Every Saturday is market day in San Ignacio. Folks bring their goods in to sell. The best freshest produce is locally grown, but often not the prettiest. If you go early enough you might find the Mennonites from Barton Creek selling whatever produce is in season. Most of the vendors, tho', buy and resell, which means that most of the booths show the same items. I just look for the cleanest and the best price. It makes you really appreciate the variety and quality of the produce in the States. We usually get up fairly early, but don't get moving fast, so is often between 9 & 10 before we get down. There are about 8 or 10 permanent booths along the street side and those vendors are open every day. Towards the end of the week, before they get a fresh shipment, the produce can get a little limp and bedraggled.
Around the back side of the mkt. are the vendors selling clothing and misc. goods. You might find someone with a tarp on the ground selling tools, shoes & CD's. Our favorite vendors are David & Maggie who sell DVD's. They're a delightful couple who have 5 children and they go between the market in Belmopan and S.I. Since we don't have TV, we are good customers and buy 5/$20bz every couple of weeks. I just got back from trekking to the mkt, but didn't buy much as everything was very expensive and the quality definitely lacking. I did bring home a pitaya, a few mangos and 4 granny smith apples. Go figure! They import apples from similar suppliers in the US, as the apples have the variety sticker on them. We're having trouble finding fruit that we like. Everything is too sweet. The Belizeans are definitely carb lovers. When in season, we love the little apple bananas, which have a little tang to them. Yum!
2 comments:
Friday and Tuesday are the wholesale days, pick-up trucks come in to market at dawn from farms all over, and a couple of closed trucks arrive from Mexico... and *that's* when the produce is freshest...
the pickups park in the lot by the road that goes down to the low bridge, and if you're into canning, there's your bonanza... if you're into salad, that's where you'll find crispy lettuce, whole buckets of tomatoes, and other great stuff.
Saturday is more of a "flea market" deal, with roving vendors, and those who want to sell their own stuff, rather than making less money selling it to the permanent stalls.
oh, I forgot... PLEASE come and get mangoes, I have so many I don't know what to DO with them... hubby has made 50 jars of mango sauce, chutney and jam, lol
also, help yourself to some small mango trees, there's hundreds !!
also, you can have some Manzana Banana rhizomes, so you can start some at Dreamer Farm, since you like them...
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