FARMERS’ MARKET

It was time to farewell the chalky apples, long queues, toddler tantrums and wayward trolleys laden with teethrotting soft drink running over my toes. In 2012, I gave up supermarkets. But mostly the decision was based on the decline of Australian produce on the supermarket shelves in favour of cheap imported brands of dubious taste and quality.

Fortunately, I haven’t starved because Canberra is home to one of the best farmers’ markets in the country.

It’s a magical way to start one’s weekend, listening to a local choir or buskers perform as you shop.

Every Saturday morning about 5000 people visit the market at Canberra’s Exhibition Park.

The market started in 2004 and has grown to have more than 100-plus stallholders from nearby farms at Batlow, Cowra, Orange, Young-Temora, Southern Tablelands, GoulburnCrookwell, South Coast and Monaro.

One can pretty much tick off an entire grocery shopping list for the week, with excellent value for money.

I find you can’t go past the cheeses – pure poetry by cows.

I love swapping cooking tips and developing personal relationships with the people who feed me.

You learn your food is grown with love.

I’m on a first name basis with my mushroom, cherry and macadamia nut suppliers.

Aside from the feel-good factor of supporting local food producers, who are under threat from the price wars of the supermarket duopoly, shopping at the farmers’ market makes you conscious about your food miles.

It saddens me that few people know or care that a lot of their supermarket foods come from the other side of the world, often at a human and environmental cost.

Take the humble can of tomatoes. In a quest to save a few cents people snap up the no name brand can that has made the 18,000km journey from Italy – oblivious to the environmental impact, or the fact that the Italian tomato industry relies on the sweat shop-esque exploitation of cheap African migrant labour. Lisa Martin