Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Tiny toms from Choko Bai Jo




It's so important for me to be able to buy good quality fruits and vegetables. But I also need to have a grocery trolley when I buy them! Is this too much to ask?

I gave up on produce from Woolies and Coles grocery stores a decade ago. Our local IGA has pretty good fruit & veg in a pinch. But ideally I've been going every Friday to Wiffens at the Fyshwick Markets. Superb quality, grocery trolleys and Italian gentlemen who carry boxes out to your car (my devotion was so great that Dear Husband began to get jealous of my fruiterer).

But then the idea of local food appealed more to me in this age of climate change. We live very near the Capital Region Farmers Market. I gave it a go. Really I did. I bought some beautiful things. But aside from the dreadful traffic -- aside from the ridiculous hour you need to arrive on a Saturday morning -- aside from the fact that I have to divide the family into fruit gatherers and vegetable gatherers -- aside from the weekend throngs -- I couldn't bear it because I wanted a GROCERY TROLLEY so I could see all my leeks and beans and apples and zucchini and lettuce laid out in a row so I could say, yeah, that's the right amount. INSTEAD I'm schmucking around with green anti-plastic bags (I hate that green) forgetting what I've bought and wanting to buy LESS because it's already heavy and giving me a backache and feeling like I'm dropping money because I have to get it out so often (beans here, greens there).

Finally: almost a solution. Choko Bai Jo is a farmers outlet which is open during the week from 2 pm to 7 pm and thus I can avoid the weekend shoppers and to pay once. They sell their own produce plus other local produce, often picked that day. Including, for example, the pictured yellow grape tomatoes which were garden-delicious for dinner tonight (served with green beans, pesto pasta, and little patties of mince, carrot and spring onion).

Fatal flaw: no ^#$$#$#$ grocery trolleys. What is with these people!!! I will buy more if you let me push it around with a grocery trolley!


4 comments:

Zoe said...

You could get one of those nice nana trolleys? I've also seen people at the markets with double decker push trolleys with wire baskets.

I tend to buy two bags worth at the markets these days, when I go (and one bag is fruit for ravenous children) and hit CBJ a couple of times a week.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, I've seen lots of people these days at farmers markets and things with those 'nana trolleys' as Zoe calls them - the fabric fold out ones that wheel behind like a wheely suitcase. It actually is becoming less daggy these days I reckon, now that many people are more 'enviro friendly'. I guess you can't see what you've got in them that easily, but beats lugging it around in bags.

As for myself, I only buy produce for me, so I don't have a lot to buy at once. I also tend to buy it in bits and pieces rather than all at once.

I do LOVE Fyshwick markets - I tend to get a bit carried away there and buy way more than I planned to. Oh, that deli with the amazing cheese...the gelato... the delicious bread from the organic shop...the grape kumatoes from Wiffens...the list of deliciousness is endless! :)

Anonymous said...

I am SO glad that someone else feels exactly the same way about all three of these places as I do :-)!!

dixiebelle said...

I have also finally gotten myself to Choku Bai Jo and loved it:
http://everydayecointheact.blogspot.com/2011/02/choku-bai-jo-lyneham-now-in-curtin.html

And here are my tips about shopping at Farmers Markets too:
http://everydayecointheact.blogspot.com/2010/06/to-market-to-market.html