Wednesday, August 24, 2022

Keady Market

Yesterday we headed out to the locally famous Keady Market, where you can buy just about anything under the sun.  Keady Market started out as a livestock market, which it still is, but now vendors can rent space for stalls selling everything from fruits and veggies (which is what we were after) to sunglasses, hats and sheets.

It still is a livestock market, and the auctioneers sell everything from rabbits to cattle, outside for the small animals and poultry (this is the auctioneer) and inside for the large animals.  This is the place to come, whether you're a farmer who has cattle to sell, you want to buy a few rabbits for your backyard or your teenager wants to buy a calf to raise and show at the fall fair.

It was the crowds that worried us.  Driving a wheelchair through crowds is never comfortable, and main street at the market is crowded!  We were both a little anxious about how it would go.

We were here for the fruits and veggies (and a little baking).  So we worked our way down main street and managed to get what Mrs. F.G. needed to make her antipaste, one of our delicious treats.  And we only succumbed to a little baking, a cherry strudel and some delicious Calebrese bread.

There were lots of fresh veggies, but we found the prices absurdly high this year.  This is not the place to come for cheap produce, nor is it necessarily local, though most is.
   
It isn't just fruits and veggies, as I said.  There are several aisles of stalls selling crafts, clothing, sunglasses, hats, and just about anything else.  We deliberately did not drive down any other aisles, sticking to the fruits and veggies.

We passed a couple of busking musicians.  I normally don't take pictures of people, but if they are there to perform in this setting, I make an exception.

Much of the fruit here, especially the peaches, will have come from the famous Niagara area, but if that's the closest place you can successfully grown peaches, then I consider it local.

There were quite a few flowers and plants, though we didn't buy any.

And at the end we drove back through the small village of Kilsyth where my grandparents ran this general store in the 30's and 40's.  Mrs. F.G. and I lived in the family home one summer after my last relative living in the village died.  Great memories!

Going to Keady Market was an interesting challenge for both of us.  I think we were both anxious about finding a place to park and unload me, about riding down the busy main street and about how other visitors would behave towards me.  It was a fine balance between waiting for people to get out of the way and just barging ahead!

The anxiety could easily have been enough to keep us at home, but we went and we conquered it successfully.  I just figured I had as much right to be there as anyone else, and I tried to drive slowly and safely.  I didn't use my shrill horn even once.  I'm finding that there's a huge tendency to become a hermit if you don't make the effort to get out.  Keady was a good reminder that you need to keep getting out and about!


15 comments:

  1. Interesting place, similar to what passes for a "farmers' market" here-- where a lot of the vendors aren't farmers but are craftspeople or merely resellers. The fruits and veggies certainly look good, and yes prices are higher this year -- fuel costs are driving up the prices of anything dependent on fuel which is just about everything. Glad to hear that you got through the crowd unscathed.

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  2. Our son-in-law has cerebral palsy, and will soon be in a wheelchair all the time, now a walker is not enough support. He, like you, goes out and about, has friends all over NZ, and further afield too. I am the hermit in our family and could be at home all the time !!!Those boxes of mixed fruits, so delicious, the varieties of veges, and the prices, has a bad season contributed to that? Mrs F.G., you are a trooper to drive the larger vehicle, and cope with the crowds too. Use that horn if you need to, I am guessing it is quite loud!!!

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  3. I guess you do have to think carefully when you venture forth. Your market reminds me of the Kitchener Market when I was in Guelph. The cattle auction was quite something. I couldn’t understand the auctioneer at all, and lots of cattle were sold so quickly.

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  4. Glad you braved it and made a nice day of it. :)

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  5. It looks like a lovely farmers’ market. The produce looks delicious.

    I am glad the expedition worked so well for you! I wish it was like that all of the time so that you’d feel comfortable going wherever you wanted.

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  6. Well done, both. I am perfectly happy being a hermit!

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  7. I'm so glad that you decided to brave going and it sounds like it all turned out okay. The prices always seem to be higher at farmers markets even from the ones who are not farmers. Hope you got everything needed for the recipe.

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  8. I'm glad you took photos of this market. It's very colorful and I wish we had the fruit here.

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  10. That looked to be quite a Keady crowd alright. I really liked all the colors in the flower photo. I can understand the anxiety and challenges of maneuvering around in a setting like that. When I drove a wheel chair van years ago I would sometimes go into crowded supermarkets with people in scooters and chairs to help them reaching things on shelves. Other shoppers were always courteous.

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  11. Those grapes caught my eye. It looks like a wonderful market, if a bit pricey.

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  12. If nothing else, the market was a colorful place to spend a bit of time. I'm glad you were able to make your way through the crowd. I think people sometimes are so focused on their destination they neglect to notice others in their path.

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  13. That looks like quite a big market with loads of produce and more. Prices seemed high but I guess everything costs more these days.
    It's good to hear that your outing went well.

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  14. Wow the fruits are beautiful! I would have purchased yellow beans!!

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