Saturday 2nd December 2017 - Behind the Scenes Tour of Northside Markets

I am visiting this local market for the first time today. I have been looking forward to doing so for months now. The weather isn't looking so good - I am hoping it does not rain as it is a completely outdoor event!

Northside Markets on Miller Street is another must visit market in Sydney which is on twice each month. I was a little lost when I caught the 343 bus from North Willoughby to the closest bus stop as indicated on trip planner to get off at Pacific Highway (at West Street) and walk about  7 minutes. I thought this was close to North Sydney Oval however the markets were actually on at the smaller park across the road on Miller Street. GPS and asking a local is always recommended. Or just follow the people with shopping trolleys, baskets and bags although some may take shortcuts (via secret lanes and buildings) or the scenic routes (uphill along Miller Street) to arrive at the Northside Markets! Now to look for the North Sydney Community Centre located in the park's grounds. Address 220 Miller Street as per email - 200 , 180  oops too far go back - I must be close then! Found it! Well I found the markets first.

If you haven't been to them before (like me), booking a  "Behind the Scenes Market Tour" which only run a few times a year is highly recommended. The hour long tour started at 9 am today and I arrived just in time. It was a pretty good sized group too - no more then 20 people.

Following are market dates for 2018 according to their calendar (which I hope you can all read) - so you can plan ahead. Note : Markets are closed first week in January 2018.

At 9 am our market tour guide  - Chef and Food Consultant Tawnya Bahr from Straight To The Source  arrives - some of the people on the tour already know her, others have been on one of her foodie tours with a few that have never been on this tour or visited this market before.

A very informative tour,  we make our way around the Northside Markets visiting a broad cross section of stall holders.

Below is a list of stall holders we visited (not in sequential order) , many who have been a regular stall holder since the beginning ie 13 years plus and some even coming from the now defunct Growers Markets @ Pyrmont (refer to my blog from about 3 years ago on my old blog on simplesite)  as well as the now defunct Farmers Market @ EQ.  Many of the market stalls visited have also come from other farmers or organic markets such as Carriageworks, Bondi Junction Village Markets, Sydney Living Museums Eat Your History Spring Festival out at Elizabeth Farm or Autumn Harvest Festival out at Rouse Hill House & Farm,  Bowral PS Markets and Orange Grove PS Organic Markets (refer blogs for information on all markets).

1. "Gravelax" - Scanadavian origin where fish was buried to preserve it and stop it from rotting (using salt) before the invention of refridgeration literally meaning "from the grave" Brilliant Foods - specialising in hot and cold smoked fish. We were lucky enough be able to sample some of it on a piece of bread.

2. "Thinking outside the pizza square" - Matty's Very Healthy Pizza Bases - If you like Paddy The Baker Traditional Irish Breads which has been around for many years and where my favourite is not the soda breads they produce but the gluten free potato bread ( I am just addicted to them because they taste better then the normal potato bread due to its hint of tumeric and did purchase again at these markets) then you will like it's little brother or sister with its own market stall selling gluten free pizza bases and pizza sauce. Another chance to sample a relatively new product. No pizza stone required - just lots of cheese and sauce then into the oven !

3. "Keep Cartons" - If you have heard of Keep Cups (the reusable coffee cups you can take to your local cafe and which fit under standard coffee machines) and have watched The War On Waste then this is another concept which we are a little behind on. What are Keep Cartons? It is a reusable plastic egg carton which holds 1 dozen eggs. Yes they do exist and have been around for a while. Millions of disposable cardboard egg cartons are used every year. These can't be reused again and recycling all of them is not the solution (just like the disposable coffee cups) in this case due to the cardboard being  contaminated from the egg shell white and yoke. The company Lock and Lock makes them and the company I work for sells them. Great idea. The stall we visited  sells a variety of produce from the Riverina region which includes fresh eggs. They have a program where you can sign up to be on their mailing list which reminds you to bring your reusable egg carton to the next market with you to refill with Rambling Riverina Pastured Eggs.

4. "Do you wake up thinking about whey?" This was the question posed by our market tour guide Tawnya. Kristen Allan Cheese Maker's response was no but when she meditates she has visions of being in a cheese cave - Well that beats the cheese wheel spaghetti I saw at The Sweet Expo in Melbourne recently! (Refer recent blog of Melbourne Trip # 2). I remember Kristen from one of the Spring Festivals out at Elizabeth Farm. She is one of a few relatively new to The Northside Markets as a stall holder. Lactose intolerant therefore did not try her cheese.

5. "Elephant Garlic amongst blue and white striped t-shirts" - it is exactly what it sounds like a gi-normous bulb of garlic which probably sounds better in French " ail d'éléphant".
You won't see this garlic selling market stall on Facebook or Instagram however you may have seen it as one of a very few original market stalls at the now defunct Growers Markets at Pyrmont. I remember buying bunches of garlic still on their stalks from this market stall during a past Sydney Good Food and Wine Month. Every year Gilles Bonin Biological Farming plaits bunches of garlic just for Christmas. A bunch of plaited garlic will last an average of 5 or 6 months.

6. "Gee" - a form of clarified butter in which Pepe Saya specialises in producing along with his well known cultured butter which I love to use. If you don't get to visit this market, Pepe Saya is also at Carriageworks Markets. Real bread and butter - sampling the simple things in life are often the best.

7. "Fruit & Vegetable Identification #1" - Another one of the original stall holders from The Growers Markets @ Pyrmont was Grima's who sell a wide variety of seasonal fruit amd vegetables, many of which are heirloom varieties such as purple and other coloured carrots, watermelon radish, karabie, turnips and "beefsteak" tomatos. So what do watermelon turnips and karabie taste like? - we got to sample some and these are my thoughts . Watermelon radish although looks very pretty and pink with white tones tasted nothing like watermelon and kohl rabi was actually really quite pleasant to snack on raw - it was similar to a cabbage without the leafy layers and milder in taste and had a crunchy texture similar to a nashi pear rather then starchy like a potato but was not sweet like a nashi pear. I preferred the kohl rabi over the watermelon radish - not surprised as I am not a radish fan. Just look at the colours in these fruits and vegetables!

8. "Have you ever tried deep fried ravioli?" - there is a first time for everything and this was a first for me - I like my pasta boiled and can't imagine having a bowl of deep fried ravioli - as a snack yes but as a main no. We had an opportunity to sample these little pillows of cheesey asparagus goodness prepared by Pastabilities.

9. "Someone has to stay and run the farm " -says the rarely seen father of Prickle Hill Farm. While his son and others travel to the Big Smoke to run all their market stalls, dad stays behind to run the farm with his wife except for today where we were graced with his presence to tell us a little bit about the farm and venturing into the bottling of RAS award winning worcester sauce (no that is not a bottle of alcohol Tawnya is holding below!) from fruit grown and picked from the farm. Sugar Plums & Christmas means it's stone fruit season again just in time for Christmas however Prickle Hill Farm semi dries their sugar plums so they are available from their market stalls almost all year round. These are not to be confused with prunes which look very similar. We got to sample some semi dried sugar plums but I was already very familiar with them having purchased them from their Carriageworks Market stall on several occasions alternating between them and their famous semi dried dates which are not your common Majool, Turkish or American dates you find in the supermarket, deli or green grocer mixed business. These semi dried dates are the Chinese variety. Yes they taste like a date but the texture is completely different with a rather crusty skin resembling a very dried out apple skin and a little unpleasant to digest. The inside is rather soft and a little squishy, spongy and chewy but has this caramel flavour resembling a date. Pickle Hill Farm is also famous for its citrus fruits oranges, lemons and my favourite when in season lemonades.

10. "Fruit & Vegetable Identification #2" - I think this was our final stop at the markets, we were gather around a circular set of benches with Tawnya waving a bunch of greens above her head asking us if we knew what they were. I call them garlic stems and use them quite a lot whenever I can find them. I prefer these locally grown ones to the imported Chinese grown ones which have a ver similar flavour - both are the stalks from the garlic bulb. The difference being the imported Chinese ones are called garlic stems/stalks because they don't include the very pretty and edible unopened garlic buds that contsin the garlic flower. The locally grown garlic shoots are actually called garlic scapes. Place the scapes in a vase of water we were told and when the garlic buds open and flower they will keep away the flies. 

I have to apologise but I wasn't listening to what this market stall was actually called because the guy that ran the stall kept offering samples of his rasberries and almost all of his produce had sold out so I grabed the last 2 bunches of garlic scapes and  a bunch of baby leeks. I was advised "you realise that these are a bunch of baby leeks don't you?" - of course I did I wanted both garlic scapes and baby leeks although I did mistaken them for a bunch of shallots which were on my shopping list to buy today - good enough same family of plants! Even when I returned to purchase the very last bunch of fresh rosemary the stall keeper kept offering me a sample of his rasberries with live bugs crawling through them still! "Don't pick that one pick this one " he kept advising. Then he ate the rasberry with the live bugs in them - "I'll eat the one one with bugs in it then" before he popped it in his mouth. 

At 10 am it is the end of the Behind the Scenes Market Tour - 10 stalls in 1 hour - I was getting concerned that I would not have time to revisit the stalls at my own pace - after all the Markets are only open for a short 4 hours of intensive trafing and I still have all the other market stalls to visit that were not visited on the tour and with only 2 hours left could I do it? as well as taking photos. I ended up buying some potato bread mixed mushrooms vegetables and fruit as well as some herbs and eggs.

So many photos to upload!

Rating 9/10 : lots of tastings, free of charge , lots of recipe ideas perfect day not too hot until after the tour when it began to become too hot for me. Our souvenir of the tour was a bunch of multicoloured heirloom carrots from Grima's - my thanks to them. Tip - ensure you book way in advance as spaces fill up quickly and tours don't run very often.

Great day out and back at Chatswood by train from North Sydney station by 12 noon where I picked up some more groceries and other essentials as well as a bar of Loving Earth Lemon Caramel Cheesecake "chocolate" - an alternative to my regular Panna chocolate bars I usually purchase (refer my recent blog of the Big Design Market Sydney)

(Oops sorry my phone has decided to turn my photo upside down now!)