Posted by Haley Topper on Saturday, May 13, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

This morning after class, a few of us ventured over to the farmers’ market. The walk was longer than we expected, and much harder to find because there are absolutely no signs. We asked a couple of people and eventually found our way, but each person gave a different answer for how long the walk would be, so we weren’t sure where exactly we were going to end up. I expected the farmers’ market to be similar to an American farmers market, and while there were some similarities, there were also many differences.

A couple things that I found in common with an American farmers market were all of the fruit stands. For a good portion of the market, every other stand was selling fruit and there were a lot of stands selling nuts and candy. There were trucks that sold cheese and salami which are also sold at the market I go to back home, but the trucks are more frequent here in Cefalú. I concluded that all of the food I saw at the market are what the people of Cefalú cook with most and the market allows them to get fresh ingredients.

One thing that I saw a lot of that I didn’t expect was clothing. At farmers’ markets back in the States they sell clothing rarely, and if they do, it would be homemade clothing. At the market in Cefalú they were selling all types of clothing from bras and underwear to shoes and nice dress clothes. There were also stands selling kitchenware and hair supplies. These would be things that I would find at a flea market back home, so I came to the conclusion that this famers’ market was a nice mix between that and a flea market. Additionally, we were all thinking we could get some lunch at this farmers’ market, as that is common to be a be able to do at the ones I go to, but there were no lunch options/ hot food.

While I wanted to buy a lot of food at the market, I found it somewhat difficult. Firstly, I didn’t know what a lot of the food was, and even when I tried to ask, I couldn’t understand what the vender was saying. There were a lot of interesting looking vegetables that I didn’t recognize, and I wish I knew what they were! Additionally, I didn’t want to buy any clothing items because I wasn’t comfortable bargaining with them. I am not super confident with my bargaining skills to begin with, but the language barrier made me even more nervous, so i opted out of buying items like clothing or sunglasses. Despite this, I thought it was a great experience and gave me insight into what the people of Cefalú eat and cook with most.