Tuesday 7 February 2017

Famers market

Once a week there is a huge outdoor market down the road, up a couple of hills and along the coast in Ermioni.  It used to be a regular outing for us to visit the market, buy  fresh fruit and vegetables, stock up on knickers and cheap clothing, have a beer on the waterfront and return home with a car full of bargains. 

No Longer.  It costs us 15 euros return to get the car on the ferry boat, another 20 for petrol and that's before we have barely started.

Recently though we did manage to go down to Ermioni on a bitterly cold day and stocked up for all the family and various friends and neighbours.



Turnips and their leaves, radishes, beetroot, all eaten for the leaves and the bulbs


The 'refugees'  are Pakistanis and Indians who have been working in the fields and orchards around here for many years.  Most of them have brought their families over as well and in our area they have built their own temple.

This area is also very popular with Germans who have bought or built beautiful holiday homes.  Over half the voices you hear at the market are foreign, including mine


Such a bitterly cold day was not ideal for bargain hunting.  In mid summer you must shop before 10am or suffer under the unrelenting sun


Nuts and dried fruit by the kilo


Local wine sold by the producer


Honey and all its side products, a balm for treating cuts and burns, honey comb and bee pollen.  I once bought a jar of bee pollen which is supposed to work miracles.  I did eventually manage to use it all but it was furry and tasteless and not nice even with yoghurt and fruit.


A few cut flowers but mainly small plants for the vegetable garden and flowers and trees in pots for replanting.


My untrendy shopping trolley 


Time to go indoors for a warming capuccino and a toasted sandwich which they serve  with potato crisps.


20 comments:

  1. I like so much those markets,sadly we don't have a lot here, but i have a same shopping trolley.

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    1. So much you can buy there from a bottle opener to a kilo of squid.

      I have seen more modern trolleys with bright colours and bigger wheels but this one does the trick, handy when you buy kilos of heavy potatoes and bottles of wine.

      Our local market is much smaller, just fruit and vege

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  2. I have a trolley from France with 3 wheels on the back/the handle side to go up flights of stairs. Its extremely useful

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    1. Yours sounds very sophisticated. This one cost 15 euros and wobbles around behind me so I have to be careful I dont catch anyone's ankles.

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    2. I think I remember it being 12 euros in the supermarket Casino in St pol de leon in Brittany. I snapped it up as it was plain black and I use it at my parents house to haul the shopping up the steep slope to the house as they live on the side of a cliff.

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    3. it looks like the one in the link. It goes up steps really easily

      https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tris-Optical-Black-Shopping-trolley/dp/B00F611YTO/ref=sr_1_27?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1486580060&sr=1-27

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  3. I got a kick out of the wine! How does the price compare to what you might spend for a bottle? -Jenn

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    1. It sells for the same price as our neighbours. I would rather buy the neighbours. At least I know the taste and I know it has not been sitting outside in the sun in a plastic bottle!
      Actual bottled wine (as in glass bottle ) starts at more than double the price. We get 1 1/2 litres from a local barrel for 2 euros.

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  4. I once gave a jar of Bee Pollen to a friend for her birthday; I thought she'd love it. She threw it away.

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    1. I suppose she must have tried it like me and found it very hard to swallow!! A local bee man sold us the pollen and swalloweda handful and raved about its great medical properties. All I can say is he was a great salesman!!

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  5. Can you buy Asian food and spices there La? Will the let you sample the wine before you buy it? Looks like a great day out.

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    1. The Indians must have a shop of their own there somewhere. In our part of the woods there is a tiny and very basic shop out along the main road opposite which sells spices and wonderful basmati rice. I once got a curry powder from them and didnt test it before using in the curry. My goodness it was hot!!!!

      Deep's Indian Shop. One daughter is their accountant, the other is an enthusiastic buyer of their rice.

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    2. As for the wine, we have bought in the past from there and you can definitely taste it first, although I reckon their samples are fresher than the bottles. We did buy from someone there once whose wine we heard was excellent. When we got it home we did not agree and havent bought from the market again.

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  6. I'd much rather be walking around in the cold than the heat. As long as it wasn't raining
    Love markets. Always so full of life

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    1. Full of life is right! They have a souvlaki stand in the middle where you can sit and watch all the action. Great entertainment

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  7. We have what they call "farmers markets" here but most of the people selling are not farmers and it is market traders who go around all the markets with the same van load of stuff. The best place to buy vegetables here is at the farm gate, along with the eggs and honey and farm shops for beef. I am very fond of honey especially for medicinal matters and applying on to the skin. It is easy to buy all these things directly from farms here but few farmers sell at the farmers market which seem to be full of gimmicky things that most people would never buy.

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  8. Most of the produce sold here is local, sold by the growers, but the clothes and hardware sellers go from market to market. We have road side stalls as well, all seasonal fruit and vegetables.
    Loved the farm gate stalls they had back home in nz. Fun buying fresh produce. Wish we could get meat as well

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  9. I love the hustle and bustle of an outdoor market. In some towns they moved them indoors and they become something quite different. Our small local market town holds a farmers market once a month and the produce is wonderful. The sellers grow the animals and butcher their own meat. The herbs are grown by the seller who lives just along the road, the is bread frreshly baked by the artisan baker and so on. Long may they continue!

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    1. I totally agree. Fresh bread is something that's missing from ours....and local cheeses now I think about it. Pity

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