Saturday, August 29
It has been a long time since I went with the girls to the Bazaar. First was the produce market.
It’s early morning the place is heaving with shoppers, lorries and trucks weave around The rows of stalls packed with the freshest of fruit and vegetables,straight from the fields, I looked at the cardboard boxes piled high beside them, names familiar to me Geest, Dole and others, I thought ah ha this stuff is imported, but none of it each box is full of local produce recycling at its most basic. There were sellers of apples of different varieties willing to cut a slice to sample, vast piles of potatoes the earth still clinging to the skin, great bags of onions, sweet carrots, long rooted parsnips, strings and boxes of huge plump bulbs of Garlic, the lovely purple skinned onion from the Crimea, displays of salad crops, large Radish, Chervil,Parsley, Dill, Spring Onions Knobbly Gherkins, Aubergines and Bulbs of Fennel all artfully arranged to catch the eye. large creamy headed Cauliflowers, Mountains of fragrant Melons, Water Melons the size of footballs,luscious plump Figs, Plums and Pears, Huge fleshy Tomatoes ripe and almost bursting from their skin still more boxes of cherry and vine tomatoes,” try try” I am urged so very tasty. Fresh eggs by the tray-full and this seasons honey great golden jars and containers full of this sweet amber liquid its has got to be tasty judging by the amount of wasps buzzing about, no seriously it is so good full of the scent and taste of the Acacia.
The range and variety of Produce on offer is almost to much to describe, prices vary from stall to stall no one seems to worried there is enough choice to suit all sizes of shopping bag, there could be some sort of pecking order but I dont know.
This is I suppose a farmers market the goods not traveling that far, although some stuff comes from Moldova just over the border with other coming up from The Crimea, even so from farm to plate It's no great distance.
Now we go to the Fish and Meat Bazaar, here slightly different it’s a covered layout still row upon row of counters, we pass quickly through the fish department not our mission for today I get glimpses of gleaming scales clear bright eyes, fish of all sizes surrounded in ice I can smell the sea!!
Here in the meat area Butchers are cutting up the carcasses using what I can only describe as large heavy axes with a curved blade looking very like the ones a woodcutter would use but shorter handled. No fancy beechwood chopping blocks here they look more to me like tree trunks. The counter staff are busy trimming and laying out the cuts of meat presented in an unfamiliar way to me, I mean I know what Pork, Lamb and Beef joints look like but not cut this way.
Another department has Poultry on sale not so much here today, as before counter staff are busy preparing the birds, each seem to have a small lit candle and are burning off the feather stubble. No battery birds here. Nothing goes to waste everything is for sale all the bones fat skin etc even the chicken feet, down to the pigs oink.
Moving on the dairy counters, stall upon stall of cheese looking different but tasting the same well to me anyway I wonder with the amount of tasting on offer its possible to forgo a meal. last and by no means least Bread, now I am not a great lover of the black breads and so forth but here is a variety of loaves of all shapes and derived from many places and like so much when fresh from the bakery unbeatable especially the one derived from Georgia thats my favourite
Maybe the huge supermarkets will take a lot of trade away from these places I hope not. Progress??
Thats it we go home.
