Been a while since I took you to the feria with me, and I know you’re thinking over there in the northern hemisphere, mwahahaha, now who’s got the cherries and berries and stuff? And true enough, I am jealous, and definitely switch it up from more fruit to more veggies in the fall and winter. But Santiago stacks up pretty well, in a not-too shabby showing in about a 20 minute trip spinning through the Vega.
I did see one dog pee on a crate (that was holding up another crate which is where the actual vegetables were, and two cats curled up among the produce, but this, like the guys selling paños a cien a cien los paños (kitchen dish cloths for 100 pesos), is to be expected.
But what really surprised me today was the number of somewhat elegantly-dressed upperclass folk meandering through. Could it be because of the recent news report that compared feria prices with supermarket prices, and reported that, with the exception of string beans, which cost almost the same, and which taste like grass (last commentary mine, not the news report’s), that some vegetables cost up to three times more in the supermarket than in the Vega? They also compared the prices in the “matadero” which is in Franklin, near/in the big flea market, but I don’t generally shop there.
Anyway, enough talking! you want to know about the goods. And here they are, posed out on the balcony with too much light, and not quite enough table.
English first Spanish in italics then price in CLP/dollars
bunch of cilantro cilantro (200 CLP/ .40)
bunch of parsley perejil (200 CLP/ .40)
1/4 kilo arugula rúcula (500 CLP/ $1.00)
18 mandarin oranges mandarinas (800 CLP/$1.60)
3 gigantic fuji apples manzanas (600 CLP/ $1.20)
1/2 kilo awesome spinach espinaca (350 CLP/ .55)
1/2 kilo mushrooms champiñones (1250 CLP/ $2.50)
1 head of broccoli brócoli (500 CLP/ $1.00)
1 piece of squash corte de zapallo (500 CLP/ $1.00)
1 bunch of carrots zanahorias (500 CLP/ $1.00)
1 head fennel hinojo (500 CLP/ $1.00)
1/4 kilo jerusalem artichokes topinambour (400 CLP/ .80)
3 heart- shaped red peppers morrones (300 CLP/ .60)
Total haul 6.500 CLP = $13.00
So, who’s coming to visit? There might be some nibbles in it for you. And we can even make a trip to Quesos Arturito with actual cheese with actual flavor and non bankrupting prices. We love Quesos Arturito. Well, me and every other gringo I know.
There is a cheese place! Oh, I miss cheese…I don’t like to complain, but Chilean cheese, (except goat) really is, well…you know.
And we actually make cheese on our farm, and it still taste like Chilean cheese! (We did make a nice blue cheese for a while, and nice parmasen cheese).
But it takes 10 lts of milk to make a kilo of cheese, and I think you have to really love cows, and milking, and making cheese, to make a great cheese. Also you have to believe in your cheese to make a business out of it, which my Dad didn’t really understand when he started, so it is a part of the farm we are closing down.
At least I know there is nice cheese to be found, 🙂
Is the grass flavor the reason behind the chilean style grass blade julien of the string bean? I want some investigative television reportage about celery and bean slicing in this agriculturally blessed nation.