Shopping at Farmers Market in Cabo San Lucas

We have been on our life changing almost month long vacation in Mexico for 18 days now. Time sure does fly when you are having fun. We finally left our compound to go to the farmers market for the second time. The heat and the fact that it is nearly impossible to suggest any other activity to the boys besides the pool and beach (once they are loaded in the van it is all good though), make me and Alex super lazy. Honestly, I don’t even feel like posting any recipes because it feels like work here and I feel like none of it, rather sharing my adventures. And this is what I’m doing, despite my previous promises, but I will get back at recipes in first week of April, promise. I think you don’t mind a bit of “Mexican spice” on iFoodReal though.:)

Farmers market in Cabo San Lucas (Facebook page) is an organic market. Not USDA certified organic but rather honest hard working small farmers of Mexico certified. I chose a picture of this elderly gentleman helping his son (?) as a main photo for many reasons. He took a special place in my heart – in ironed pants, super clean shoes and a dress shirt, he is selling produce he grew with his old tired hands, while patting my boys on their heads and walking with difficulty, taking breaks in the shade. Everything about this man says “kindness” and “hard work”, and I’m sure he doesn’t own much. This is why I shop at farmers markets anywhere I can, to support people’s hard work instead of Walmart and Costco’s VP executive salaries. Poverty is heart wrenching, but my heart aches when particularly elderly suffer as their ability to work is limited. Anyways.

Cabo farmers market is located in the community of Pedregal, just outside of downtown Cabo, in the courtyard of Penny Lane Cafe. Beware that map directions might not work for you. Somehow, the map took us to a wrong place and we did punch in the right address. We found the market by simply driving around Pedregal, yes with imaginary stop sings and one way streets with yellow lane divider in the middle.

You know what, once you get a hang of driving in Mexico it is actually easier than in North America. It is completely different but drivers are not nearly as aggressive in Cabo as they are in Vancouver. And rules are so simple, they are bizarre but they work  – I’m quite enjoying just slowing down at stop signs and not turning on left and right turn signals LOL, it is so lazy and easy. Anyways.

The market isn’t big, there are 3 (!) produce vendors in total. One of them (with grandpa) carries organic chicken and you can even pre-order beef. 2 vendors carry the best farm fresh eggs ever.

I found all “regular” North American produce I usually buy at home. That corn was the sweetest corn ever, like the one I ate as a kid in Ukraine. There were shelves upon shelves with herbs, all kinds of lettuce (arugula was top notch!), carrots, beets, cabbage, celery and 3 types of kale. Everything is here!

Holy, tomatoes!!! Holy heirloom tomatoes! THE BEST! Which makes sense because so much sun here in Mexico, and yet Walmart in Cabo carries the most disgusting plasticky tomatoes similar to the ones sold in Vancouver in winter. Costco was Costco, tomatoes were OK. But Mexican farmers market tomatoes were amazing! Unlike cucumbers, which I gave up on finding tasty in warm climates – they are all like cotton and you gotta peel the thick skin. But nothing beats a sandwich with deli meat, cheese and a cucumber, try it!

Cauliflower galore – white, green, yellow and purple. I got a purple one and am yet to cook it. Alex was busy grabbing radishes.

Zucchini of all shapes, sizes and colours.

I was so pumped to find butternut squash! I will be making simple squash curry soup for lunch, similar to this Thai chicken butternut squash soup.

Leeks, beets, eggplant, poblanos, onions, lime, 20 kinds of peppers, bell peppers, turnip and a few unknown veggie species like the one cut up pink one and sweet potato looking one.

Fruit selection changes every week because it is farmers market – produce in season, the way it should be.

There was papaya, melon and cantaloupe this week. Last week we bought guava but unfortunately it is done for the season. It was out of this world, my kids loved it! I ate so much papaya by now, I think I’m good with vitamin C for the rest of 2017.

Farmers market is not the place to buy your bananas and apples, at least in March.

Farmers market in Cabo San Lucas has a bakery stand. As we are not huge baked goods eaters for health reasons, I wasn’t too much interested. I like to make my own wholesome muffins and breads. I also found it to be pricey, even for Canadians. A cookie was US$1.5 which I think is a lot for a Mexican farmers market cookie. We bought a loaf of sourdough bread which was great but I think it cost $6, not cheap at all. Bakery stand is run by North Americans, I believe and so is Penny Lane Cafe. The prices and the menu were very Americanized and cafe was bussing with English. A breakfast would cost us US$40 for 4 of us which I consider expensive because I can cook myself and save money for travels. Yep. I think the main target market of this cafe are snowbirds and there is plenty of them. We barely see any young families and kids.

Overall, you should expect a 50/50 mix of North Americans and Spanish speaking people at the market. This is the place I saw as most English speaking people as in downtown Cabo which I think is great for them to support local farmers. The vendors speak good English too.

Loaded on groceries, walking cobblestone roads (I love that) to our van we went.

US$60 worth of produce and eggs among boogie boards, pool noodles and snorkelling gear. How am I going to live my life in April?! 8 full days of this amazingness left, while I realize for majority of people it marks packing suitcases for vacation. I refuse to live by the majority rules. Off to the ocean view balcony I ago, with a glass of chilled white wine to solve a puzzle, just a 1,000 piece puzzle from Value Village, not the life puzzle. I will think about the latter after arriving to rainy Vancouver and getting a good sleep.

Until next time! Maybe next time I will have our condo clean enough to show you. Ugh, joys of laziness on vacation.