Back home in California, farmer's markets are very popular. Just about every town has at least one, and they are a great place to buy fresh fruit, vegetables, nuts, and other local produce. However, in California there are a few things that prevent people from doing all their shopping at these markets:
- They are usually only open one day a week—sometimes just for the morning or afternoon
- You can't find everything you need, so it's still necessary to visit a regular grocery store
- Things are almost always more expensive at farmer's markets
In Tarija, it's the exact opposite: The farmer's market (or mercado campesino) is open every day of the week including Sunday, they have everything you can possibly imagine, and everything is always cheaper than at supermarkets or grocery stores!
We tend to visit the mercado campesino two days a week. It's outside of the city center, so we need to take a public bus to get there. Sometimes if we've got tons of bags we grab a taxi back.
The mercado campesino has a huge selection of fresh fruit and vegetables. Lots of times the vegetable roots are still attached so you know they just pulled them up the day before.
Everything is seasonal at the mercado campesino, unlike in California where out-of-season produce is imported from all over the world so you can get apples all year. It's like part shopping, part treasure hunt—you never know what you are going to find. Just recently we started seeing fresh cilantro (hooray—salsa!) and passion fruit, indicating that the season is starting to change. We've heard that figs are up next... Sweet.
Here's a list of some of the prices we've been paying (prices converted to US dollars)
- Head of green or red lettuce — 10 cents
- Bunch of parsley or cilantro — 15 cents
- 1 lb plums — 50 cents
- 1 dozen bananas — 80 cents
- 1 lb tomatoes — 22 cents
- 1 lb onions — 10 cents
- 1 lb of rice — 35 cents
- 1 lb strawberries — 65 cents
- 1 lb locally produced cheese — $1.50
- One large papaya — 90 cents
- One passion fruit — 20 cents (if you can even find these back home they are $2-3 each!
- Nice bunch of flowers — 35 cents to $1.00
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| On the F bus to mercado campesino |
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| Old-school and new-school Bolivians working side-by-side at the mercado |
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| Here's part of the vegetable section—the entire market goes on for acres and acres |
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| Sam scored some nice flowers for about $2 US |
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| "Welcome to the farmer's market... Center for agricultural products" |
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| Eye saw u lookin at mai plumz! |
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