From The Real Farm to The Real Market!

In Seoul, I am lucky to have the biggest fruit and vegetable market north of the Han River right in my neighborhood. I could easy get the cheapest and freshest fruits by just walking down the street.

Here in my hometown in the Philippines, I was surprised to find a similar market, though not as big, that sells the cheapest fruits and vegetables! And you can even haggle!

Market day here is actually Sunday, but the trick is to visit the market the night before when the farmers bring their fresh produce to the area, although I was told some of the farmers arrive as early as Friday night. These farmers come from the other side of the island, and some even speak another dialect.

They have mangoes, papayas, soursops, bananas, pineapples, yams, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and a lot of vegetables for your dishes and salads!

I was amazed that those huge papayas were selling PHP15 per kilo! And you can just imagine how many papaya shakes I was able to make out of them!

My primary targets are usually bananas, papayas, mangoes and tomatoes. For my tomatoes, I just slice them up, bathe them in olive oil and sprinkle them with sea salt. 

And since the people selling the produce at the market are the farmers themselves, you can query them about just anything about his or her produce. You can ask whether they're really organic or not, or ask them how many more days do you need to wait before a huge papaya you're buying ripens.

I'm heading to the market tonight, and I'm wondering what fruits they will have brought from their farms again.