Have you been to the SHA market?

Have you visited our market in Bungendore? Being a vegetable grower myself I don’t often get to the markets as a shopper, but on New Year’s Day I hitched a ride with my mum who’s a regular, and it reminded me just how great our SHA market is. It’s true that it is nothing like some of the big ones in Canberra -it’s a different experience. I’m not bagging the big markets, (there are some great producers at those markets too) but to shop there you really have to do your homework about where stuff is grown, and be up for some seriously BIG crowds. By contrast, SHA market is little and has strong, non-negotiable rules around where stuff comes from and whether the person selling it actually grew or made it. The result is a thoroughly honest and green-wash free offering that’s unlike any other I know of.

I’ve been feeling pretty anxious about all the vulnerable people in my life at the lately, so it was nice to be shopping in the open air, and be under the dense green canopy of the old churchyard trees on a sweltering day. My mum bought me a fancy bottle of Corang Estate wine (I acted surprised about this even though she always spoils me rotten!) and we bought bags of coffee to take home from Mike and Chloe at Village Coffee Roastery.

Whilst Mum continued on in pursuit of green beans, Ruth and Sam loaded me up with veg, all grown by my fellow producer members. Yeah, I know, I’m a vegetable grower myself, so why the veg? Well, this year has been unusually hard for us at Brightside. Our farm, which was just recovering from all the rain last year, is officially a swamp after the wettest November on record. Until it dries out, our land is un-farmable, and so we find we have gone from being abundant producers to very hungry consumers. SHA has been amazing through this bin-fire of a time with kind gestures such as providing us with the occassional ‘pay it forward’ veg box as well as taking what we can grow when we can grow it. I left the market feeling like we are such a kick arse little community, and we’ve really got this whole ‘post 2020 world’ thing in hand.