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Fresh greens, fish and flowers have thousands of Bahrainis and expat families flocking to the flourishing weekly Farmers Market.
Every Saturday morning Budaiya Gardens, located opposite the village post office, becomes a haven for shoppers looking to pick up fresh locally-grown produce at amazing prices … and for food lovers craving a heartwarming traditional Bahraini breakfast from the live-cooking stations.
Bahraini Farmers’ Market’s executive manager, Amani Abu-Idress, said: “This is our third year staging this community initiative which gives farmers, fishermen, productive families and gardeners a chance to promote their great products.
“Last year we had 15 farmers and were hoping to attract even more. This year we have 34 farmers featuring some of the most unusual and hard-to-find vegetables. They outdo themselves every week and some are even selling out early on. Their stands are looking better and they are always trying to impress visitors with different produce.
“This year we added an art section for kids and for artists. We made the fishermen’s area bigger and our petting zoo continues to attract children.
“We have improved the parking situation as we had so many people attending but not enough room. Now, we have a shuttle bus. People can park their cars at the coast of Abu Saiba for a ride to the market and once they are done from their shopping or breakfast, the shuttle will take them back.
“Every year we work on getting better because we want to make sure our guests are happy and comfortable.”
At 7.30am, while most people are still snoozing cosily in their beds, organisers can be seen working tirelessly to ensure that visitors have a fun-filled day at the beautiful community park.
Shopping carts are placed at the garden’s two entrances to make lugging the many produce and flowers around a simpler task. Eco-friendly shoppers can also purchase reusable fabric grocery bags from the entrances and proceeds from these bags are donated to Bahrain’s Sickle Cell Society.
The market begins to take shape when the farmers start to set up shop, unloading produce and prettying up their stalls with a variety of herbs and vegetables.
The fishermen begin to chill their catches of the day and the petting zoo makes sure the feathery and shaggy farm animals are comfortable in their designated areas.
Gardeners begin to arrange their chilli trees, flowers and fruit trees while the productive families start to display their handy craft. Artists place their easels overlooking the stunning water attraction for inspiration and there is even a place for children to try their hand at painting.
A large plot of land is transformed into an outdoor food court with different live-cooking stations and cafes selling a variety of goodies including corn, kebabs, sambosas, baajela (broad beans) and nikhi (chick peas), as well as Bahrain main courses such as biryani. There are tables and chairs around the area as well as room for picnicking. Savoury scents of home-cooked meals waft from one stand to the next and lines begin to form early in anticipation for service to begin.
When 8.30am hits, the market starts to fill up with families from different walks of life picnicking on the grass, strolling around the park, taking in the landscaped picturesque views and shopping to their hearts’ content.
For those five hours, the park is bubbling with energy. The choices of vegetables on sale are impressive with lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, cauliflower, eggplant, zucchini, onions, radish, potatoes, spinach and broccoli on hand. However, what captivated the crowd of shoppers last week were the baskets of bell peppers in red, green, yellow and purple along with the ruby red cherry tomatoes and leafy herbs including dill and kale.
Shopper Madeleine Doporto, a public relations specialist, who lives in Makabah, says she has never missed a day at the market since its inception.
She said: “As soon as I discovered it I have been coming every single Saturday, hardly ever missing one. The vegetables here are so fresh. Even if you keep them in your fridge for one week they are still fresher than the vegetables you buy at the supermarket in my opinion.
“They also are very reasonably priced. I can fill the whole boot of my car for between BD5 to BD7 with amazing stuff.
“Every year that passes, the market improves. Initially, it was just makeshift stalls and then gradually it was properly built tables that are a lot more organised with price lists on display. There are more additions and variety and they have plants and fish for sale. The variety simply gets bigger and better. A word of advice, if you wait to come here at 9am then unless you take the shuttle, you will have to park far up at the end of the road.
“Also, some of the special items on sale move rather quickly because the farmers don’t have large quantities of them, such as Kale. Kale costs just fils here and dinars in the shops. This is a great place to be.”
While visitors are packing their trollies with bags full of leafy goodness, children’s laughter can be heard from the petting zoo nearby as they feed the goats, chicken, ducks and cows and giggle at the turkey arrogantly parading around in its coot. A pony ride was the main attraction and everyone wanted a turn.
Farmer Ahmed Yusuf Al Daiestani, who provides the animal attraction from his farm in Demistan, said: “Since I was a kid I loved caring for animals such as cows, sheep, ducks and chicken. I have other animals but I cannot bring them to the market because of their size.
“I wanted to show guests the different animals brought up in Bahrain and give them a chance to see them up close. We have Bahraini chickens and ducks, cows from Holland and turkeys that also come from abroad. We also have a pigeon cage featuring the different pigeons of Bahrain.
“Most of the people that come to our petting zoo are foreigners who want to get close to the animals.”
Some youngsters enjoy feeding the animals, like little Faith, a three-year-old St Christopher’s School pupil, who visits the park every Saturday with her mother, Alison Jones.
Mrs Jones, a housewife from Saar, said: “Faith and I come to the park every week to purchase our fresh produce and revel in the great environment. It’s such a lovely atmosphere here. Faith can feed the animals and I can purchase organic produce that is good and healthy for my family.
“The fishermen have a great selection of seafood too and I have my eyes on the large crabs.”
The fishermen wowed with a wide collection of seafood including sheri, rabbit fish, channad, hammour, squid, prawns and crabs.
Fisherman Haider Hassan, 25, from Janusan, said: “We start fishing every Friday afternoon, returning to shore the next morning at 5am. We then sell it fresh on Saturday. This is our second year at the market and we love our new location as it’s bigger. We get many people asking for crabs which are BD1.5 per kilo and our jumbo prawns sell for BD3.5 a kilo.
“While I do deliver fish to people’s homes, this venue gives us a great place to sell our fish and connect with customers.”
The market is open from 8am until noon every Saturday until April.
For details, follow them on instagram @Farmersbh or email farmersbah@gmail.com
