Garden Grocer

Along the stretch of road towards the countryside from where we live, there are a few ‘garden grocers’ who sell home grown fruits and vegetables.

Their produce are grown using traditional farming method, more towards organic farming. They grew them for their own consumption and any surplus are sold to supplement their income. One of our favourite grocer is Vida Jaglica (photo above), she is originally from the Serbia, a former state of Yugoslavia.
I often picked up the produce here when they are available during the warmer season (Dec to May).
Typical items are tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, shallots, garlic, potatoes, etc., cooking.

The produce we get here is very much different from those that you picked up in the local supermarket. They are ripen on the ‘tree’ and therefore more flavoursome. This is especially true with the tomatoes. Quite often that produce will have to go through a complex distribution chain before it reach the consumer. The timing when fruits and vegetables are harvested took into consideration of the time to reach the supermarket shelf, this is done at the expense of picking the fruit before it is ripe. Semi-ripe produce will also have a longer shelf life. However, you will find that they do not have as much flavour.