Community markets off the beaten track

It's sum­mer, the count­down to Christmas has already begun, and it won't be long before every­one is bit­ten, or smit­ten, by the mar­ket bug that sees us careen­ing off on Saturday morn­ings, bas­kets in tow, to revel in count­less deli­cious food mar­kets, craft mar­kets and the like that make Cape Town such a great place to be.

Local mar­kets turn shop­ping into an exper­i­ence. Instead of a mall, fluor­es­cent light­ing and count­less numb­ing shelves filled with innu­mer­able products, the ori­gin of which many of us will never know, we get a per­sonal, face-to-face con­nec­tion with local people who grow and make the products on display.

Cape Town in par­tic­u­lar is brim­ming over with mar­kets. One's choice on a Saturday morn­ing is over­whelm­ing, it's so boun­ti­ful, and food mar­kets abound:

The Neighbourgoods mar­ket in Woodstock, the Porter Estate Produce Market, and the Earthfair Market in Tokai, the Triangle Market in Fish Hoek, and its coun­ter­part at De Waterkant, the Rondebosch Village Market, the Stellenbosch Fresh Goods mar­ket and its other Slow Food coun­ter­part at Willowbridge, the Timour Hall Road Organic mar­ket in Plumstead, the Franschhoek Farmers' mar­ket, the Stellenbosch Organic Farmers' mar­ket, and now Eden Market in Bloubergstrand, and Natural Goods Market at Century City.

But this past week­end, I took my fam­ily off to visit two off-the-beaten track com­munity mar­kets. Markets that might not be on the pop­u­lar 'got-to-visit' route, but deserve a men­tion nonetheless.

Our first port of call was two mar­kets at the Oude Molen Eco Village — a Talent Exchange mar­ket and along­side them, a Craft in the Park mar­ket. The Talent Exchange Market Day is exactly what it sounds — you buy goods for tal­ents. Talents are a form of cur­rency cre­ated by users of the Community Exchange System (CES), a way of break­ing free of the money trap – find out more on www.ces.org.za.

We arrived fairly early, as our day was more than a little full, and already traders were set­ting up stalls. In par­tic­u­lar the book stall right at the edge of the mar­ket, which hap­pily and sed­ately settled in amongst the beau­ti­ful trees at Oude Molen, was a find. Whilst Henry trades in fine books, old and new, dur­ing the week from his new inde­pend­ent book store called Folio just next door to Jaqui Daya, the Good Food Store in Newlands (a way of com­bin­ing book comb­ing and good cof­fee for those after a rainy day haunt!) he also accepts Virtual Rand — another way of trad­ing sim­ilar to Talents (if you're inter­ested, read more about it here http://www.community-exchange.org/exchanges/ctte/condocs.htm).

The Talent Exchange mar­ket doesn't only trade in tal­ents, although those who do put up signs say­ing 'tal­ents accep­ted here'. What I love about this mar­ket, and its emphasis on recycled and home-made goods, is some of the ori­ginal ideas. Someone had cre­ated a 'cof­fee space' simply with a pretty Indian spread on the grass, a sign that said 'cof­fee nook, tal­ents accep­ted' and an array of books in which to indulge whilst sipping.

Others were selling plants and herbs, organic veget­ables, hand­made clothes and any num­ber of boot­sale items, which proffered excit­ing rum­ma­ging moments. CES mar­kets always make for some fine 'people watch­ing' oppor­tun­it­ies, so the cof­fee rug would have come in handy!

Next door, the Craft mar­ket didn't show too much ori­gin­al­ity, although there were some stalls worth a linger­ing moment for stock­ing fillers. The loc­a­tion though is lovely, with won­der­ful views of the moun­tain, sur­roun­ded by the goings on of the eco vil­lage — it's a fine way in which to spend a Saturday morning.

Next stop was the Menngos Slow Food Community Market, which, Petrina's email to us had assured, was aimed at sup­ply­ing tra­di­tional foods and healthy pro­duce sold at afford­able prices, as a way to build the local com­munity in the south­ern sub­urbs of Cape Town. It took place in the main hall of the Lansdowne Methodist Church

The stalls were a mix of organic pro­duce, grown in the Menngos mar­ket garden, tra­di­tional foods and hand­made art and craft, and the place was hum­ming with sup­port­ers, whilst the chil­dren prac­tised their social skills on the jump­ing castle just out­side the hall.

There were organic plants, veget­ables, olives, onion marmalade, straw­ber­ries, halaal rotis and curry, boere­wors rolls, veget­arian meals, snacks, sweets, organic jams, lemon atchar, homemade breads, kon­fyt, and a stall selling green clay beauty products.

There is a move­ment of people in the south­ern Cape Flats who are pro­du­cing high qual­ity pro­duce and products at very afford­able prices, and the emphasis on Cape Malay foods and veget­arian fare was evid­ent. It's a great way to stock up for those even­ing cur­ries with friends, or Christmas gifts. For more about the mar­kets see http://menngos.org.za/

We came away laden with good­ies, and gifts, and thor­oughly impressed with mar­kets that are serving the com­munity directly.

For a selec­tion of mar­kets in Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape please visit Markets on urbans­prout brought to you by http://www.urbansprout.co.za.

Useful Links:
Cape Town Farm Stalls & Markets
Cape Town Arts & Crafts
Things to Do in Cape Town
Cape Town accommodation

Photographs: Taken at Oude Molen Eco Village and Menngos Slow Food Community Market: