The Gravenhurst Farmers’ Market has been a Wednesday ritual since 1992. Every week from June into early October, up to a hundred vendors set up near the Muskoka Wharf waterfront — currently at Gull Lake Rotary Park — and the town comes to shop, snack and socialize. The market’s own invitation says it best: come savour the flavour of Muskoka.
The stalls are a cross-section of the region’s best: farm produce, meats, cheeses and seafood, baked goods, preserves, honey and maple syrup, alongside arts and crafts, clothing, jewellery, woodworking and handmade soap. Come hungry — prepared food is part of the draw, from crepes to sausage on a bun, and the market draws some 80,000 visitors a year across its season.
What makes it special is the mix. Cottagers stocking the pantry shop beside local farmers, bakers and makers, with the steamships and the lake as the backdrop. It’s less an errand than a midweek festival that happens to sell groceries — the kind of standing date that structures a Muskoka summer. Rain or shine, Wednesday morning in Gravenhurst means the market, and has for more than thirty years.