The Last Sunday of the Month

On the last Sunday of the month the tiny hamlet of Puhoi holds its Farmers' Market. Now don't be misled by the 'tiny hamlet' description,  this upper class enclave has a museum, a one-room library, a pub, a hotel and a general store. It also has substantial monies. It is located a good 20 minutes closer to Auckland than my more middle class town of Warkworth and caters to a more upper class resident.

I figured it would be both fun and educational to attend their monthly farmers' market. So Dan and I loaded up the girls and off we went. No, we didn't forget Yael and Jesse. Yael is nursing a whopper of a cold and Jesse always hangs around his food source.

It was a drizzly kind of day and since it is still winter here, there were only a few market stalls open but the variety was there. We had a great olive oil stand with all kinds of olive oil and lime, or nuts or peppers, or whatever. We bought a bottle for Yael which she loved and took back with her to Auckland (probably so I couldn't sneak some).

There was a display of outdoor wood furniture with the carpenter there. He appeared to be doing a roaring business. Dan talked for a long time with a bee keeper who will bring you hives and supply the bees. In return you sign a contract and get part of his proceeds when he harvests the honey. Since bees are always welcome, particularly as we are increasing the plants here on the farm, I think we may sign up.

There were handcrafted quilts and stuffy toys, plants of all sizes, silver jewelry with upscale prices and a soap maker. I couldn't resist this one; I bought a cinnamon soap. It smells great. I'll let you know if it actually cleanses as it seasons me. Perhaps it'll put a little spice in my life. Sorry, I never could resist a pun!

Puhoi wisely places this market next to a playground and various kids of all sizes gravitated there. So did ours. I spent a lot of time pushing swings and watching all the activity. Lots and lots of people brought their dogs. But these were different breeds than those I see up in Warkworth. Here in Warkworth I see lots of working dogs - by which I mean herder dogs. In Puhoi I saw what I can only assume are pure bred animals of breathtaking beauty but bearing little resemblance to working dogs.

Before we left, we visited the library and two lovely ladies oohed and aahed over the girls. One lady showed us a refurbished rocker - child size - and asked Alessia and Naavah to be the first children to sit in it. They were quite honored and I think it was the high point of their visit. No, the high point was definitely their fresh-squeezed orange juice. Squeezed right in front of them. Can't beat that for value.

We had so much fun and learned so much from talking to the stall owners that I hope we can make it a regular part of our monthly schedule. When we got back, we all talked about ways to enlarge our farm operation and we voted unanimously to finally  take the plunge and get some chickens. I'll let you know how that works out in the next blog. Til then!