The Ohoka Market experience

Yesterday, after being a little housebound for two days because of a huge dump of snow on Wednesday (we actually lost power for a few chilly hours on Wednesday, Benny said, as I was freezing to death, 'obviously, the most concerning thing about having no power, is no TV') the children were still away from school, the sun came out and I thought it was time for a nice walk in the crunchy new snow.







I checked their internet page and saw that the Ohoka market was open, a great place to get some bread, as had run out of bread and milk the day before and believe me, no milk or bread makes for very interesting breakfast creations!

I thought it would be about a 20 minute walk to the market - but, I was wrong. So wrong. But you know when you have gone so far, you can't turn back?

It took us a crazy 50 minutes to walk to the market, with Naomi complaining about 30 minutes of that time, and Benny stopping to smash the ice and hit the snow off the trees the rest of the time. None of us were equipped with Wellington or gum boots and our trainers and socks and feet were at minus 2. Benny said he wants to get some proper snow boots, 'you know' he said, 'the ones with tennis rackets on the bottom'.

We finally made it to the market at 11.30am, (it was open until 12) and I was so pleased to see the stallholders, I think they were pleased to see us too, these crazy new loyal customers who had trudged for nearly an hour to buy a loaf of bread.

Benny said, 'Mum, I think everyone drives in Ohoka'. Yes Benny, I think will we drive from now on too.

This is what it the market looks like in the summer, photographs courtesy of the Ohoka Farmers Market website.













But yesterday it was good too, there was artisan bread, dips and olives, vegetables and fruit, fresh fish, a German bakery, soups, hot porridge with mouthwatering toppings, coffees and hot chocolates, pies, sausages, crafts and even some antiques.

Here's our little hoard that we foraged and carried back home.




And a lovely lady on a button stall, which I didn't even buy anything from, gave me a handmade button bag to carry all our goodies home in! The yellow buttons are a half of a heart which continues on the other side in purple, cool eh?




And when I say that I carried it all home, don't feel sorry for us. Our new friend and neighbour Kathie (who we had spent a lot of our 'housebound' Thursday with, at her house;) found us after the market and insisted she give us a lift home in her lovely warm car, it took five minutes and we were saved from very certain frostbite, thank you so much!

This country living - it's all good fun!

Love
Est xxx