Eveleigh Markets have become a Sydney institution.
Set up in old railsheds in nearby Darlington, these Saturday markets offer a wide (and expensive) range of gourmet produce. We usually shop at Flemington, but we try to pop into Eveleigh every couple of months or so to check out what’s on offer.
Our most recent visit was prompted by a tweet announcing that new season, locally grown (NSW) truffles were available last Saturday. The owners of the stall were knowledgeable and friendly, and didn’t seem to mind at all that I couldn’t afford their last remaining truffle at $170…
We bought potatoes for $5 a bag (about 1½ kilos)…
This stall dedicated solely to dog treats always makes me smile. We really do live in the first world…
I was very chuffed to meet my tweetpal, the gorgeous Ester from Country Valley Milk…
We purchased her blue cheese, unfiltered organic apple juice and some fabulous Pepe Saya handmade butter, made from Country Valley cream…
Ester’s stall was next door to Thirlmere Poultry – a small local (NSW) company breeding and supplying an assortment of free range fowl. They have chickens, ducks and a few game birds on offer, as well as duck fat and offal.
We had an opportunity to chat with owner John Meredith today, a highly respected 35 year veteran of the Australian poultry industry, and a man with a great passion for the welfare and management of his flocks. He advised us to always wash poultry before freezing it, to remove any pooled blood and to protect against salmonella. It was a joy to be able to buy free range birds that had been well cared for and gently processed…
Here is part of today’s haul. We also bought a tub of Darling Mills marinated cornichons, some organic chestnuts, a French sorrel plant for the garden, and a 2.5kg free range Meredith duck…
Eveleigh Markets are well worth a visit if you ever have a couple of hours free on a Saturday morning. Make sure to take plenty of cash!
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a great & grand market this is! The colourful mixed potatoes look just wonderful: great to use in a lovely potato salad! Great pics too! ;)
Wish you could visit, Sophie! The potatoes were very reasonably priced, and there were about ten different varieties in the basket!
Celia, you are sooo lucky with all the options open to you in Sydney. Those markets look wonderful.
Glenda, if you ever get a chance, they’re definitely worth a visit! They run a monthly Sunday artisan market there as well…
That’s a huge and impresive indoor winter market, how fortunate that you have all those options. Did Ester and Thirlmere Poultry bring their refrigeration equipment or are they permanent at the market?
Norma, it’s a fabulous space, and every stall is an interesting one. The only issue is parking, although I suspect that’s a universal problem for markets everywhere. I believe the stallholders provide their own equipment, as the space is used for an Artisan market the first Sunday of every month.
We have lovely markets up here but nothing like this one. I’ve got a bit of market envy I must admit.
Maureen, the nicest thing about these markets is the roominess and the fact that it’s undercover. All the produce is high end – it’s not the place to find a bargain.. :)
I love shopping in farmers markets. This one sounds fabulous!
On our island we have roughly 30 of them that are open different days of the week, year round…makes it fun and interesting to see what each offers as growing/climate/elevation conditions are so different as you drive around the island…
Thirty! That’s so many – we don’t have nearly that many here in Sydney.
By the way, I’m not able to get into your blog – the link doesn’t seem to open? I’d really love to visit.. :)
Not sure what the problem might be…I tested the link and it works for me…but here it is http://www.soniatasteshawaii.com
I also visit and write special feature articles about the different farmers markets, farmers and CSA farmers on our island…those articles can be found at http://www.hawaiihomegrown.net under RESOURCES…
Sorry, I can get into the Hawaii Homegrown site, but not your homepage on either link. I’ll keep trying. I’m getting a “server not found” error at the moment.
I’m so sorry you can’t get into the blog…not sure what the problem can be – maybe if you just type the address into your browser yourself or do a search for soniatasteshawaii, it might come up…
I’m sure it’s a problem at my end if it’s working for you. I’ll see if I can get it sorted, thanks Sonia. :)
Hope you can get it to work eventually…
Hello there, from one markets aficionado to another. Good to meet you. I have added a link to Hawaii Homegrown on my links page under Markets of the World.
Thank you (or better yet, mahalo!) Lizzy….I do love farmers markets!
One week before I leave for Europe and get to visit some markets myself. You’ve whetted my appetite…
Have a wonderful time, Sally! :)
That truffle looks amazing. I’d buy it and just um, skip groceries for two weeks! Yep, that’d work.
Greg, I thought about it. But it’s just the start of the season, and I’m sure they’ll be smaller and more affordable ones to come.. :)
Celia, thank you for this round up of Eveleigh. I have yet to visit this market. So glad you met Ester, she’s such a lovely lady and so passionate about markets and her dairy goods. I have a truffle in my refrigerator right now. I won it via Twitter! ; )
Lizzy, you won a truffle? How cool is that! :)
I love Eveleigh Markets. The duck sausages are lovely, and I also like Country Valley products. When we go we have a few goodies in mind & plus flowers & whatever veges appeal as we don’t have a wonderful garden like yours. One of the great things about Eveleigh Markets is the opportunity for tasting which is free and handy if you haven’t had breakfast. Great idea for a post.
EllaDee, are the duck sausages from Thirlmere, or Pepes? I didn’t see them, but I’d love to pick some up next time. We really are lucky to have Eveleigh – I went to Marrickville Markets the following day, and they just didn’t compare.
I’m not sure, which is why I didn’t specify but I think Pepe’s. Next time I go, I’ll take more notice. Eveleigh is the jewel but Marrickville is fun on a sunny Sunday morning.
Thank you! I’ll look out for it next time. Have you ever been to Orange Grove markets? They’re a bit nicer than Marrickville in my opinion, but run by the same people, so quite similar.
Been to Orange Grove – parking is a bit of a pain. I can walk to Eveleigh which limits my purchases and helps limit the $$$$. I find Marrickville Markets entertaining but might have changed since my last visit a couple of months ago – it happens.
ED, you are SO right about the parking!! Walking to Eveleigh would be so lovely. Do you take a nanna trolley? I love mine.. ;-)
Of course I have a nanna trolley!
Mine is sage green and I think it’s on its last legs. Have wheeled home too many trays of tinned tomatoes in them.. :D
Sounds like it has just the right amount of age & character. Mine is quite new – cheap from POK – mainly used when when I shop in Newtown as I find it annoying to trundle up to & through Eveleight Mkts & would be impossible to navigate thru Marrickville Mkts. It’s handy also for ferrying stuff from my car in the basement car park up to the apartment.
That looks like your type of heaven but how did you control yourself and your wallet?! If you are ever in Ireland, put the English Market in Cork city on your list of foodie visits. And I’ll add Eveleigh to my list for when I retire and go travelling again ;-)
PS I’m so bad at keeping up with Google Reader these days but FJLC is always read (quietly).
Hello love! So nice to hear from you – hope all is going smoothly with the littlest one. I love that there is an “English Market” in Cork… ;-)
You’d be interested in the item I bought at the bottom of the page – English toffee, which is basically a salted caramel topped with tempered choc and roasted almonds. Could make a nice addition to your range? Here’s a better photo:
Oh sounds divine! You must be reading my mind or maybe that should be taste buds mind because I’ve become addicted to toffee. I’m making my Toffee Twist … 44% milk choc, toffee shards and a twist of salt :-)
What a lovely way to spend a day. I do prefer to buy meat where I know the animals had a happy life and were treated and fed well. I’m sure shopping in markets like this would make it impossible to narrow your purchases down to within your budget. There would be so many ‘must-haves’. I would have loved to have seen the range of doggy treats! xx
I have to go with a maximum of $100 in my pocket, just to make sure it doesn’t go too pear-shaped! :)
Great post! We occasionally make trek to eveleigh too :) that truffle does look very special!
We really are lucky to have it here in Sydney, aren’t we? :)
I am another fan of Everleigh markets – and I need to try the $100 trick as it is easy to get carried away with all the fabulous produce available ;-)
Hi Sue, there really is so much there that’s hard to resist!
Why have I not heard of English toffee before? It sounds amazing.
That’s a good tip about freezing chicken. I’ve never washed it before.
How wonderful that you got to meet a twitter friend!
Claire, you would LOVE the English toffee! I only buy a small packet, because Pete doesn’t like it, but it’s very buttery and sweet, and just a little bit salty too.. :)
Im heading in there in a couple of weeks for the first time. I cant wait :D
Have fun, Nic! :)
How nice to meet the producers and hear their stories for yourself. Its wonderful going to the markets and catching some of their passion for ourselves as well :) Great haul Celia!
Becca, well put! It was lovely to get caught up in their passion! :)
Lovely haul Celia – I’m so envious that you have a supplier of chickens about which you can be confident they’ve had a good life and haven’t been horribly treated before they die. I haven’t been able to find that in Brisbane. I know the real solution would be to do it all ourselves – but I’m chicken!!
Jan, thank you for commenting on that. It was the best thing about the day for me, getting to chat to John. His property is based in NSW, and he was telling me he only keeps a small flock (in commercial terms, he still has a couple of thousand birds, but some of the big suppliers keep flocks of tens of thousands). Their pricing wasn’t too exorbitant either – a large chook cost me about $15 as opposed the the $13 I might pay for Lilydale. I’m going to see if I can find you someone in Brisbane – it will be my new project.. :)
Celia, you are a love! I would be very happy if I could buy a chook for $15 and know that it had been treated with respect.
Jan, I asked on twitter for you this morning, and Beth from Burrawong Gaian asked me to let you know that Food and Wine Concepts stock their chickens and ducks. I have no idea how much they cost though. I did a Google search and found some info on them from this website:
In 2012, Beth and Hayden McMillan have taken the reins from the Joliffe’s Burrawong pastured poultry business to create Burrawong Gaian located at Barraganyatti, north of Kempsey. They raise their chickens (up to 4,000 at any one time) from day-olds; they are free from hormones, chemical and antibiotics. They forage freely outdoors and are also corn-fed. The Joliffes hand process – bar the plucking machine – pack and distribute the chickens. They supply both the local and metropolitan market; they sell off-farm, at Hastings Farmers’ Markets, to local butchers and to Sydney and Brisbane.
Beth and Hayden McMillan’s farming methodology is an extension of the rotational pastured model popularised by Joel Salatin. Gaian Poultry is reared in an open range environment with the help of daily range pens and electric mesh taking the birds to new pasture. Other livestock are incorporated into the rotation to aid soil aeration as well as weed and parasite control.
I’ll let you know if I hear anything else! :)
I love a market blog Celia! This one is on my list for our next trip to the big smoke. It looks great. I have been waiting to buy Pepe Saya butter for ages, it is not stocked locally. I bet that duck will be delicious!
Jane, thank you, we roasted the duck in the Romertopf and the boys devoured it. :) The Pepe Saya butter is really lovely, but expensive! :)
celia I’m still ‘untruffled’. I haven’t tried one yet, and want it to be the right dish when I do. I can still smell Matthew evan’s truffle jar in his shop in Hobart. Unlike any other smell isn’t it. $170 though…eeek.
It’s been yonks since I went to Eveleigh.
Brydie, it really IS expensive, isn’t it? Maybe have a look next time you’re in Tassie – the Spice Girl brought me back a baby truffle for just $25 last year.
I want to go there! if only for the chestnuts. :-)
There supposed to be easy peel – I’ve yet to try cooking them!
Never had the pleasure of truffles. Well, choccie ones but that’s a different animal altogether. :) One day perhaps!
I hope you get to try them, Misky! They’re quite unique. Having said that, I’m not such a big fan that I’ll pay $170 for one. There are some really nice byproducts these days which are really quite affordable if you’re keen to have a taste – we have a great truffle oil and a truffle paste which is also very nice.
The tyranny of distance!
Aah, but you have the spectacular Queen Vic Markets.. :)
Good point!
I also love this market. It has become a family tradition on my birthday that we go there for lunch and with $50 each for the 4 of us to spend buying things we use to cook dinner (and some extras). It’s fun choosing and we all end up with very different things.
Nic, that is a fantastic family tradition!! You’d end up with some amazing stuff – dinner must be quite the meal! :)
Now I just need to look up Eveleigh and see where it is and whether I can go there:) hehe It looks like fun!
Miss K, it’s in Darlington, quite close to Redfern station and Sydney Uni. Old stomping grounds for Pete and I. :)
Look at how pretty those potatoes are! What are you doing with those? I just love to wander around markets on the weekends… when I manage to get up early enough!
SK, there were so many varieties to choose from! We bought a pink one that was new to us (can’t remember the name right now), and I think we’ll probably roast them!
Looks like you certainly had a great time. You really can’t beat a good market!
Amanda, we had a ball. The only hard thing was carrying everything back to the car! :)
I am green with envy! Those potatoes look amazing – and I don’t mind paying more for really good produce. I always repack my chicken as I was told to take it out of the polystyrene container as soon as possible. Have a super day :)
Thanks Tandy! You too! :)
I really had never heard of these markets but what a find! Arriving in Syd on 13 Aug!
Getting closer! Get your brother to take you to Eveleigh one Saturday while you’re here!
I love Eveleigh too! My fav shops are the mushroom stall, the stall that sells padrons and the fellow who does the small goods. He makes the best chorizo I have ever eaten.
The potatoes look wonderful.
Hi Louise, thanks for dropping by! I didn’t buy any of those things, but I’ll look out for them next time I’m there, thank you! :)
My aunt, who lives in Sydney for 6 months of the year and who I haven’t seen in a long time, is visiting next week, so I shall ask her if she knows about these markets.
Choc, I’m sure she does – the markets have only been going a couple of years, but they’ve already become quite well known!
Hi Celia, Love that market too especially Gumnut Chocolates including their caramel sauce and florentines Angela
Thanks Angela, I’ll look out for them next time!
The marshmallows! You must mention the MARSHMALLOWS.
I did last time. I don’t want to always sound like a raving lunatic. :)
https://figjamandlimecordial.com/2009/07/26/saturday-markets/