Edinburgh Farmer’s Market
Last weekend I had the joy of meeting two girls from Italy and Spain. Both of them said the thing they missed the most since coming to Edinburgh are outdoor markets. At home in their sunny countries, grocery shopping is not just something on their to-do list, it is a full sensory experience. They told me of the smells of freshly baked bread, spices and local dishes, and the feeling of running their fingers through coffee beans and across silky fabric.
The realisation
With their words still ringing in my ears I did my own grocery shopping at Sainsburys that evening. For the first time, I realised that the supermarket had no smells. Instead of a blue sky there was a pasty fluorescent ceiling. The calls of Mediterranean women selling fruit that had been hovering in my imagination all day had been replaced by the dull humming of appliances.
Everything was packaged, wrapped in plastic and stacked in boxes. Where were the baskets? Where was the dirt hanging from the roots of the spring onions – a testament to their freshness? Where were the dogs sniffing the backs of my legs as I selected peaches from a smiley old man’s stall and where were the children running around with ice cream dripping down their arms? Who had grown all of this food – there was no farmer in sight. So much, if not all, of its life and personality had been sucked away by production lines and freight transport.
To the market
Since my last trip to the sterile supermarket I managed to track down the Edinburgh Farmer’s Market. You can imagine my delight at the rows of homemade soap, handpicked flowers, baskets and baskets full of tomatoes and Scottish tablet being sold by a lovely lady who let me taste some for free! There were no metal trolleys with wonky wheels. There was no beeping at the check out line or employees running around in dreadful uniforms.
Instead, there was a little boy poking at punnets of raspberries and pointing to airplanes flying in the sky above. There was a lady selling fresh baguettes, whose hair was bright pink and she could not have been more cheerful! There was a giant pig roasting on a spit (not my favourite sight considering I’m a vegan but I’ll give it points for adding to the atmosphere)! Birds were waddling around, sniffing for crumbs and nearly everyone was wearing rain-boots! There was even a stall that was selling vegan, gluten-free ‘ice cream’ made from nothing but blended fruit. It was delicious and had practically zero calories!
The Edinburgh Farmers Market is waiting for you, and everyone else who is sick of supermarkets, every Saturday morning from 9am-2pm. It’s located on Castle Terrace. If the medieval castle hovering above doesn’t help you find the market, just look out for me because I’ll definitely be there with my wicker basket!
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