For one brief moment in time I have reached the stage when I am eating all my own vegetables.
I have my potatoes stored in a brown paper bag and garlic dried off in the garage from the last season, small but potent. In the freezer I have an abundance of snake beans – I may never get to the bottom of them as I had a bumper harvest.
I’m picking fresh carrots, parsnips, kale, silverbeet, lettuce, and the herbs mint, parsley, garlic chives, rosemary.
Whoops! I buy onions, but I am told that South Australia is the onion-growing capital of Australia. So perhaps I can be forgiven as our weather is sub-tropical. I havn’t mentioned tomatoes because I am classing that as a fruit – and so does the dreaded fruit fly which has stung every tomato I have ever tried to grow except the tiny cherry tomatoes.
Talking of fruit, that brings me to the reason for my visit to Jan Power’s Farmers Market at the Powerhouse in New Farm Park yesterday morning. We seem to have a glut of strawberries at the moment and I wanted to buy a few kilos for jam making. I also needed a dozen free range eggs. So off I set with my ‘Nanny Trolley’.
It was a beautiful morning and lots of people had turned up. You couldn’t have hurried if you tried (why would you want to?) because there were so many strollers, an amazing variety of shopping trolleys, and dogs of all description on the end of a lead (oh my grammar – they each had a lead of their own!). Every man and his dog had turned out to enjoy the sunshine.
The first thing that hit me was the smell of frying bacon. Now I had already eaten fruit and yoghurt at home, but suddenly it just wasn’t enough. So I stopped at Jon’s Delights for breakfast and he cooked me the most amazing bacon and egg burger.
Breakfast at Jon’s Delights, The Barn
Then I got a bit snap-happy. These are only a few of the pics that I took of the wonderful array of stalls.
Beetroot
Lettuce
Oranges
Garlic
Parsnips
You want to get me locked up!?
And finally I picked up my booty. Three kilos of strawberries for $10.
Going home to make jam
Aug 26, 2012 @ 17:23:00
What a bargain on the strawberries. Lucky you! All thr produce looked sooooo good.
Aug 26, 2012 @ 17:58:14
Deb there were strawberries everywhere. I walked the length of the markets to make my choice and was delighted with my purchase. I made half of them into jam which gave me ten small jars of jam. The other kilo and a half I washed and bagged and popped them straight into the freezer until I can get a bunch of rhubarb. I have found that strawberry with rhubarb makes fabulous jam. I had a great time with the camera on the iPhone. I was snapping like mad as there was so much wonderful produce.
Aug 26, 2012 @ 20:02:40
That beaming smile says it all Jean. Strawberries are something that I really miss here in Tasmania. In W.A. we could buy a huge box of seconds (great for jam) for $6 but here they are simply not something that Taswegians grow. Raspberries all over the place but no strawberries. What lovely markets! One day I am going to save up and head off to Queensland just for the farmers markets (and the tropical fruit..number 5 on my bucket list is to eat my not inconsiderable weights worth of tropical fruit 🙂 ). Cheers for 2 lovely bright sunny posts.
Aug 27, 2012 @ 09:23:55
And you have the most wonderful cherries over in Tassie.
Aug 27, 2012 @ 11:58:56
We certainly do…and apples…AND pears…and walnuts…hazelnuts…onions…potatoes etc. I guess I shouldn’t be too jealous but you guys have the fast growth rate! One thing we don’t have is fruit flies so I guess it’s worth weathering the cold and the lack of tropical deliciousness to be minus those little swines! 😉
Aug 27, 2012 @ 13:03:10
What wonderful photos and commentary about the Powerhouse farmers’ markets! Like you, I detest the fruit fly and have given up on growing larger tomatoes…just the cherry ones now. I have a scrub turkey here at Everton Park that has been known to dig up plants in the vegie patch too
Aug 27, 2012 @ 15:01:17
Hi Maria, Thanks for visiting. I have heard of the damage scrub turkeys can cause, fortunately that’s one thing we don’t have to deal with at Beelarong Community Farm where I have my allotment.