When I think of markets I think of the open-air sort that spring up in every Asian and European town. Wander through any unfamiliar mid-sized town of, say, 5000 people or more and anyone can tell you exactly where the markets will be and when. Twice a week, every night after 6pm, Saturday mornings, early evenings during summer – the locals will know not only when but where.
Ask your local Australian resident where their fresh food markets are and the answer may not be so well known. It’s a weakness that big business has exploited only too well. Take my local shopping centre for example. Billed as one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, it places large supermarkets at either end – a good 500 metres apart - with a cluster of smaller food retailers around them. At each end there is a self-described fruit and vegetable ‘market’. One is a local branch of a large retailing chain. The other is a new addition, boasting of locally produced, seasonal fruit and vegetables; perhaps this would explain why there are currently nashi pears (from China), and pomegranates (from the US) in stock.
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Oh, how we love the concept of food markets. We want fresh, we want organic, we want locally produced and artisanal food and in response suppliers, farmers and providores have stepped up to give it to us gullible consumers.
We have to get real about the food we buy and the way we buy it. Real fruit and vegetables with blemished skin, or with their dirty roots still attached should be as highly valued as it is elsewhere round the world. Seasonal produce that makes the most of annual fluctuations and growing seasons should also be encouraged. If we are to get real we have to learn to work with a lack of availability in the off-season as well as a glut at harvest time. I want to eat locally-grown asparagus in September dammit, not the stuff flown in from Peru at other times of the year.
Now, could we have a coordinated approach to locating markets please?
We were once confined to large centrally located markets in major cities, with their secret code of hidden rules and protocols, of murderous forklift drivers and of ordering in wholesale amounts only. These days there’s a mixed spread of local markets in town centres, school playgrounds, church halls, and waterfronts around the city and suburbs. It’s crowded, the parking is usually terrible and it’s usually placed well away from public transport hubs or other retailers.
Then there is the pressure placed on markets by council regulations and local authorities. There are traffic management plans, occupational health and safety legislation, dreaded insurance requirements and rental costs – and that’s before a single box of produce in the van has been unpacked.
At regional level, it’s even more haphazard and sporadic – there are country drives and food trails, month-long food festivals or first of the month markets that fold up by 11 o’clock just when you think of heading out to them. My local market meets the first Sunday of the month – 15 kilometres from me, next to the juvenile detention centre. I’ve been there once in four years. The location creeps me out.
If we are serious about the trend towards fresh food markets then, please, let’s provide a decent central location for our providores. That same huge shopping centre has, slap-bang in its centre, a large outdoor space populated by shady trees, an outsized chess set and bench seating. It’s used for evening film festivals, police-sponsored youth nights and fund-raisers alike. It’s the perfect place for a weekly market in a regional area of NSW that has a huge variety of local food producers, ranging from locally caught seafood to sourdough bread to organic pork and game birds to citrus growers. With a little forethought and sensitivity, local providers would find a ready group of residents willing to support them in a setting that caters amply for both groups.
It won’t happen of course, big business won’t allow it. And that’s to our great shame. We owe it to support our markets, the genuine article, as much as we can.
The way things are going, the next fresh market I visit will be in Thailand during a well-earned holiday later in the year. Perhaps then I’ll find pomegranates in season.