Local Producers
When we sit down to eat, it's often surprising how little we know about what is on our plate. Each ingredient has typically travelled over 1000 kms, and when we add up the contents of a typical shopping basket, the food miles are equivalent to travelling nearly twice around the Earth. For the uninitiated, 'food miles' is a term now commonly used to measure the transport distance travelled by food products between production and consumption. The movement has grown and has even spawned the term locavore.But why do we care? We care because the energy costs involved in food production and the transport of goods from paddock to plate are having a negative impact on our environment, contributing to climate change and peak oil issues.
Locally raised and produced food has been called "the new organic" - better tasting, better for the environment, better for local economies and better for your health. Buying from local farmers means the produce is fresh and better tasting. And short transport distances means it has a smaller carbon footprint.
So Eat Local at South Melbourne Market.
Coolibah Herbs
Introducing Paul and his team at Coolibah Herbs in Pearsdale. Paul oversees the quality of your herbs so you can add the freshest flavours to your food.
Fred
Fred, with his Border Collie ‘Clancy’, tends his sheep near Echuca and brings them from paddock to plate via his stall, Kirkpatrick Butchers. Lamb can be in a supermarket for up to 112 days; Fred’s are never in his stall longer than 14. That’s a guarantee of freshness.
Maroondah Orchards
Alan and Jennifer Upton like it small and personal. They grow apples and pears and their 60 acres orchard just celebrated 100 years! All the 3 children and 6 grandchildren were there as well as lots of friends and neighbours. Life music and lots of food...it was a great day, they laugh. Alan’s grand-father, who planted the first trees on the property, would have been proud.
Morry
Say hello to Morry, dogs Rex and Bella. His 27 years experience at growing veggies means an organic feast for your table.
Paul and Nickolas Patsuris
Meet Paul and Nickolas Patsuris. Grown in the rich soils of Werribee South, their family has been producing vegetable for decades. They are genuinely local producers, using just a couple of litres of fuel to deliver their produce, fresh and juicy, to the wholesale market where your South Melbourne Market stallholders select the finest produce. This is about a small carbon footprint but ‘huge’ freshness.
Priest Brothers
Meet the men behind Priest Brothers - Norm and his sons Paul and Shane. Their fruit comes to you from Pakenham, just down the M1.
Wendy Martin
This is Wendy Martin and Billy Savage. Their beetroots are picked fresh on Old Dandenong Rd, Heatherton. Just forty minutes drive from the Market, it’s hard to imagine how we could get fresher produce.