Ōtautahi / Christchurch Daily Photo

This weekend I had the pleasure of attending two new farmer’s markets that are close by. The Opawa market has been in the planning stages for a while apparently, but the Mount Pleasant one sprung up in response to the earthquake and a desire to do something for the local area. The Opawa market is on a Sunday and Mount Pleasant was yesterday (Saturday).

It’s a particularly good time for us to have these markets, as they build community spirit and fill the hole left by two supermarkets being closed in Ferrymead and St Martins – so it has been difficult to get good quality fresh produce. Whoever donated the apples for the Mount Pleasant market thanks a bunch – they are crisp and tasty and I’ve just made a banana and apple cake with them (it’s cooling right now and the wonderful smell of baking is wafting down the hallway). There has been a lot of ‘comfort’ eating in my household and beyond – but weirdly enough lots of people I have spoken to have been losing weight even while scoffing chocolate and cakes and other goodies (including myself). I recently suggested that there must be such as thing as ‘catastrophe calories’ and they clearly don’t count.

Bruce and I enjoyed fresh European styled bread from the Opawa market with  free range bacon from the Mount Pleasant market. And of course the apples! You can see Bruce munching on one in the photo above.