it's Kate: The Farmer's Market

Our Fresh Haul

Being a vegetarian (and nurtured foodie) I love fresh foods. I mean, who doesn't? So today my mother and I journeyed to our local farmer's market! Living in the Philippines, we come across a shortage of fresh foods more often than not and that's why we love the Salcedo Market so much. Well....it's one of the reasons anyway.

The Salcedo Saturday Market is a farmer's market in a park in the middle of Makati, a city-suburb of Manila just a hop, skip, and a honk away from where we live in Fort Bonifacio (aka Global City). The Market itself is fairly sized with so many vendors selling cookies and home baked bread, homemade ice cream, Indonesian food that you can eat right there! You can also find ice cream vendors, fresh fruit juice, freshly-caught fish, vegan treats and, of course, fresh veggies!

This is Mom and I's second trip to the Market, the first was about a year ago. It's been far too long since we last went! Our first time here we met the man behind "Carmen's Ice Cream" an ice cream business he runs on the weekends, he has some city job during the week, and we tried some of his ice cream. We were immediately hooked, the stuff is so delicious and creamy and surprisingly low on calories (although we're not sure we exactly trust the label). We recently found a shop nearby that sells his products too so whenever we need a Carmen's fix we pop in and buy a pint of either Butter Pecan or Salted Carmel (yuuum).

Our first purchase at the market was a bottle of homemade ginger ale that a small stall was selling. We didn't try it first, just took a chance, and then tried it after we bought it. It was delicious! Completely refreshing, tasted so much like ginger but it wasn't bitter. And you know I love me some ginger ale so it was a great first buy.

Fresh flowers were available for purchase in many stalls as was freshly-squeezed juice. We got a cup of Melon juice, the orange concoction in the picture, and it tasted exactly like cantaloupe!

We came across a lovely pair of vegan girls that had a stand selling healthy, organic, and vegan goodies. We tried some of their dried Kale Chips and (despite the connotation everyone associates with the word 'kale') they were delicious! They were certainly different from any other chip, potato or otherwise. We also tried one of their power bar mixes and that was delicious as well. We ended up walking away with a bag of kale chips, two power bars, and peanut butter 'bliss balls' that we have yet to try but will be good post-workout.

My beautiful mother in front of the market

My outfit for the day: a blue gauzy tank that I've had for absolutely ages, high-waisted Forever 21 jean shorts, a dolphin ear cuff with diamond studs, a midi-ring set from Wet Seal, and dove grey flats. Unfortunately most of the clothes are from past collections so they all aren't available anymore but you can find similar ones here (+ the same jewelry): (rings, shorts, ear cuff)

I chose the French Braid for my hair because it takes no maintenance once it's up (and I live in a hot country) and because it helps fill in the giant space of the lowered-back tank.

Our total haul back at the apartment

We got some really yummy blueberry bread, fresh tuna steaks, lotsa' fresh produce (look at that corn!), plus the ginger ale, the vegan treats, and the ice cream.