The laiki isn't just about fruit and veg. Humans can also spend their scooby-chips on biscuits and sweets, vinegar, olive oil, wine, fresh fish, frozen fish, cleaning materials , kitchen utensils, pie dishes, candles, pot plants, plant pots, cheese, preserves, rusks, honey, grilled meat on sticks, flowers, dried fruit, herbs and spices, nuts, lottery tickets, toilet paper, beggars and bread.
F says that way down the other end, further than we explored on Saturday, you can even buy clothes, shoes, curtains, floor rugs, pillows, bed covers and religious paraphernalia (icons, incense burners....) - among other things.
In fact the only things we've never seen for sale at the laiki are red meat (other than the grilled on a stick kind) and guns. There are 2 or 3 regular butchers shops on this street so no one is going without meat.😺
You can even order your coffee and get it delivered by a guy who trots through the market swinging your cup of coffee balanced with on a round metal tray with a big handle over the top. Coffee with a nice biscuit what more could a human want?
All that yummy food. I’m drooling
ReplyDeleteHari Om
ReplyDeleteOutstanding array on display! Golly, but I do miss having such a market to wander through - no such thing here... and as for water; it's sky to ground wet today!!! Hugs and whiskeries, YAM-aunty xxx
There were still markets that set up one day a week in the towns we lived in on the South Coast, and suburbs of London - but (with the exception of Whitechapel market) very few fruit and veg stalls in most of them. 'Farmers' markets had started to become popular in London, but you needed to remortgage your home to have the money to buy produce in those. They were a statement in style rather than a regular source of affordable foodstuffs.
DeleteWhat an amazing place your laiki is, I have enjoyed seeing all the wonderful photographs taken by F.
ReplyDeleteIt must take ages to set up and take down each week, or it is there permanently? You are lucky to be able to see it all from the comfort of your donkey too.
The stallholders seem to be super efficient - start about 6am and start clearing away again about 1400. Best deals are as they start contemplating what they might have to take home and is reaching the end of its sellable life, but best selection and quality is early in the morning. The rest of the week it is a normal street.
DeleteDuring the winter months we have a farmers market on a downtown Street they close the street for Saturday only and it's every other Saturday but it's not nearly as amazing as this one but it does have lots of fresh veggies and fruits. All of this continues to amaze me and the place I would like to go and straight to it with the to the cheese where they sell cheese I love cheese
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a student in Vienna I lived a block away from a daily market very much like your one. It’s many many blocks long and quite old and in none of the “must see” lists for the city; lots of Turkish and African families, cheap prices, fresh produce, live fish in a barrel, bartering, bantering etc.
ReplyDeleteAnd where my mom lived in Portugal, they had a daily market that was also the real deal- legumes and apple varieties you wouldn’t be able to find anywhere else anymore, hand woven wickerwork and basketry...
Farmers markets leave a lot to be desired.
The wickerwork here (when you can find any) seem to be the exclusive domain of Romany families. What I admire about Greek Laiki (and they are a relatively modern concept in the sense that they exist and operate under regulations made in the last 100 years) is that they are meant to be operated by the grower or a member of the growers family. That family connection might have become rather tenuous after a few generations that have made their livings exclusively from stallholding, but you can still find plenty of growers selling their own produce and proud of it. Right back at the start of day 1 in this series my grape sellers are in that class, and selling produce from vines their great grandfather planted. I think the legislation that set these up as a means of getting fresh food into towns and cities was a remarkable piece of foresight and leadership by the government of the day.
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