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Westralia – Perth City Farm & Organic Farmer’s Market

City Farm SignIn November I visited Perth, capital of Western Australia, to attend a food blogging conference, ‘Eat. Drink. Blog.’ The conference was held at Perth City Farm, on the edge of the CBD in East Perth. City Farm was once a scrap metal and battery recycling plant and there’s still an edgy industrial feel suggested by the two sheds that remain. The plant is now closed and the land repatriated for a second life as an urban farm.

On Saturdays mornings, a small Organic Farmer’s Market is set up in the courtyard around the ornamental vegetable garden and under the eves of the sheds. One lucky stall holder set up under the shade of the large mulberry tree. The philosophy behind the market is to support local organic and bio dynamic growers and producers to sell their products directly to the Perth community. In addition, the City Farm itself has its own stall.

City Farm Buyers
City Farm Pair City Farm Garden

Items on sale are decidedly ‘rustic’. Breads are crusty and substantial, jam and unrefined honey is sold in mismatched jars and the produce has all the lumps and bumps you’d expect of fruit and vegetables grown without pesticides. Just like your own garden, there are gluts of some items (lots of leafy greens and an abundance of artichokes on the day I visited) and odds and ends of others. It’s true seasonality. Of course, WA is a big state that’s a long way from the East Coast so there was some surprising local produce. I didn’t know that apples were grown in WA let alone that it’s actually where Pink Lady Apples originally came from.

City Farm duo
City Farm Artichokes
City Farm Bean pair
Find your inner gardener by starting the morning with a Yoga class. After you’ve made your purchases, you can drop into the City Farm Cafe for breakfast or a coffee and relax under the large shady pergola as the world wanders by. Past the sheds is the main farm space, made up of garden beds, chook runs, compost heaps, water tanks and all the infrastructure associated with sustainable living and permaculture. You’re welcome to take a look around, admire the gardens and check out what’s growing or ready for harvest. There are some noisy roosters in a pen near the bathrooms who are very curious about the comings and goings and eyeing off the butterflies flitting everywhere.
City Farm trio untitled-10

This is a relaxed and very pleasant way to spend a few hours on a Saturday morning. If you’re from Perth and you haven’t visited – shame on you! For the rest, it’s very easy to fit this into your schedule when you visit Westralia.

City Farm Squash untitled-16 City Farm Fruit

Perth City Farm
1 City Farm Place (off Lime St)
East Perth  WA  6004
http://perthcityfarm.org.au

You can walk to the markets from the CBD (approx 10 mins) or catch the free regular Yellow City Cat bus that stops at the markets.

6 comments… add one
  • Jan Rhoades January 15, 2014, 8:02 am

    Another great post. I remeber when I first visited WA in 1987 and I discovered hugs, lucious, juicy, to-do-for Lady Williams apples. And from those has come the Pink Lady apples which we all know and love today. Still yummy, juicy and delightful but fortunately, not nearly so huge as the original Lady Williams.

    • Fiona Bris-Vegas! January 15, 2014, 9:26 am

      I think there wer some Lady Williams there. Yes, they're a bit big for the lunchbox. Still, those rare little Joanthon's are perfect lunch box size! Thanks for your compliment on the post!

  • Bizzy Lizzy's Good Things January 15, 2014, 2:30 pm

    Another wonderful market to visit for my bucket list, Fiona, thanks for sharing.

  • JJ - 84thand3rd January 19, 2014, 3:47 pm

    It was a great space! Can't believe we didn't meet… next time!

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