In Melbourne, a city full of food and obsessed by coffee, I cook, I eat, I share the good news and the bad. essjay eats

Markets: North Melbourne Farmers’ Market

North Melbourne Primary School now hosts a “Farmers Market” on the first Sunday of the month. I missed out on the last Abbotsford Convent market, so was kinda hankering for a market morning – and the boy lives walking distance to this one, so I was quite looking forward to it.

I do hope this market picks up a bit, it wasn’t really what I would consider “up to speed” yet. I really didn’t like being accosted by GetUp! on my way there… go inside and have a stall and I’ll come see you if I want to folks.


The grounds of the school are quite well set up for the market, and to sit and have a coffee and a bit of breakfast, but the coffee was pretty ordinary, made with Coles UHT milk which was a HUGE step down from Schulz’s Organic Fresh Milk as we get at Abbotsford and Collingwood, and the beans were quite a mild roast.

The collection of stalls was a bit eccentric, but as it was the first market I can only hope it picks up. They were also quite sparse.

There was:
Ross Creek Garlic (who sold Garlic)
Honey
Lamadre Bakery
Olive Branch Preserves
Pud for All Seasons
A loose leaf tea seller
Little Creek Cattle Company/Killara Rise Lamb (from NSW!)
A Gozleme and turkish bread seller
Lockton Farm Gourmet Sausages (Chicken, Cheese and Asparagus sausages? Gourmet Pizza Sausages? Madras Curry and Cheese Sausages? I could go on but…urgh)
Marie’s Natural Herbs ‘n’ Stuff
Meredith Cheese
Flower seller
A Chicken shop
Someone selling stonefruit I think
A Market Gardener
Picanha Premium Beef
and perhaps a couple more?

 

There weren’t a lot of names on the stalls, and I missed the little bios that a lot of the Farmers put up at other more established markets. I used inverted commas in the first paragraph as there didn’t seem to be a lot of farmers – more of the value added stuff which isn’t what I look for at these markets.

But there was some good and some truly weird…

Now the dumpling stall took my fancy – I like dumplings! But I was disappointed to see only dim sims, hear the stall holder say ” well you can steam them, but they are much better deep fried” and then read the name of the stall..Wun Hung Lo? They’re kidding right? Seriously not impressed with the attempt at humour I’m afraid.


Then there was the scarf lady…seeing as it was more than 30 degrees yesterday that seemed really incongruous. Good thing it drizzled this morning I guess.


Then there was these guys – Michael and Jo, Red Bean coffee beans.


They were the suppliers of the beans in the aforementioned bland coffee, they asked me how it was, and I told them it was pretty bland, I blamed the milk – they blamed the roast the coffee makers had chosen (which they called a “girlie” roast). They sold me some Brazilian rainforest alliance beans. These two are ex-construction industry who have taken up roasting their own beans to make the kind of coffee they like to drink. I liked them, they were chatty (always a good sign at a market) and passionate about what they were doing. (You need a sign for that marque though lads!)

So…not a great start I’m afraid for this market, but hopefully things will improve with a better mix of stalls. Or maybe they will pitch themselves at the “Sunday Shopper”, buying those little indulgences. I certainly couldn’t do my weekly shop here – or even buy ingredients for a whole meal. But I’ll be back to see how they are progressing.

North Melbourne Farmers’ Market
1st Sunday every month (except January – second Sunday)
North Melbourne Primary School
210 Errol Street
North Melbourne
Inseason Markets


 

10 thoughts on “Markets: North Melbourne Farmers’ Market

  • Yes, we will be there! Look forward to meeting you, another enthusiastic foodie!

    Comment from: Elizabeth

  • Thanks Elizabeth and welcome. I didn’t know you made rillettes? Next market I’ll pop by and introduce myself and you can tell me more about them!

    Comment from: essjayeats

  • Rillettes and hams (Christmas time) available from the Collingwood Childrens Farm Farmers Market from King Valley Free Range pork! Rare heritage breed pork from happy, healthy pigs, 2nd Sat of the month.

    Comment from: Elizabeth

  • Hi Julie, If you mean the Rillettes, these came with an order of cheese from Bruny Island Cheese. The company who makes them is called Rare Food and they are based in Tasmania.

    I’m not sure where you are located but you could try these guys who sell over the web.

    You might also like to look at Feast Fine Foods

    Simon Johnson will probably also have hams available for ordering – Marchetti’s

    Anyone else like to chip in?

    Essjay

    Comment from: essjayeats

  • Could you tell me who you bought your Berkshire Pork from. I need a supplier for christmas.

    Comment from: julie

  • Hi Penny, yes it’s close to us as well so we’ll check it out again – missed the organic beer, might have tried some of that. Thanks for the word about the dogs – they should have advertised that. We sometimes borrow a neighbours dog to take to Collingwood as it seems to be de riguer – and he has a lovely time.

    Comment from: essjayeats

  • It was a rush for me. The whole market looks quite sad. Few stalls, few people but I guess blame it on Cup weekend and not so good weather. Mister bought some organic beer and apparently good! I missed out on the cheese and the dim sims. It is so close to me so I will try again next month. Hopefully, there will be an improvement.
    Just to note, no dogs allowed! I had to tie my dog at the gate.

    Comment from: penny aka jeroxie

  • Oh, word on the Get Up! people. Given that they were standing so close to the entrance, I thought they were collecting information for the market. Dudes – I get your emails; get out of my face!

    Sticki, I will definitely try the dim sims next time! I agree with you on the borek people – once I read their display screen, I wondered why frozen, microwaveable food was represented and didn’t go closer to find out. Do wish I’d picked up some boerewors, though, for tomorrow’s cup barbecue…

    I do think this market will find it hard being so close to the Vic. We went with the intention of stocking up on veg and needed to make a dash to the Vic to supplement it. Given that we can also get chutney and scarves there, unless the fresh produce improves we won’t bother going regularly.

    It’s close, so we will go for the next couple just to see how it develops…

    Comment from: Injera

  • Hi Sticki, I didn’t recognise anyone from Gasworks…I’ve never ventured to Veg Out. The muesli bars were not to my taste either. Currently I’ve got three jars of Meredith Fetta in the fridge …so I didn’t dare go near them! Thanks for filling in some of the gaps.

    Comment from: essjayeats

  • A number of the stall holders there also attend Veg Out farmers market in St.Kilda & Gasworks in Albert Park, including the Walkabout Apiaries honey from Millawa; Jindivick tomato/herbs/eggplant; Knead Bakers; Family Homestead free range eggs, and the Gozleme making family who usually also sell their Mum’s exquisite Turkish dips and dolmades.

    Then there was Pindarri Chicken who also had Peking duck & Silky black chicken and Little Creek Cattle Co. selling lamb/hogget/beef. I hadn’t seen the Brazilian beef before, nor the dimmies stall. The low GI muesli bars were interesting, but I wasn’t a fan of the taste. Most striking was that there were far too many chutney stalls.

    This market felt like more of a social gathering of the primary schools parents. Not many people had come equipped with shopping bags and many were just hoping to do a sampling as though they were at a food fest. The family selling Turkish delight, falafel and boreks were just showcasing their stuff before it goes into Woolworths next year – hardly appropriate to a farmers market.

    Still, we managed to fill our shopping jeep with goodies, but would have loved to see more dairy there. Best buy was the 2kg bucket of Meridith marinated goats feta. Containing the equivalent of eight $10 jars it cost us $50…and because we eat so much of it, couldn’t resist.

    This will be an occasional market for us, we’ll stick to our two regular Saturday markets.

    Comment from: stickifingers

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

 

Leave a comment

Please do not paste links to websites or your comment will be deleted.