A-tisket, a-tasket, our favourite market basket

We LOVE a beautiful #HortonMarketHaul photo, but occasionally we have the opportunity to capture one in the wild and when we snapped the photo above a few years ago of a stunning heritage basket, it wasn't long before we received the whole story from a long time Horton Market Regular.  So in his own words, Neil Hubert shares the story about his market basket!

​I was born and raised in St Thomas and the Horton Market has always been an important part of life in this small city.

The Horton Farmers' Market was established in 1878 and my great grandparents moved into a house they built on Hughes Street, around 1901.

My great grandmother Euphemia (pictured on the right) would have walked several blocks to the market and it must have been during this time that she started using what we have come to call our “market basket”.  This was certainly a time of thrift and she would have used this same basket for decades.
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In 1944, my great grandparents moved out of the Hughes Street house, so that my grandparents, Bessie (pictured below) and Tub (Ivan) could move in and start their family.  

I suspect it was at this time that the basket was handed down to my grandmother as she too would walk, basket on her elbow, to shop at the market. Theirs was the second Hubert family in the home and they raised two boys in the house, overlooking Hughes Street Park.  Both boys would grow up, marry and start their families also in homes on Hughes Street.

I remember often being at the market with my mom and grandmother, walking along the rows of trucks, their tailgates down, laden with whatever was in season.  I remember flats of eggs, and maybe even chickens. For a child, everything is at eye level and I loved all the smells and colours.  I was a helpful child but easily distracted so carrying the basket once the eggs were involved was never going to happen.

In 1972, my grandmother Bessie moved into an apartment and no longer walked to the market.   Bessie was more like a mother, than a mother-in-law, to my mom, and so the basket was handed down once again.
Over the years, Saturday morning was that special time one looked forward to; going to the market to pick up that certain vegetable, fruit, eggs, meat, etc.  Many stories were exchanged with vendors and friends.
This basket has seen a lot, being at least 117 years old and having served 4 generations of Huberts. 

And we still use the basket, ... It is still the perfect shape, size and balance to be filled at the Horton Farmers Market. It also holds many, many memories.  

Whether you bring a heritage basket like this one that has seen generations of market mornings or a canvas sack - we love seeing the incredible finds assembled!​​