Market Day

Despite my pessimism about the weather and a chilly start – it was a gorgeous sun drenched day, with minimum wind! Sometimes Mother Nature gets it exactly right!

I found my spot and parked the car and of course grabbed the camera and dashed down to the beach! All that kelp!!! (yes yes – the sunrise was quite lovely, but I was making plans for a return to stock up on kelp for the garden!)

By then I was sufficiently awake enough to start unpacking the car and setting up.  I would like to take a moment to let you know that Jeff piked out on me and stayed home!! The advantage to this is he is not wandering the market unsupervised spending the money I am trying to make. The downside  was at the end having to cross my legs a bit! 🙂 (The public loos (toilets) are waaaay down the other end of the market)

One of the regular stall holders that I have gotten to know came and helped get my gazebo up – I can do it myself, but its quicker with more hands of course! One of the nice things about this area – friendly helpful people – although I must admit the man in question did tease me about actually turning up today!! He thinks I am a fair weather person!! I would totally agree!!! If you had experienced having a market stall on the foreshore when the wind was howling, the rain was coming in sideways and unexpected hail in summer – then you would think it was perfectly reasonable to pull the covers over my head and stay firmly at home!

Today was one of the more perfect days!

There were lots of people out and about today, but not so many reaching into their pockets to spend.

I was really pleased though, to offload almost all the boxes of vegetables that I brought with me. The jams & sauces keep, so no drama and less cooking over the next couple of weeks!

I also put a nice big jar filled with parsley on the table and offered it free to people who stopped to chat or buy. I have so much parsley I am happy for it to be used, and a small free thing cheers people up I reckon!

I love meeting new people & chatting to the regular stall holders that I have gotten to know. I have made new friends with a couple and their young daughter who moved to Tasmania in their old bus less than three weeks ago and I have already run into them about 5 or 6 times. I am wondering if I should try to convince them I am not actually stalking them! 😀

People watching is fun, and customers are varied but mostly friendly and chatty. One lady made me chuckle a little today as she wanted some of my cherry tomatoes… I was offering that people could fill a bag for $2 (and telling them not to be shy about stuffing it as full as it would go)  Anyway, she only wanted a few unripe ones, so she filled the bag about a quarter full or so and asked how much… 50 cents I say confidently. Her face fell and she spent the longest time trying to decide what to do!! I thought it was a pretty good price (hey we are talking organic here too!) Maybe I should have just said to take them gratis!! Sometimes I think of the best thing to do too late!

By 2pm, everything had died down, so I packed up as fast as I could (remember – crossing my legs now) and drove literally across to road to see my Great Aunt Ruby, as its tradition for me to drop in after the market and have a cuppa!

I caught her cat napping in the sun (perfectly reasonable for someone who is nearly 100 years old!) So I dashed past with a breathless “Hi Ruby  – Its Lisa – I need your little girls room right now!!”

Once that was sorted I could give her a big hug and catch up. The darling had cooked me lunch!!!

Everything from her garden fresh!! Oh did that go down well!!!  Of course we finished up with coffee and sponge cake before I took my leave to get home and unpack the car. (A job almost as bad as folding washing, but not one I can avoid – pretty sure Jeff would say something about having to drive to work with boxes of sauces and market tables in the car with him…)

It was nice to sit down with Jeff and count up all my loot – $130 today which turned out a lot better than I had supposed so was totally worth getting out of bed early and spending a day not in the kitchen!

A quick wander about the garden is necessary – just to see what is happening. Jeff had done a lot of work weeding and trimming trees etc. Then I saw someone – who shouldn’t have been – in my vegetable garden!!! Bad Chook!

After throwing the chicken back over the garden fence I ate a bean –

and picked the last small corn cob to discover it had about 20 fat kernels  – so I ate those too! So sweet – they just explode in your mouth!

I hope your weekend has been a lot of fun

Cheers