The Piggy Market's Story

Food is more than just fuel; It's what brings us together, delights us and creates conversations. The Piggy Market started as a conversation about food. Good food, made the real way, with local ingredients. It was also a conversation between two people, Dave Neil and Warren Sutherland. The setting was Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro, where Warren is the chef, and Dave was Sous Chef. The subject, suprisingly, was not pork. It was all about sausages, pate, rotisserie chickens, meat pies, terrines, take home meals, and flavour.

That was all back in late 2006. From there, eventually, the local movement got brought into it. The conversation expanded to include our search for locally raised pork. When that happened, we came across Heritage pork. But we still weren't the Piggy Market. We discovered if we were to do this, and do it right, we would need to forge relationships with local farmers, and nothing would progress for at least one year while we worked on that project. We met some phenomenal people. The people who are keeping rural farming alive in Ontario. The people who know what it means to eat locally, because they eat what they produce. And it makes sense.

Summer of 2008, and we are ready to go. Without a location. But we visit the farmers market every Sunday at Lansdowne Park, and there are vendors there...

So we applied to be part of the Ottawa Farmers Market as a vendor. On approval, we started at Lansdowne in September of 2008, and what a response we received. The following three months until the end of November were pretty much a blur, with Dave working overnights at Sweetgrass, and selling (and selling out) of product every Sunday. At the close, we had to find our location.

400 Winston Avenue came up in conversation a few times before we decided it was right. When we received the keys on March 1, 2009, we were resolved to be open by April 4th. A week into it, along comes Pascale (Pascale's All Natural Ice Cream), who was looking for a space for her business to grow. We had lots of space, so we came to an agreement, and Pascale became an integral part of 400 Winston Avenue.

Looking into the future, we continue to support our local farmers, and a local food system for sustainable food within Ottawa. The Delicious Revolution is our commitment to ensuring traditional food, delicious food, and seasonal food. Feel free to visit, there's always something to talk about...

Dave and Warren