Yesterday, it was cold in the morning with a dusting of snow and plenty of ice on the roadways. The weather, however, looked promising as the skies were blue and by 10 am the sun had come out, despite the cold. I had read the night before that Dublin’s Saturday organic food market was started up again – after the Christmas / New Years holidays – and decided that some fresh organic produce was just the thing I needed, because I’m rather tired of the stuff in the supermarket that was picked green and is tasteless.

Of course, I had also been thinking I needed a trip to Dublin anyhow, as I wanted to find the tea shop, visit the camera shop for a piece for my new camera (a battery converter that just came in), and buy some Irish grown/spun yarn (called wool here) so that I could start on some baby gifts for my friend Jules (she announced last week that she’s not just having one, nor two – but THREE babies in a couple of months) in the hopes of getting the gifts completed by the time the babies arrive

I took a different bus to town than I normally do – and I’ve only been to the city on my own 2 other times – with specific destinations in mind. A quick look at the map, and a good guess got me off the bus in the right place. I crossed the River Liffy and then headed into Temple Bar district. My first try was an area that I thought the food market would be in. Well, it wasn’t there – instead, in this open area, I came across the book market. Apparently this is also held every Saturday – but I found nothing of interest, most likely because there was only a single vendor set up due to the damp conditions overnight.

From there, I walked up a couple of streets and then over and sort of Zig-Zagged my way through the district’s main streets. I found a couple of clubs that I’d been to (nice to put those into perspective street wise) and then I found the food market – down a tiny alley way, and a flight of steps – almost completely by accident. The only reason I found it was because as I crossed the street, I saw an elderly man with a wire shopping basket full of partially dirt covered veggies coming out of the alleyway and thought “hum… I wonder if that could be from the market”. Sure enough, I was correct.

The thing is it wasn’t nearly so big as I had expected, only taking up an area of maybe 1/2 acre. Despite the small size, it was filled with all kinds of goodies. From beautiful locally grown winter vegetables:

To fabulous colored winter berries and mushrooms:

To Beautiful baked breads and pasteries:

And the traditional Irish Pies – there was something for everyone.

There even was a Mexican salsa section, a rainbow of organic preserves, round lumps of goat cheese, plenty of Irish raised beef to choose from, and – my personal favorite (though I don’t eat seafood) – the oyster bar with accompanying sign that could symbolize someone’s life philosophy. (Ok, I admit, it was more the sign that made me laugh than anything else. ) To say the least, I spent a bit of cash on the stuff they had there (every bit as tasty as I had expected) and called it one successful day out – and only got lost once. Go me! Oh – and remember —