Thursday 24 September 2015

Colour Collaborative: September: Market






Photos from last week's local farmers' market in town.  I do like farmers' markets.  There's always something different and always a real flavour of the area.  Ours isn't the trendiest, but it's still well worth a visit on the two days each month when it's held.  There's also a much bigger food fair from time to time.  I'm always glad to see local food for sale.  It's just a shame that it's a once in a while novelty.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if this was how we shopped every day?

I know food from markets tends to be more expensive, but sometimes I like to have less of something, but enjoy the fact that it's local.  I think we appreciate it more, and it's never ever wasted.  Cheeses are a favourite, and the odd jar of chutney or pickle.  I like to find seasonal fruit as well, plums picked when they're just ripe, instead of the hard balls at Tesco that came here from Chile weeks ago.  Nothing like a plum they are.  Apples of different varieties that you'll never see at the supermarket.  Strawberries that will only last a couple of days because they're so real and delicious.

I like to wander through the market looking at the changing produce as the seasons roll on.  At the moment there are the first vivid orange squashes and creamy white cauliflower curds.  There are slender green and white leeks, and the dusty greens of apples grown through a long season without chemicals.  Nothing bright or shiny here, the skins are the dull oranges and olive greens of pippins and russets.  The plums veer from purple to pale yellow, with a soft bloom shading their thin skins.  The greens are deep and healthy, cabbages grown in our west country rain and beans from our dark fertile soil.  As winter moves closer the palette will narrow to the whites and oranges of root vegetables and the hearty bottle green of kales.  But right now as the Autumn equinox passes it is harvest time, and the market is filled with bounty.  If I can't grow or make it myself, this is the place I most like to buy it.

To visit the other Colour Collaborative blogs for more of this month's posts, just click on the links below:

               Annie at Annie Cholewa                       Gillian at Tales from a Happy House

               Sandra at Cherry Heart                          Jennifer at Thistlebear

               Sarah at Mitenska

What is The Colour Collaborative?

All creative bloggers make stuff, gather stuff, shape stuff, and share stuff. Mostly they work on their own, but what happens when a group of them work together? Is a creative collaboration greater than the sum of its parts? We think so and we hope you will too. We'll each be offering our own monthly take on a colour related theme, and hoping that in combination our ideas will encourage us, and perhaps you, to think about colour in new ways.

28 comments:

  1. I love our farmers' market too. Walking home with a basket (somehow it has to be a basket!) full of local veg of types not to be found in our supermarket makes me very happy. Happy shopping. xx

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  2. I really enjoyed you showing us your farmer's market. I stopped today on my way home from swimming at a country farm market and brought home some wonderful locally grown things.. I am going to photograph them tomorrow and share them. ((hugs)), Teresa :-)

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  3. I love a farmers market especially the cheese and bread stall. I am blessed that there is always an abundance of surplus produce fruit/veg around at car boot and table top sales for very reasonable prices.

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  4. Your Farmers market looks brilliant...ours is only very small but you've reminded me to look up the dates and go and visit it soon :) xxx

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  5. Me too and the fact that things cost more makes me value it even more. Less is usually more I find and I love Real Food from markets and local stores and knowing where it came from and who grew/made/ it and all that stuff! Here in our neck of the West Country we have lots of markets and food fairs and so on and I feel so lucky to be able to shop at them and not at the supermarkets.

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  6. The Farmer's Markets I have visited in the USA are colorful, too, and often have arts and crafts for sale as well. Thanks for taking us on a tour of the market near you, CJ. xx

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  7. Nice post and lovely pictures. They are wonderful places to wander round and buy a few things to enjoy eating. . I suppose that we think they're expensive because supermarkets are so cheap. Flighty xx

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  8. I think the cost of food at markets depends on which ones you go to. Farmers markets tend to be quite trendy and prices are quite high, whereas if you visit city markets, the prices there are very low compared to what you'd pay in a supermarket. I don't think you necessarily get the choice you do at farmers markets unless there are specialised stalls but we're very lucky in Leeds having Kirkgate Market, the largest covered market in Europe, and there's stalls outdoors there too. It's where Marks & Spencer originally had their penny bazaar and a couple of years ago, they once again opened a stall here. Leeds is a multicultural city and this is reflected by what's sold in the market, it's great for picking up things you wouldn't find in a supermarket.

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  9. Lovely! I agree that it is so nice to buy local. I always find it sad that the weekly market in the little town where we live, despite being in an area known for agriculture, is a dismal affair. Just one or two stalls mainly selling trinkets. Hardly a fresh vegetable in sight!

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  10. Your farmers market looks lovely. We're lucky in that we have frequent farmers markets here (at least two a week); I don't go to one every week, but it's lovely to have that choice and it's nice to have a bag full of food that hasn't been sealed in a plastic bag once in a while! Enjoy the rest of the week. Jxx

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  11. What a lovely post and some great photo's to look at and enjoy.
    I always like the cheese stalls ...

    Have a lovely Thursday

    All the best Jan

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  12. Super photos CJ and I do love a local market too. My favourite purchases are bread, preserves and pies, especially if the pie has got a bit of game and/or ale in it!
    Caz xx

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  13. The market looks wonderful. We try to grow a lot of our own fruit and veg so it's healthy and very fresh when we eat it.

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  14. Hello, fabulous photos, popped over from Sandra's blog..felt like I was right there enjoying it all. :)
    Xo
    Dagmar

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  15. I too buy at farmer's market. I had to buy tomatoes to can a few this year since we just moved and there wasn't a garden planned in this new place. Whau!! Look at all that variety of breads! I live on a low carb diet but I sure love breads...and cheeses too. Oh you got it good there!

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  16. That plant stall looks lovely!
    Seems we both like the same things about markets... I too prefer to buy fruit and vegetables that actually taste of something. In fact, we just don't bother with fresh produce from the supermarket. The fruit is always hard and flavourless, sprayed with goodness knows what and flown in from goodness knows where. And it actually costs more too. I like how at the market you can buy as few or as many as you like and nothing's pre-packed. Because I hate excessive packaging as well!
    Getting a real sense of the seasons is the best bit though. Your post describes it all perfectly, in a much more concise way than mine!
    S x

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  17. I love seeing markets in other places. Ours is really beautiful but it feels like they want it to be a big deal, not an everyday part of life like markets might be in other places, do you know what I mean? I too love how markets help you have a sense of the seasons; it's probably even more important now that we live in a world where instant gratification is becoming more and more a real thing. I'm with you on buying a small amount of something really good too; I feel that way about cheeses, breads and pastries especially. Even just a bite or two can feel very special.

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  18. It looks fabulous ... farmer's markets full of locally produced food are among my favourite places. I do have a beef with my local one though, which has lots of cheeses, and bread and cakes, and meats, but hardly any fruit and veg, what good is that!

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  19. It is funny that you note the farmer's market is not the trendiest. I find that I tend to buy the most at the less trendy ones. (my husband buys for the restaurant at the same place). I find the trendy ones more like a walking tour or window shopping? Anyhow, I love these pictures and feel like I should attempt bread baking this weekend or at the very least slather some jam on someone else's bread, hehe.

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  20. Ooh, such a lovely post. You've made me want to shop in that market... That plant stall! X

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  21. It's funny, as I was scrolling down the photos, I thought 'I do like a farmers' market '! We're quite lucky in Norwich, with a permanent outdoor market that has loads of local produce, including an organic veg stall and artisan baker which we go to every week. The apples have just come in, there's always lots of different Norfolk-grown varieties, yummy.
    We also have extra farmers markets plus an annual food festival and vegetarian and vegan food fayre tha have just been on...a great place for a foodie.

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  22. I love the markets too, all that beautiful fresh produce, and the tastes and colours as you say are those of real growing things. xx

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  23. We're lucky in having a farmer's market every Saturday in the grounds of a secondary school bang slap on the doorstep of Hampstead Heath. I don't always go but I'm trying to do more shopping locally - even if supermarkets are cheaper and with more range, I always buy more than is on my list so that way I reckon farmer's markets work out cheaper! Hope you have a good weekend, CJ - more football?

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  24. Such a wonderful way to shop for fresh fruit and vegetables, they would sure be much better than the refrigerated produce for sale in the supermarkets. I buy most of my fruit and vegetables from a local, family owned fruit shop but a farmer's market would be great.
    I would gain so much enjoyment from looking at the plants for sale and finding something lovely for my garden.
    xoxoxo ♡

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  25. What a lovely market, we don't have a farmers market local to us. Everything looks so fresh and delicious xx

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  26. I love farmers markets too. I'm not sure our local one is very trendy either, but do you know what, I'm absolutely fine with that. The local cheeses are fabulous, as are the pies. It's good to actually talk to the folk who are producing the goods. Have yourself a super weekend, CJ. xx

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  27. a decent market is a thing of joy. sadly ours is mostly overpriced and over iced cupcakes and dog beds...........

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  28. I love all colors of bread. I want to eat all that bread. Alas, I cannot. Weight watchers is not bread friendly in the LOSS equation. I enjoy your photos

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