The farmers’ market in Lagos is a joy to visit on a Saturday morning. You can tell where it is located from the crowds bursting out of each entrance, one with a food truck surrounded by men getting their morning coffee, medronho and beer.
WORDS Robert Spalding
As you approach, the babble of voices speaking in multiple languages grows louder, punctuated by cockerels crowing, dogs barking and children crying. Inside, the shoppers jostle around stands bursting with fruit and vegetables, getting in each other’s way. There are older women, their bags brimming with groceries to feed their families, tourists taking pictures, children eyeing ripe red strawberries and pushchairs weaving between legs. People gather to inspect the fruits and vegetables, picking this one, rejecting that, until they have their choices tallied.
Row after row of stands fill two buildings, which are full of tempting wares no matter what the season. Here, the produce is not supermarket-perfect in shape and colour but is full of flavour and freshness. You will find tomatoes – big and small, green and red – cucumbers, lettuce, onions, peppers and celery. There are apples, pears, peaches, melons, plums, oranges, tangerines and figs as well as fruits whose provenance is unknown but are sweet and full of juice. Be tempted by golden-coloured honey from every kind of flower in Portugal: multi flowers, rosemary, jasmine, orange blossom, almond blossom. Trestle tables are loaded with potatoes, carrots, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower and root vegetables of varying sizes and colours. Another stall sells sauces guaranteed to liven up your supper: pepper, garlic and piri-piri, plus rosemary and thyme-infused flavours.
Further along, the perfume of flowers fills the air: lilies, roses and gladioli – red, yellow, pink and purple – at two euros a bunch. Here, you’ll find people lining up to buy their favourite cakes and bread, biscuits and pastries. A wide range of eggs are available – white, brown, large and small – and even live chickens and ducks. A Portuguese farmers’ market would not be complete without an olive stall. Fortunately, you’ll find buckets of fresh olives here: green and black, flavoured and natural, bitter and salty, and garlic-flavoured or not. All are mouth-wateringly delicious. If you can’t make up your mind, just ask for a sample taste.
Here at the market, farmers ply their trade with calloused and cracked hands and fingernails blackened from working the land. Their faces are tanned and wrinkled, their bodies bent from toiling in all weathers. They arrive early to unload their vehicles and set up their wares. Women from the farms weigh and add up the cost of your purchases, then, assuming you don’t speak Portuguese, they hold up the appropriate number of fingers and smile when you respond in their language. At the end of the morning, they pack up again and wend their weary way back home.
A fellow can leave the market, having spent only a few euros, with a bag full of good things to eat, some of which he did not know he needed or even liked! So consider visiting this Saturday and enjoying the flavours of this unique market.
Mercado de Levante Av dos Descobrimentos, Lagos (next to the bus station).
