To market, to market
David wanted some apples and it was a pretty miserable day so he suggested a trip to the market. We hadn’t been for a couple of weeks so the fridge needed refreshing. Besides it’s always fun. And, it turned out, he had a secret agenda - Seville oranges. I meant to take some pictures of my own but I forgot my camera and didn’t want to turn my phone on or ask David for his - so pictures from the internet - but it’s clearly our potato man in this one - in his old spot next to the Malaysian? lady whom you can also just see.
WHY MY FRIDGE IS ALWAYS FULL
“the heart and soul of melbourne” The official Queen Vic website
I, or I should say we, always buy too much when we go to the market. There is such a wondrous array of food of all kinds and it’s all so cheap - well in comparison to the supermarkets anyway. I didn’t buy any fish today - I had to resist because I knew we had some in the freezer that needed to be used up first. And we didn’t buy much cheese either because David had bought up big for the wine night a couple of weeks ago. But I was low on meat - so a leg of lamb for $14.00 - okay so it’s small - but doesn’t that mean it’s actually lamb and not mutton and therefore more tender? And sausages, because I couldn’t remember whether we had any and anyway you can never have too many sausages, mincemeat because i’m getting low and some pork loin at a ridiculously low price. Our dinner tonight. Tomatoes were not good though - but it is winter after all and really there shouldn’t be any at all. All the seasonal produce was a bargain though.
Potatoes, onions, peppers, leeks, lettuce and spinach and heaps of apples, pears, mandarins, clementines and oranges - this is the season of citrus after all - and David’s prize - a massive box of Seville oranges for $50 - around $2.00 a kilo. So guess what I shall be doing for the next week or so and what a future article will be about. At least some of the fruit was delivered to Dionne afterwards.
I actually do not understand why it has taken me until my retirement to shop there regularly. Well yes I do - it was just too much of a hassle I suppose - and when I was working at Deakin I could shop at Box Hill on the way home - a much smaller version - but certainly good. (Today it is very Chinese, but that’s good too). I could have gone to the Queen Vic though on my days off - or when I was working at the State Film Centre. It would only have been truly difficult when I was working at CAVAL. When we first came to Australia David and I would go to Prahran market on Saturday mornings where we would also buy up big on the meat and veg - such an overwhelming abundance of produce that simply was not available in England. We’d buy a tray of meat or a side of lamb and then frantically work out how to eat it all. Prahran is now somewhat upmarket and anyway nowhere near where we live. But late in life we discovered the Queen Vic and now go there regularly. It was here that I discovered that fish is seasonal too - even if you can always get flake and salmon - all the other fish change with the seasons.
But it’s all under threat. A massive redevelopment is planned that will destroy some of the buildings, and it’s supposed to open seven days a week. The stallholders are not happy - are even alarmed, and you can already see the signs of a decline in business - some stalls have disappeared and they are always complaining. Apaprently they are joining a union. It’s depressing that such a wonderful resource could disappear. But it seems that the Victorian Minister for Planning may step in and save the day - that’s what today’s paper says anyway. Let’s hope so. In the meantime we’ll continue to do our thing and go there once a fortnight.
We’re doing our tiny bit to help. We take all our visitors there and I see that Carole and Chris’s day tour of the city includes it. Indeed it seems to be first on the agenda.
And I haven’t even mentioned the biggest part - all the clothes and other stuff - lots of it tat - but lots of it not.
