Even when the garden is bountiful, it usually doens't produce enough to meet all of one's food needs - as demonstrated by the sum total of our carrot crop this year...
It's times like this when you need to grab the trolley, wip out those cloth bags, and head to market.
I've been lucky enough to visit many a market on my travels. The Sicialian markets we experienced with the family last year were both exciting and scary. A local Catanian street market was home to a host of characters who wouldn't meet your eyes, hanging around in alley way shadows. The produce was displayed on overturned boxes, the earth still clinging to its roots, as if the sellers had pulled it out of the ground in a hurry. There was a complete disregard for pretension - what you see if what you get. Another in Siracusa had tiny punnets of goat's ricotta. Tasting one of these would have to be in the top ten most delicious sensory experiences I have ever had. It is also one of my biggest regrets - how can I not have eaten more?
But you needn't go overseas for wonderful markets - Melbourne boasts many gorgeous ones of its own. A few years ago, I worked around the corner from Victoria Market. I loved wandering the stalls at lunchtime, sampling cheeses and dips, grabbing a few pieces of fruit for my afternoon pick-me-up, and watching people as they went about the business of buying food. There were the older Greek and Italian mamas who filled their trolleys with budget bulk produce to feed the family, expertly smelling and sorting through crate loads of tomatoes and marrows and grapes until they had the best for their buck. There were the time-strapped suits who bought expensive cheeses and dips for light dinners. Chunky workmen filling up at the Bratwurst sausages. Harassed looking mums with kids in prams, navigating their way through the chaos.
It is a brave person who is willing to throw themselves into the fray on a Saturday afternoon when everything is going cheap cheap cheap at most Melbourne markets. There's something very primal about people jostling each other to grab the last box of overripe apples, the call of the fruit seller hollering about his wares at the top of his voice, the subtle parting of the waters to let trolleys and prams and wheelchairs through. Maddening, but very primal, very life affirming.
At Preston Market recently, on looking up from buying tofu and noodles at the Asian grocery on a Saturday afternoon, I was struck by the sea of faces moving along in chaotic procession - people from Africa and Afganistan, from Italy and Greece, from Vietnam and India and a myriad of other places besides.We all need to eat. How wonderfully levelling that is. I personally, am so very glad for it.
Look out for the next blog, with tips on negotiating markets and getting the best seasonal produce for your money. To contribute, Email Me or post a comment.
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