Weekends are a beautiful thing.
Especially when I have nowhere to be on a beautiful Saturday morning (a rarity, between my usual crack-of-dawn driving lessons / events for work), and can finally make it to the newly launched Bahraini Farmers Market I’d heard so much about.
I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw a poster circulating on social media a few weeks ago advertising the market, it sounded too good to be true being only minutes away from my neighbourhood!
I’m always on the lookout for fresh/local produce especially since living here means the vast majority of fruits and veggies are imported. Needless to say I was pretty excited.
My mom and I headed out early and made our way to the Budaiya Garden where the farmers had set up shop.
wide-Bahrain-Farmers-Market
We got there just past 9 o clock, but the place was already hustling and bustling with shoppers which was a pleasant surprise.
The weather was perfect – clear skies with a light breeze and thankfully no sign of the unusually heavy rain from the day before.We grabbed a trolley and made our way through all the different stalls and vendors, picking up a couple of things from each one.
Some highlights:
Local broccoli + broccoli leaves. I have absolutely no idea what to do with the leaves but they reminded me of collard greens which I miss being able to buy so I snatched them up (at no extra cost, might I add).
Vendor-Bahrain-Farmers-Market
Beets.
Beautiful, beautiful beets.
Nothing beats the smell of fresh herbs.
And of course, we all know a true Bahraini farmers market wouldn’t be complete without…
Fresh dates.
dates-Bahrain-Farmers-Market
It’s not exactly date season anymore, but this vendor was selling them frozen with a promise that if left outside to thaw for a day or two, they would ripen as normal. I’ll take his word for it.
Other treats included some homemade jams and spicy pickles, known as “achaar” in the local dialect.
A vendor selling date palms
and offering date samples sprinkled with sesame and fennel seeds – yum.
A little further down there was a stall selling traditional Bahraini sweets – not really my thing (I’m very picky when it comes to Arabic sweets.
And a nikhi and bajela stand
Definitely more my thing.
If I hadn’t already had breakfast, we definitely would’ve queued up for some grub at the live cooking station at the next stall over.
Ps. how cute are those little veggie cups? Love.
There was also a little petting zoo at the end with some of (what I assume were) the farmers’ animals.
All in all – a beautiful morning.
The atmosphere was seriously great – it was just so nice to see a whole community gathered in one place, supporting local farmers and enjoying the outdoors with their families. I’ll definitely be heading back next week.
Wondering how you can keep up with the farmers? Well – like most everyone else in Bahrain, they are now on Instagram .
The Bahraini Farmers Market is open every Saturday from 8 AM – 12 PM and runs until the end of May 2013.
Make sure you get yourself down there if you can!
Hi Nada, i went to a travel agent evening event promoting Bahrain last week, and we were given a small cloth wrapped with string containing what i presume are fruit/spice products from Bahrain. I recognised cinnamon, clove and peppercorn, but there were a couple i did not. One intrigued me, resembling a shrunken seville orange, almost a perfect globe with ridges and dimples, where it appears to have been dried naturally or artificially and only about 1 inch across in all directions. colour is dark brown/black. looks and feels very slightly sticky on outside , very light and would guess slightly hollow inside. doesnt rattle. a friends daughter said nutmeg, but it doesnt look to me like a normal nutmeg available in UK, which are more oval/rugby ball shape.Can you help?
What is BAGUL in English?