A Day in the Market

     On saturday Becca and I woke up before the sun was out, bundled up, and slid in next to Anne in the front seat of the car she affectionately calls the Great White Goforever or Great White Gopher for short. With the back of the squeaky old van filled with bottles and various other things for the marquee we were off down the dirt driveway. But not before we wiped the outside and inside of the front window with a squidgee to get rid of the dew that had settled there.      

On our quiet drive into town we saw a small animal crossing the road which of course stopped and stared the headlights readying itself for a certain death. Luckily Anne knows how to manouver the Great White Gopher. We jerk around the creature while she's muttering "Bloody wallabies." We come to find out that rabbits and wallabies are treated similarly at home and here, they are pests who can ruin a good garden, but at least they are cute while doing it.      

We arrive at the market and Anne offers to buy us lattes, we of course agree, it's still dark out afterall. She talks to the coffee vender as a friend tells him our order and offers to pay him in cash, cheese, or jam, he chooses cheese. We quickly off load everything in the back of the van while trying to gulp down our coffees. A balancing act which left one latte spilled and the other to get cold. We get to the end of the van and two men have to help with moving the refridgerator out because it's too large for one bloke or even two, to move. We put up a canopy, displays, heat lamp, dry sink, and a few tables. Anne's business shares a marquiee with two other vendors, Lizzy who sells cheese boards, and Johnny who sells cheese. Anne's stand is meant to compliment the cheese with homemade jams, chutnies, and various other spreads her logo is a pair of parted lips next to the name of her company "Tassie Tastebuds."      

Once set up Becca and I get to roam around the market. We learn that it is the largest market in the southern hemisphere. It has two rows of stalls that go up and down one street of Hobart. You can purchase pretty much anything you could think of there, but the real draw is the food, and the people. We met a local celebrity who has a cooking show, several shopkeepers, and many patrons who were content to sit and talk to two Americans on holiday. For Salamanca Market being so large it doesn't have the disjointed feeling you get while being somewhere like NYC. All of the shopkeepers seem to know each other and it was not too uncommon for them to be related to someone else who was there that day.      

We pack up at the end of a day in a rush to beat traffic and head home for dinner. It has been two days since then and we now realize that Saturdays are going to be our favorite days of the week. Every other day we wake up around 8:00 and dig new terraced beds, prune, work with sod, or any other miserable job you can think of. The wine glasses that never seem to empty, the snapping fire, and warm food when the sun goes down is what makes the day's trials worth it.      

At the end of each blog entry I am going to leave a cooking tip from Anne.  Anne's cooking tip #1: Re-Present your food. You should know what you are eating because every natural flavor should pop in your dish. There is no flavor worth eating that is not supplied by tilled earth.