Food Growers Market

The Food Growers Market is well, a market that opens on the first Saturday of every month. Been hearing so much about it, so when the opportunity came, I simply couldn't pass it up! The market is open only from 7-11am, and boy did it take a will of steel to say no to dinner and drinks with the girls to make sure that I get my 40 winks.

Met up with Ash, Chris, Tom and Tony at around 9ish. It was pretty crowded; a couple of stalls have actually finished and were packing up, though there were still plenty of stalls open, their arrays of local specialities beckoning ever so enticingly. We certainly wasted no time - we picked, dipped and doused our way systematically through cheeses, olive oils, breads...you name it. I particularly loved the olive oil stands with their selections of golden liquids, all subtly infused with some flavour or another. The cheese stands disappointed me somewhat, and I blame France for that, having spoilt me silly with their amazing range of fromages, especially the artisanal ones. Gosh how my toes tingle at the mere thought of the brebis I had in the Pyrenees market at Bagneres du Bigore. Parting is such sweet sorrow..sighs.

I ended up buying only a couple of things after having browsed the stores twice. One was a rather good-sized museli cookie - i've got a weakness for knobbly chewy cookies and simply couldnt walk past this one. It was filled with all sorts of dried fruits, oats and nuts and tasted as good as it looked. Passed Tom a quarter of the cookie, had a quarter myself and kept the rest for later (which i happily devoured for lunch). As the weather was so hot, some ice-cream was in order. Or better still, an ice-cream sandwich. I had a vanilla bean ice cream sandwiched between 2 crunchy almond sugar lace cookies (see how the biscuit looks like lace). The coldness of the ice cream was gratifying due to the heat, but the taste wasn't mind-blowing (this time I blame the Basque Country...the cones of frozen delights were cheap too!)

My last purchase at the market was this little jar of fragrant Leatherwood honey, which is a Tasmanian specialty. It tasted so good that I had to stop myself from buying three jars (there was an offer if you buy three). The honey tastes like it's been infused with nectar lovingly handpicked from the choicest flowers by the bees. Probably an exaggeration, but then again, probably not. You gotta taste it yourself to believe it. I got to find a recipe that'll do this honey justice...also can't wait to try it with my favourite cuppa warm frothy milk...or slathered on pancakes.. Mmmmm..

Gonna try my hand at curry puffs tonight. J'adore les weekends!! ;D