The idea of produce markets is not new. After all once upon a time, when the world was young, that was the way most people shopped.
And it still is today in many countries. A quick whip around most of Africa, South America and Asia will see people up early with their baskets selecting the best on offer from markets in every village and town.
Freshness. That's what the key to it all is. In a market situation, where you can simply walk a few paces and see that this vendor has supremely better cabbages, peas or apples than that vendor, it simply means that everyone has to lift his or her game and tender the best produce at hand.
The availability of supermarkets, our own tight schedules and a growing amnesia about just how our food can - and should - taste, has led us to trade speed for flavour and barter a quick sale for quality.
For let's face it, a trip to a farmers' market (at least for city-lings) takes time. It means a longer than usual car trip to a suburban market. You need to take a basket, as there are no trolleys, and you should factor in time to chat to the (real) people who are selling you produce that they have personally nurtured, then hauled from the ground, and carted to the market at some impossibly early hour so you can see it dewy fresh as you nibble a croissant and sip coffee (yes, most markets have those too) before you scout for even more goodies.
Until a few years ago, produce markets (apart from the monster wholesale city ones directed at retailers) were occasional events. But a groundswell of dissatisfaction with what was on offer in supermarkets and greengrocers, led by food magazines and papers, reaped a crop of them across Australia. Every week a new one opens, it seems.
According to Jane Adams, possibly the founder of the modern upsurge in farmers' markets, regularly operating markets include:
… and more opening as we speak.
There is even now an Australasian Farmers' Market Association, so if there isn't one in your vicinity, talk to your council, get a group of sympathetic restaurateurs, growers and other food people together and make it happen.
That has got the 'where' out of the way. Now we need to consider the 'what' of farmers' markets.
A farmers' market should be just that. If you find your local market deteriorating over time into a quasi-fleamarket, or becoming diluted by stalls that are simply representing the local fruit shop, take care.
In the same way, if you find vendors bleary eyed because they have travelled ten hours to bring you their produce, which then stands all day in the sun, pause to think if maybe it is less fresh than something that has travelled in refrigerated transport overnight to a wholesale market then a greengrocer near you.
Likewise, be careful of meats, cheeses and other perishable foods that may not enjoy the same controlled temperature and cover of a shop. If you plan to eat something for lunch - fine, but be aware that spoilage commences the moment food leaves the ground, the tree or the refrigerator.
The best markets are those that are truly local markets with all produce coming from the immediate vicinity. Like the excellent Hastings Farmers' Market, on the mid north coast which is held on the fourth Saturday of each month at the Wauchope Show Ground.
Not content to simply present the local bounty, the organisers have printed a neat little folder stuffed with appropriately green sheets that not only let you know what months you can expect to find broccoli or beetroot at its best, but also which vendor should have it.
Still not satisfied that they have ticked every box, there is also a Farmers' Market Farm Trail so that you can drop in on your favourite stall holder at the farm, and stock up on your personal addiction - tamarillos, pumpkins, blueberries, whatever - mid-month.
Here then is a modified list of monthly market mouth-waterers, remembering that the mid north coast is, well, 'mid', and that places north of Latitude 35 will have things ripening earlier, and those south will find them later - if at all, as the Port Macquarie area is subtropical.
All year: bananas, olives, hydroponic tomatoes, bok choy, beetroot, capsicum, chillies, cucumber, cabbage, lettuce, mushrooms, radish, rhubarb, silverbeet and rocket.
Summer: December-February: avocado, blueberries, cherries, mangoes, passionfruit, peach, quince, rockmelon, tamarillos, watermelon, beans, choko, eggplant, peas, pumpkin, grapes, passionfruit, potatoes, spinach, sweet corn, tomatoes and zucchini.
Autumn: March-May: apples, citrus, grapes, kiwi fruit, passionfruit, pear, rockmelon, watermelon, beans, choko, eggplant, pumpkin, potatoes, spinach, sweet corn, tomatoes and zucchini.
Winter: June-August: avocado, apples, citrus, grapefruit, kiwi fruit, limes, mandarins, papaya, pear, starfruit, fresh macadamias, broccoli, potatoes and spinach.
Spring: September-November: citrus, blood orange, papaya, fresh macadamias, cauliflower, asparagus and peas.
4WD
