Love going to the farmers market I love the idea of getting my fruit and veggies fresh from the farm and the best thing is the money goes directly back to the hard working farmers ( supporting the local community) and OMG I've never had such incredible fresh eggs the yolks are so bright and you can really taste the difference and its all so cheap soo much better than getting stuff from the supermarket

This farmers' market takes place on the first Saturday of each month. It's one of a dozen or so that are run by a group called Regional Farmers Markets. Most are in Melbourne, but some are in locations as far away as Inverloch, Phillip Island, Daylesford and Geelong. (See their website for a calendar showing which market is on which date.) The only one I've been to so far is Bundoora, so I can't comment on the others, but I've been very impressed by what I've seen at Bundoora, over a period of about six months or so, and I plan to investigate a couple of the others.

They sell pretty much anything that you can eat and drink. Fruit and vegetables, bread and cakes, fresh pasta, meat, fish, eggs, jams and preserves, dips and spreads, pies, samosas, dumplings, pizzas, and I can't remember what else.

The ethos of this organisation is spelled out in detail on their website, and I won't repeat it in full here, except to sum it up by saying that they insist that produce has been grown by the stallholder themselves, in Victoria, or has had significant value added to it by the stallholder in Victoria.

This ethos has been borne out by my conversations with a couple of stallholders. For example, I was enjoying some plum jam at one stall, and I asked the stallholder whether he ever makes cherry jam when summer comes around. Cherry jam is all but impossible to find in supermarkets, and I'm always on the lookout for it. No, he said, for the simple reason that he doesn't grow cherries. Technically he could buy the cherries and make the jam - it would fall under the rubric of "significant value added" - but he prefers to make jam from things he has grown himself - plums, apricots, strawberries, and so on. I was disappointed that I'd have to continue my search for this elusive jam, but impressed that he's abiding by the spirit of the rules.

Wherever possible, the stallholders will allow you to taste their produce. Take advantage of this; you may discover something new and wonderful. I was heading to the salmon stall to buy my regular supply of smoked salmon. "Ever tried gravlax?" asked the stallholder. No, I hadn't - and was transported with delight when I tasted it. I thought smoked salmon was the food of the gods, but gravlax is even better. I polished off the last of it yesterday, and I'm now desperate to get my hands on some more.

Shopping at this market has forced me to confront head-on the concept of seasonality. I get a bit complacent about seasonality, and I'm sure I'm not the only one - it's probably fairly common among inner-urbanites such as myself. Sure, I know that fruit and vegies have their seasons. I know that strawberries, red capsicum and tomatoes are at their best in summer. I know that if you buy them in the middle of winter, they've probably been flown in from a thousand or more kilometres away and they're not as good as they'll be in summer. But I want tomatoes in July, dammit, and I'm going to have them! At a farmer's market, you can insist and pout and stamp your foot all you like, but you're not going to find produce out of season. Get used to it, and accept whatever it is that they do have to offer this month, because it's guaranteed to be at its peak, and therefore as good as it can get.

Here's an example. There's a terrific cake stall called Flavour Station that sells loaf cakes in various flavours - banana, orange, carrot - but my absolute favourite is the mandarin cake. I tried it on my first visit several months ago, and was immediately hooked. It has the most gloriously intense mandarin flavour, completely different from an orange cake. For several months I've been buying two mandarin loaf cakes at a time, and freezing one of them to try and make it last until the next market. At the November market I showed up at Flavour Station. No mandarin cakes. Plenty of others, though. "Sold out of the mandarin?" I asked. "Nope. Mandarins are out of season," replied James, the stallholder. Whaaaaaaat? B-b-b-but I want my mandarin cake! I've been counting the days until I could buy one! Trying not to sound hysterical, I asked when they would be in season again. "We'll probably start baking mandarin cakes again round about next May." Next MAY? That's forever! How can I wait until May? "Cheer up," he said. "Try some carrot cake." And I did, and it was excellent, so I bought some. It helped assuage my unhappiness slightly. In spite of my disappointment, I'm impressed: Flavour Station probably could find out-of-season mandarins from somewhere if they really wanted, but the mandarins wouldn't have the depth of flavour that fruit has when it's at its peak, and they're not prepared to compromise the quality of their cakes. If it's not seasonal, forget it.

So to get the most out of shopping at Bundoora Market, or any farmers' market for that matter, forget about making a list. Just go, and embrace whatever it is they have to sell at that time. If you find something you adore, don't assume it will be there next month. Just enjoy it while it lasts.

UPDATE 7 Jan 2012: I visited the market today, and this is the first time I've ever been disappointed with it. It's January, and I expected that a few stallholders would be away on holidays, but since the organisers were going ahead with the market anyway, I did expect a reasonable complement of stalls. I didn't expect that only about half the usual number, if that, would be participating. The turnout was dismal, frankly, so much so that I was wondering if it had even been worth the drive to Bundoora. Normally the stalls are lined up cheek by jowl with each other. This time, they were standing forlornly far apart, like the occasional tooth in a very gappy smile.

The ever-reliable Green Eggs were there. So were a couple of fruit and vegetable stalls, including a stall with exceptionally good-looking (and probably good-tasting) tomatoes, which I'd normally buy but this time I didn't because I'm growing my own this year and they're just about ripe. There were some other stalls too, and depending on exactly what you go to the market for, you may have been satisfied with what was on offer.

In my case, I wasn't happy, because many of my favourite stalls were missing. Flavour Station wasn't there. Gravlax Guy wasn't there. Potato Woman wasn't there. Eggplant Chutney Guy wasn't there. These are the main reasons I visit Bundoora Market. I ended up buying:
* my usual eggs from Green Eggs: always super-fresh and excellent value.
* some smoked trout: a good example of its type, but alas, not in the same category as gravlax.
* some pre-boiled mixed gnocchi (potato, pumpkin and spinach) which looked good but turned out to be truly horrible. Heat and serve, said the instructions; more like heat, serve, taste, and throw in bin. Gnocchi should be fluffy; these were dense and heavy, and the pumpkin ones in particular were so dense I could have used them for paperweights. Will avoid this stall in future.
* an exceptionally good Portuguese tart. See my separate review of that, under Amici Bakery.
Overall it was a disappointing experience. I normally fill between three and four shopping bags; this time I came away with barely half a bag filled.

I'll be back in February, when (it is to be hoped) they'll be back at full strength, and I'll continue to be a regular for the rest of the year, but I think I'll give next January's market a miss.

UPDATE 18 April 2012: I did go back in February (and March, and April), and I'm pleased to be able to say that the market is now back at full strength, and is as good as ever.

There's a new stall (or at least one that I haven't noticed before) which is also worth a mention: Plough to Plate Fine Foods. They make an excellent relish called ajvar, the recipe for which comes from the Balkans. (I will leave it to others to squabble over precisely which culture can lay claim to originating it. A google search threw up claimants for Serbian, Croatian and Macedonian origin on the first page of results alone. I imagine it's like the Aussies and the Kiwis arguing over who invented pavlova.) Anyway, Plough to Plate's ajvar is terrific; a lovely, velvety, charry, roasty red capsicum relish, with a powerful wallop of garlic. I have it on crackers, on sandwiches, on sausages, on pies and pasties, on pasta, and have even been known to eat a spoonful straight out of the jar. Addictive stuff.

UPDATE 7 Oct 2013: Visited again two days ago for the first time in several months. Alas, Amici bakery seems to have gone. There was a baker's stall in the place where Amici used to be, but no signage, and its Portuguese tart was pretty ordinary - nowhere near as good as Amici's.

Plough to Plate also seems to have vanished. But Flavour Station is still there, and Green Eggs, and New Leaf Preserves, and Spud Sisters, and several other stalls that make this market well worth a visit.