To market to market....

I had always hated farmers markets, the hipster havens where you can boast you've paid a ridiculous amount of money for 100g of someone else's hobby.

Traipsing through a muddy school playground to score some old weeds foraged from someone's front lawn, that is if you are lucky enough to get one of the three available car spaces and not walk three kilometres.

Well that was before I educated myself and "got" farmers markets.

Over the past 5 weeks I have been doing 90% of my shopping at farmers markets and thought I'd share how my hatred become love.

I don't want to sound too POOH (Preachy Obnoxious Organic Hipster), this is just my experience and is written with the Don't Boil The Sauce philosophy of as long as it's legal go with what's right for you.

I had always wanted to use farmers markets as an alternative to the supermarkets as I'm not a fan of the producers not getting a fair deal and wanted to shop more locally. I know I had bought gallons of $1 milk to make cheese till I understood its impact and now if poor AB picks up a cheap milk by mistake he hears about how he is personally killing farmers....am I being over dramatic?

So while I wanted them to be my farmers "supermarket" of choice it took me a long time to realise they are an alternative to a supermarket but they aren't a supermarket.  It's BYO trolley for a start.

One of the major side effects of changing the way I shopped has been a reduction in food waste.

I'm sure it wasn't just my fridge that would have the relics of a vegetable bargain from days gone by.  The bargain element though does lose its shine when you throw it away, unused and really should have just thrown the money in the bin.

So with this in mind, I don't believe farmers markets are more expensive over all. Surely it is better to spend $5 on a bunch of carrots and use every one of them, than throw out $1 bags?

My theory (and there is no data or science here just my own opinion)  is really around quality vs. quantity when it comes to cost.

Is it not better to have a smaller amount of the best quality?

When food can be sold ridiculously cheap what impact does that have on the taste, the life of the animal, and the amount we over consume?

I remember my grandparents talking about how it was a really special occasion if you had a roast chicken for dinner. Now we can get a chicken* for the cost of 2 cups of coffee? *$5.99 1.6kg Woolworths online 17/7/14

(I'm not sure why everything is measured against the price of a cup of coffee but just work with me...)

The meat I have been eating since starting my farmers market "journey" has been some on the best meat I've ever had. This may be due to the way the animals are raised, happy animals make a happy dinner, well possibly more happy for me than them.

So while it might seem $25 is a tad pricy for a chicken let me tell you, the quality of this chicken had 2 grown men totally absorbed in conversation about the virtues of a chook?!?!Plump, juicy, and so enormous that I broke it down and it feed AB and I for almost 8 meals.

I am loving the range of vegetables available at the markets because they are in season, taste like veggies once did and aren't imported. I flat out refuse to buy imported fruit and vegetables, and have learnt the hard way with frozen berries, always read the fine print, packets lie!

There are also much more interesting vegetables available, so a salad of just dressed carrot is pretty darn exciting when those carrots come in multiple colours. You know purple will always win!





These are some of the things I've learnt about how to "get" and love farmers markets

• Be early, you'll have an easier time parking and you'll get first dibs on the produce

• Take your time, there is no checkout queue to beat so relax and see it all, you'll even be able to have breakfast there, I mentioned it's early right!

• A trolley is a must, or a strong helper as it won't be much fun lugging your shopping around

• Be virtually social as social media is a great way to see what specials the stall holders have and  can give a bit a planning time for what else you'll need for the weeks meals.

• Be personally social, this is the one I struggled with the most in the past. I was always worried the stall holders would be offended if I didn't buy from them, I know I'm a complex over thinker. The reality has been a very welcoming experience, and the mornings have become quite a community event. By getting to know the stall holders they also get to know you and what type of products you'd like. You might even meet your neighbours.

• Try new things, who doesn't love a free sample? This can extend to products you wouldn't normally buy, I'm wasn't really a mussel fan as I just remembered those cold, tough, flavourless morsels I've had from buffets. So when I saw mussels at the market for $6/kg I thought I'd give them another go and wow were they delicious in a chilli cream sauce. I will be making sure I get another kg next time I see them.

• You also don't need to be the next Maggie Beer to benefit from the markets as not only is there fresh produce there are also stalls of ready to eat sweets, cakes, pastas and sauces if opening is more your style of cooking

• Do your research, check out the websites to see which market has what you need. The stall holders do move between the markets so each week may be different. There are 5 different market locations that are close to me so I can see exactly what I need and can decide which one to go to or if it will be a 2 market day. That sounds like a lot of time but it was really only a couple of hours and a lot of that's just chatting! http://www.vicfarmersmarkets.org.au/ http://farmersmarkets.org.au/markets

• The practical food safety nerd in me also takes an ice brick to keep everything cool, though possibly not necessary in winter...

Are you a regular market goer? What other tips do you have? 

Share your market experiences, I'd love to know the good, the bad or the ugly!

mmmmmm bacon.........

 

The milk  has cream under the cap, it's like a flash back to staying at Grandma when they had bottles with the little silver foils.
I'm really not that old I think she was the last one to not have a milk man, we had plastic bottles at our home.

The best part of market shopping is that sometimes you get a little extra bonus, which the chickens are very grateful for!



Don't be livered it's only mushroom

Many years ago when I was at uni, (just turned 18) I had a vegetarian coming for dinner. It was my very first vegetarian ever, what would they eat? What would we talk about? What would I wear? And would I need to give them a bath before dinner just so the other guests wouldn't be sick from the smell? OK the last point may be been a little dramatic but a meal without meat that was unheard of, what was I going to do?  

I thought OK a salad, that's vegetables, but every salad I knew was coated in a fairly decent amount of crispy bacon. There was a split second where I thought of using a can of meat substitute, but that looked remarkably like a can of Pal dog food.

In the end I found a recipe for a Chinese vegetable soup, that had fried rice squares that when added to the serving bowl hissed and sizzled for theatrical effect. That was our winner, perfect!

I spent the good part of the day in the kitchen preparing the soup. The rice needed to be cooked and shaped in a tray and then cut to size. There were also some ultra exotic vegetables involved that were a bit pricey but this was a special occasion, bok choy, oh how times have changed.

After the, what seemed like hours of finely julienning vegetables, making sure the flavours were right, and even testing the rice for appropriate sizzle, my friend arrived. (no bath was required in the enjoyment of this meal)

My friend loved the soup, the rice block spectacle was a hit and she was really appreciative for all the effort I had made.

Then things took a turn for the worse.

She said "this is so delicious, what stock did you use?" I replied "oh just a chicken stock powder, it's only a powder so doesn't have meat in it"

She requested to see the packet and low and behold 8% chicken meat and fat.

I thought I had done so well but one little naive error scored me a lecture about the poor bloody little chickens. The fact she loved the other 92% should have counted for something, normally that is a great pass mark. Well that was dinner over, and I can't remember if I had a dessert or pretended there was none just to end the evening.

So naturally I am a little more skilled when it comes to vegetarian cooking now, let me tell you about that time I cooked for a vegan........!

After the recent accusation of my "hoity toityness", I have developed a strong allergy to the highfalutin so I can guarantee this recipe is 100% Falutin free. 

Mushroom Pate on Witlof

Ingredients

• 500g mixed mushrooms, (Portobello, Swiss Brown, button, the mix is up to you)
• 5 french shallots
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar or verjuice
• 5 sprigs of thyme
• 100g walnut crumbs
• 3-4 witlof
• 150g feta crumbled
• Olive oil

Method

• Chop mushrooms into 1/2 cm pieces
• Finely chop the shallots and garlic
• Add 4 tablespoons of olive oil to a hot fry pan
• Add the shallots and garlic and cook to soften
• Add the mushrooms and stir to ensure they are coated in the oil
• Add the vinegar or verjuice.
• Lower the temperature and let the mushrooms cook down
• Add the thyme leaves and season to taste (remembering the feta will also add some salt)
• When the mushrooms have cooked down, take off the heat and stir through the walnuts
• Let cool in the fridge
• Separate the witlof into individual leaves
• Fill the witlof leaves with the mushroom mix and sprinkle with some feta.