La Cigale French style Farmers Market is the place to find fantastic seasonal fruit and vegetables, this produce always arrives bright and early every Saturday & Sunday mornings fresh from local growers. You can see the benefit of locally grown produce by its rich and glossy colours and the taste, which is unbelievable and incomparable with mass-produced produce.
And it’s true, just take a stroll and grab a fresh juice from Juju stand, try out the hummus (which are 2 for 5$ after 12) or the lovely sweet pastries.
The emphasis is on seasonal fruit and vegetables (organic or spray free whenever possible), artisinale bread, cheese, confectioneries, oils, spices and homemade preserves and confiseries. You can buy all the supplies you want for a delicious lunch or dinner – freshly made Paella, hot rotisserie chickens, smoked sausages, salmon and lots more!
The feeling when you’re around all of this sessional fresh produces is just amazing, yes I’m a foodie or as my new lovely kiwi/german friend is calling me – “health freak”. But I must say these flour and sugar home-baked sweets are hard to stay away.
And you’ll not believe who I’ve met – a Serbian stall-holder with his organic meat produces. Pedja of Salash, moved to New Zealand from the small town of Sombor in Serbia thirteen years ago. With him he brought the invaluable knowledge of five generations of the family business of meat curing. Serbia has a diverse culinary history with many cooking traditions and recipes lasting hundreds of years.
The region of Vojvodina where Sombor resides, perfected the art of meat drying over three centuries. Pedja and his family have carried these secrets over five generations, the methods and recipes never changing. Pedja soon realised a fault in the food industry of New Zealand. The whole food market of the country is plagued by processed foods, full of chemicals and preservatives. He did not want to feed his family poor quality foods so Pedja re-established the family business here in New Zealand. Following his lead, the rest of Pedja’s family emigrated from Serbia and joined him in continuing their legacy.
PS: The pictures were taken by my new 24-105mm lens, I can’t tell you how extremely excited I am 😉
