Welcome to the Monday Farmers Market.
It’s my favourite time of week, Monday Market Day! It’s where I load up on local fruit, vegetables, cheese, rice and local salami. I’ve been going to the same vendors for years; we joke, exchange recipes, and banter on about the usual, weather. It’s a wonderful experience and I enjoy speaking with the local people, they have taught me so much about their culture, land and traditions, all I have to do is buy their fruit. It’s an intellectual exchange of homemade goodness.
During the summer months this little corner of town is jam-packed with vendors and tourists. Everyone is jovial and the shouting between the various vendors (for the tourists attention) is hilariously loud, proud and truly small-town Sardinia.
“AJO! FICHI! Il primo fichi della stagione! AJO! Vieni qui!” The fig vendor hollered early this morning.
“Let’s go! FIGS! The first figs of the season! Come on! Come here!”
Now the above sentence just sends me into fits of silently, blushed giggles. I can’t help myself; it’s possible I have a one track mind, or a dirty mind. When I hear the Italian word for figs, I never think of the succulent, tear-drop of a fruit. Nope. Never. And for anyone learning Italian or living in Italy trying to learn Italian, you will know what I mean.
You can buy everything here: shoes, underwear, hand stitched curtains, table-cloths, batteries, toilet brush, jeans, t-shirts, socks, thread and needles, dish rags, towels, beach bags, combs, scissors, knives and … there’s a Dollar Store Euro Vendor! Love me a good dollar store!
Traditional textiles
Clothing. For me this is 5th Avenue
Gigantic zucchini, melon and potatoes
Have I mentioned the local cheese? No? Sorry about the delay but I was busy dancing in the clothing and staring in awe at the gigantic zucchini. The local cheese which is made from local cows or sheep milk and is the bomb best! I’m addicted to this cheese as much as I am addicted to the hilarious vendor.
The best place to buy cheese, in the world. Period.
The best pecorino cheese in the world. Full-stop.
Are you wondering what I bought today? I knew you were curious and that’s why I’ve snapped a photo of my daily groceries.
The dress was originally €13,00 but I talked him down to €11,50. I also bought a small cactus plant and Gerber daisy for my friends 39th birthday (which is not pictured here) total €8,00. Plus, one espresso in town €1,00.
Total spent at the Monday Market – €49,50.
My new dress and the look on my best friends face … priceless.
What did you buy today?
My Sardinian Life 
Please do share where in Sardinia this market is, or where similar markets are. I lived in Europe for two years a number of years back and love the experience of walking through them and trying to chat with the locals as you try and buy their wares. I am planning a family vacation in Sardinia and don’t want to do the typical tourist thing. We want to hire a villa near or in a town where we can live like Sardinians for a few weeks … we are even taking Italian classes now so that we have some chance of conversing at a basic level when we get there. I want to choose our location based on the availability of a great market and village feel so would love to know where this is.
Hello! And thank you for stopping by. Generally, each town will have a local market. Ours happens to be on a Monday, then the vendors move around from town to town during the week. You can’t miss the local markets, they are everywhere. Where ever you decide to stay, just ask at the hotel or bnb where the local market is and when. Do you know which area you’d like to stay in? Sardinia is pretty big. Maybe I can help you narrow it down.
Hi there,
Where in Sardinia is this market, please?
What a beautiful market! I love your photos! The last time I lived near a farmers’ market, I was too young and stupid to take advantage of it.
LOL. I was like that in my younger days too! Now I take advantage every Monday. Thanks for the comment and follow! 🙂
You are so welcome!
I actually stopped and showed these photos to my husband, and he just said, “…WOW…”
Because of the soil composition where we currently live, not much grows here. So, no farmer’s market.
Thanks for showing my photos to your hubby. Im glad you like them. I think every town needs a local farmers market. Have you tried growing anything on your rooftop?
We live in a one level house, but we do have a garden. We grew some of it in pots, some in the ground with good soil added, and had a raised bed. This season we grew several types of tomatoes, several types of peppers, watermelon (they didn’t take), ball zucchini, green beans, many kinds of herbs, and a pretty sizable greens bed. It was fantastic. We have a few more weeks before we can start the fall garden. We miss our greens dearly. The produce from the store is not even close to being as good as fresh picked.
What a great market…love the dress Jennifer…put up a photo when you wear it please. Now I am off for my morning coffee and all I can think about is ALL that cheese. Bad Canadian…bad, bad Canadian…hehehehe
Your images and the comments attached to them are very enjoyable. Out here where I live there are a few poor excuses for farmer’s markets… but nothing worth writing about.
Ciao Galen,
Thanks for the comment!
That does look like a market I would enjoy, and I don’t really like shopping. I love fresh fruit and veg though.
This is a super market!
We have some but never on a Monday and Monday seems ideal.
It’s only like this in the summer months. During the winter we are lucky if there are three vendors! It’s a nice time and I look forward to Monday each and every week! Thanks for stopping by, wishing you a wonderful week.
That is really a lovely monday market. And all that fruit for 9 euro. Wow.
I know! I found a cheaper vendor than the one I usually go to. It’s all local produce which is better. However in the winter this vendor is not there and I have to go back to the regularly scheduled program! 😉
What a great market. It puts ours to shame. Everything looks so fresh and so plentiful. Love the dress, I’m sure you will look beautiful in it. I’m sure I would spend a fortune there.
Your market pictures remind me of a trip with my cugini to their market in Caserta. Everything under the sun! I once asked for fish gelato instead of peach. Pesce/pesca. Haha-your fig story reminds me of a conversation I had with Toni while discussing figs! Those missed translations make the best stories!!
I still get peach and fish wrong in Italian. I think it’s something that will probably stay with me forever! Thanks for the comment!
…your quote over the fig vendor reminds me of the perils one may encounter when learning a new language. When I was younger than today I remember politely enquiring to my local butcher, who was preparing fresh sausages at the time, if he used preservatives in the ingredients. To my later dismay I found out that the innocent query translates real bad in Italian, especially if you, like me, improvise and say “preservativi” instead of “conservanti” – I was lucky to get away without a hatchet planted in my skull 🙂 (preservativi = condoms) Regarding the fichi issue, for those who don’t speak Italian, I would be able to furnish you with a good example in english which involves a fish monger, a house wife and her domestic cat…but on second thoughts maybe it’d better to keep up the decency level of this first class blog.!!
Oh, that sounds intriguing! You can tell me about it on my FB page. I’m curious.
Gosh, I love open markets of all kinds–my favorite, the weekend market in Bangkok. Sounds like you got a good deal on the dress.
Sorry to have been away all last week. I traded the blogsphere for actual, in-the-flesh bloggers.
Hugs,
Kathy
In the flesh bloggers?!?! How fascinating and fun! Glad to have you back. I’ve never been to Bangkok but I’ve heard the markets are amazing.
I love going to the local markets on Wednesday and Saturday morning in Bagni di Lucca for all the same reasons you love yours. I’ll be back in a few weeks!
Lucky you, I buy most of my stuff from a big impersonal supermarket ever since we moved to the city 😦 Love the dress!
Thank you Madhu! I can’t wait to wear the dress! Love the colour. When we run out of things I do buy fruit and veg in the supermarket, it’s just more expensive there.