This week, our Australian Tour to Transform Children’s Health, One Lunchbox At A Time, has us back in Wagga Wagga running The Mad Food Science Program™. One of the things I love is discovering a town’s local farmers or foragers markets.
Today I had great joy strolling around the Eat Local Thursday Wagga Wagga market with my beautiful big sister. OMG the produce was amazing. And the thing I notice the most is just how different looking this produce looks to what you see at the supermarkets. There’s no artificial shiny coating on any produce and its lush and green when it should be. There is nothing uniform about a tub of apples, potatoes, pumpkins or more – the produce comes in all different shapes and sizes – the way it should be.
At today’s markets there was a rainbow of fruit and vegetables at several stores, fresh breads, delicious cheeses and jams, divine olive oil, the most scrumptious looking honey, grass fed meats and more. The stall holders are friendly and just love to tell you about their produce. Best of all, they give you lots of free taste tests.
The other thing many people do not realise about local produce markets is that the produce is most times cheaper or at least the same price as you pay in the supermarkets. Yet it really does taste significantly better – it’s fresh, hasn’t been sitting in a warehouse or on a supermarket shelf and hasn’t been artificially shined with waxy ‘stuff’ which you ingest when you eat it.
Here’s some of the pics I took at Wagga Wagga’s Eat Local Thursday markets – held every Thursday at Murrumbidgee Turf Club, Travers Street, Wagga Wagga.
Seriously until you start shopping for your real food from farmers or foragers markets, you really do not realise just how ‘manufactured’ the fruit and vegetables you see have become at a supermarket. When I say manufactured, I mean it’s made to look perfect – shiny and all the same size and shape. This is not the way fruits and vegetables grow in nature – it’s a mixed bag, and that’s what you get a farmers or foragers market. Plus you get to meet the people who put their love into growing their produce.
So if you’re a local to Wagga Wagga or just visiting town, make a visit to Eat Local Thursday’s market a must do! Take the kids too and teach them about real food and where it comes from too. Loads of fun. xo