A friend who lives in the Southern Highlands of NSW told me about the Bowral Farmers’ Market some time ago. This weekend I finally time my visit down to the Southern Highlands to get along to the Market.
It was a cold day, 5°C (41°F) when I arrived, only getting up to 11°C (51°F) for a brief time. A gorgeous day, with the autumn leaves glowing in the sunlight.
One of the stalls was selling herb and vegie seedlings and small plants. There was a good range, and it was all of superb quality, better than I usually see in nurseries.
This stall had the freshest, wide range of produce, which quickly sold out:
Another stall just specialized in potatoes:
 Chocolate Brownie Biscotti |
 Luscious, fresh produce |
 Several stalls sold organic, healthy breads |
The 1910 Bottling Company were there selling their organic preserves in Ball Mason jars, including pears, beetroot, apricots, pineapple and a tomato sauce.
 Strawberry cream, and pistachio macarons |
 Many varieties of pumpkins |
One thing I wish I had photographed (to show you) was a curry, with chickpeas and a potato rissole. That was like a good home-made, real curry. I’d want to try some of the other curries at that stall next time.
Everything about the Bowral Market was enjoyable. Excellent quality produce. Not too crowded to enjoy wandering around the stalls, and in a picturesque setting. I’ll be baaaaack.
Exotic Mushroom Risotto
I found this amazing pack of mushrooms (from Li-Sun Exotic Mushrooms):
Included in there are enoki, shiitaki, brown, woodear, chestnut, shimejii, king brown and oyster mushrooms. I just had to buy a pack to try out in risotto! Here’s how it turned out:
It looks far less exotic once the mushrooms are sliced for cooking, but it still added interesting colours and shapes to the risotto. Each mushroom tasted slightly different, with different textures, but still very much tasting like… mushroom. 🙂 They did make the risotto look less bland than mushroom risotto usually does.
Details
| What | Fresh vegies and fruit, and breads, all mainly organic. Herb and plant seedlings and small plants. Also flowers, honey, teas, and a variety of general produce stalls. And, an assortment of other stalls, such as sheepskin products, furniture, antique jewellery, and so on. And some hot food for eating right away! |
| When | The second Saturday of every month, from 8am to 1pm. |
| Where | Bowral Primary School, Corner of Bendooley St and Boolwey St, Bowral, NSW |
How would you have cooked that collection of mushrooms?
Eat. Travel. Bliss. 
I love farmers markets and those mushrooms look awesome. I wouldn’t know what to do with them though…risotto seems like a good option.
Yes, I love the atmosphere at the farmers’ markets.
I was very pleased with the mushrooms, and will buy them all again. They also had another mushroom, a chestnut mushroom, which can be eaten raw or cooked, and they really did have a chestnut-like flavour.
Mushrooms have always been a favourite, but after trying these, I could get carried away trying out different mushrooms!
Thanks, Miss Piggy.
Those mushrooms look incredible. I keep seeing recipes for mushroom dishes using exotic ones but I never can find them. I would probably just fry them in butter and garlic and serve on nice bread with a poached egg!
Yum. Yes, I’ve been thinking to cook them in butter and eat them just like that would be good for maximum flavour-impact, but with garlic, even better! A poached egg, with a runny centre, would go well. Hmmm. Will be on the lookout for some more marvellous mushrooms to try all of that.