Two of the most enduring community traditions in rural Canada are the agricultural fall fair and the farmers' market. Organized fall fairs took root in Upper Canada in the early nineteenth century, when local agricultural societies began staging annual exhibitions of livestock, grain, and handiwork; the first provincial fair followed in the 1840s. Farmers' markets are older still, many of them tracing back to the open squares and market halls of colonial towns. Both bring country and town folk together to trade, compete, and visit, and both lean on the emotional, social, and practical rewards that keep people coming back. Both also attract devoted organizers, most of them former exhibitors or vendors themselves.

The two share a similar shape and aim. Each welcomes participants of every age, from schoolchildren to retirees, and each is built around a season, the fairs clustered in late summer and fall, the markets running from spring through harvest. Entering something in a fall fair usually means submitting it to a panel of judges, and ribbons are awarded strictly on merit; a farmers' market, by contrast, takes almost any vendor willing to pay for a stall, regardless of what they sell. Whereas markets tend to keep a steady core of regular sellers, fairs rely on a changing mix of exhibitors from one year to the next. Interest often peaks in midlife, once a bit of spare time opens up.