You know youâre growing up when Saturday mornings no longer equate to hiding under the covers until that hellish headache subsides, and are now about early morning visits to the farmers markets. Yes life has changed. Donât get me wrong, I like to put away a few dozen glasses of wine on a Friday now and again and write off weekend, but nowadays thatâs somewhat of an anomaly rather than a norm. Yay for having more functional braincells! And a fridge full of kale, organic mushrooms and almond milk.
To celebrate the release of their iconic Market style, Oroton asked me to share an insight into my Saturday mornings (3 saturdays of the month atleast – that other sunday Iâm reaching for the asproclear đ ). And so I thought rather than dwell on whether my last fun and frivolous days are behind me (Iâm now much more aware of my health than I ever have been), I thought I would share with you a few of my tips for mastering the art of the farmers market visit. Scroll down to read more and download your free market shopping list printable. Cos we love ya!
5 Tips For Mastering The Farmer’s Market
Go Early (or go late)
Freshness vs price. These two factors will determine what time you hit the markets. Personally, Iâm rolling out of bed to get the best of the best so I try hit the markets early doors (or as in, as early as actually able), but if youâre needing to stick to a tight budget youâre best to be the last one there so you can scoop up the left over product. You can definitely make a pie out of those bruised apples!
Take Your Own Bag
Ok can we talk for a second about how awful plastic bags are? Google plastic oceans if youâre unsure. They should literally be banned. On that note, Denmark added a bag levy in 2004 and now people use on average FOUR bags per YEAR. So yeah someone needs to get on that asap. In the meantime, donât contribute to the problem by forgetting to take your tote – Orotonâs large sized market bag is perfect for fitting eggs, flowers, that hemp seed baguette (that tastes so bad it must be good for you).
Seek Out Local and Seasonal
Nowadays, many markets have stalls that are pretty much just extensions of your local grocer, meaning that the produce might come from all over the world. If you can, seek out the stalls that source their produce locally and sell in season. Depending on where you live it as be quite a tough ask, and it means tailoring what youâre making to whatâs on offer in your markets. But worth it!
Decide What Youâre Going To Be Making (kinda)
This sort of organisation denotes a level of grownup-ness that perhaps Iâm not quite at yet, but itâs really useful to have some general idea about what youâll be making. Wasting food sucks balls, as does that random casserole youâll be forced to make at the end of the week with produce you havenât used (I’m still scarred by the fact that every one of my childhood meals was an attempt to use what was in the fridge).
Make Friends With The Market Sellers
If youâre lucky enough to live somewhere like New Zealand or the Mid West where people are really nice to strangers, then you donât need to be told to make friends with people. Youâve already done that. If, instead, you live in a big city like Hong Kong, New York or somewhere that a mass of population means you canât possibly invest in this, youâll have to swallow your thirst efficiency and actually get chatty with your market stall owner. Take an interest, S-M-I-L-E. It wonât kill you and if Jamie Oliver has taught us anything itâs that market stall owners will keep the freshest eggs for you under the counter if youâre nice. Right?!
Iâm excited to also share with you two gorgeous free printable market shopping lists, created by Kristen of KPR Designs, a new team member who weâll be working with on lots of new and fun projects in the coming months.
Download them here. Happy Shopping!
Photos by Nicola Lemmon
This post is in collaboration with Oroton.
