Wednesday Market

Getting into a pretty awesome routine nowadays. Every Wednesday morning in the town center of Vernon, 6 km away from my house, is a big old open air market. They have everything from fresh fruit and veggies, folks from turkish background selling rugs, stalls that are 50 feet long of just cheeses and even various butchers. I am telling ya folks, this is pretty darn cool. The first image is of a pretty darn big operation. This stall has got everything from Oranges from Spain to vegetables that I have never heard of and I lost track of how many types of mushrooms. The second image is of a charcuterie, which specializes in the meats of ham and pork. For beef, and other meats there is a boucherie, or butcher shop to purchase other meats. The last image is of the market in the background. Wednesday mornings' market is smaller than Saturday mornings' market but still takes up a big area.

Personally, the most rewarding thing for me about shopping at the market has been the relationships that I have built in all of 10 weeks. I go to the same stall week after week to buy my bananas and another stall next door for carrots. I buy my apples from a local farmer and he knows what variety I really enjoy and how much I normally need for the week. He will ask me when I plan on eating them and adjust accordingly as some might be more crisp in a few days and he actually sorts them out to make sure that I get what I want. To be honest, these apples are hands down some of the best I have ever eaten too. And its pretty darn neat to not buy meat wrapped in plastic in a freezer, but to specify what I want and watch my cut of meat actually get cut off the animal. The best part is that, while I still frequent a supermarket for cereal, oatmeal and things of that nature, it is actually cheaper to buy produce direct from the source. A better product for a cheaper price, cannot beat that. And even more, I really enjoy going to the market because I get the opportunity to see the love and hard work that people put into their products.