 2°F this morning (high of 11°F).  I was glad for a rest.

We ventured forth to the first winter market in Rimouski late this morning -- it's apparently a new venture to have Saturday winter markets monthly this year, promoted by lovely graphics on the web link:

https://www.marchepublicrimouski.com/

It was a nice collection of vendors selling bread and pastries, frozen meat, cheese, dried herbs and preserved vegetables, fresh eggs, and some storage carrots, onions, and beets (I would have bought some, but we won't be here long to eat the amount in the bags).  No fresh vegetables from hoop-houses, heated or unheated, I was interested to see.  It was well-attended, I was glad to see, too, with buyers and sellers exchanging greetings and doing purchase transactions.

The day-length is getting long enough now that unheated or solar-assisted hoop-houses would certainly be feasible, although perhaps still too expensive to compete with imports.

And the farmer's market culture here is to sell at quite reasonable prices, not the high-end prices of our tailgate markets back in Asheville.  We bought a dozen eggs direct from the farmer for $4 Canadian -- that's $3 US.  Cheaper than the grocery store here, too, for fresh free-range eggs.

I'm already juggling what's in the freezer, trying to cycle through what's best eaten before we leave, although the refrigerator will continue to be on through spring and our return in late May.

And it was another beautiful sunset.