Slow Food Earth Market – Sorrento Coast

Once a month, on the second Sunday, the Slow Food Earth Market takes place at the Piazza della Repubblica in Piano di Sorrento. Under a metal awning dating back to the late 1800’s, this community event brings the wholesome goodness of the Campania countryside to the city streets —thanks to the Slow Food Organization, Municipality of Piano di Sorrento, the Slow Food volunteers, and the community farmers and artisan producers.

Brimming with a delectable assortment of fresh produce, preserves, honey, cured-meats, cheeses, nuts, legumes, sweets, breads, olive oils, and beverages, this wholesome farmers’ market provides customers the opportunity to buy high-quality food directly from the very hands of the small-scale farmers and artisan producers from the local community.

The Earth Markets are Slow Food’s Network of Farmers’ Markets which host small-scale producers that directly sell their produce at fair prices. Products are local, seasonal and made using sustainable techniques and with respect for the environment.

All produce must meet specific quality criteria, reflecting the Slow Food Principles of Good, Clean and Fair:

• Good: fresh and seasonal, healthy, tasty and able to stimulate and satisfy the senses.
• Clean: environmentally sustainable cultivation and production processes, no GM crops, local.
• Fair: accessible prices for consumers and fair compensation and conditions for producers.

In addition, the products help to preserve the food culture of the community hosting the market and contribute to defending biodiversity. Read More »

Shopping at the Earth Market customer find organic, locally grown produce that has been picked on the nearby farms in the last day or so, at the peak of ripeness, therefore always rich in vibrant color, fragrance, and taste, and still packed with beneficial nutrients. Rather than the produce that has been transported over long distances you find in most grocery stores and supermarkets, which have lost some of their fresh, nutritious splendor along the journey.

The Slow Food Community of Farmers are dedicated to sustainability and environmental health. Through their organic farming practices they take great pride in providing nutritious, high-quality food for their families and local community, all the while helping to protect the environment in every way they can. In other words, these thoughtful, dedicated farmers put the health of the people and planet at the heart of their farming life. 

Since customers are buying local, seasonal produce they can look forward to reaping the numerous health benefits of eating the freshest of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even edible flowers, that are all chemical free. Plus, eating seasonally and shopping locally year-round connects you to the natural world, as well as provides the opportunity of knowing where your food comes from.

At the Earth Market customers reap the pleasurable benefits of a multi-sensory shopping experience—sights, tastes, textures, and fragrances so gratifying that over time inspire emotional connection to the rhythms of the earth; cycles of nature and it’s bounties. Whether it’s the taste of summer’s first juicy, ripe, local tomato; the sight of the bright, glossy red apples that will make autumn’s first pie; or the warm-and-fuzzy feeling as you gather root vegetables for soup on a frosty winter day—shopping in alignment with the seasons at this wholesome farmers’ market is sure to stimulate the senses and bring forth the little happy sensations that brighten up life.

Coming to the Earth Market makes shopping a pleasure as it gives customers the chance to get to know the people who produce the food in the local community —the farmers, butchers, bakers, cheesemakers, candymakers, winegrowers, and so on.

Most customers come to the market to buy high-quality food, but stay to socialize and make friends, share ideas, and consult with and learn from the respective masterful sources themselves —anything from organic farming; soil health and safe growing practices, to local gastronomic traditions, to health and nutrition, to sustainability and the effects of climate change on the local lands and food production (and preparing to adapt to its consequences), to etc. 

In addition, during the market at a scheduled time select community growers and producers together with slow food volunteers conduct a ‘Taste Workshop,’ where customers are provided the opportunity to refine their palates and learn more about the real taste (or, slow taste) of the wholesome organic food at the market. Whether it’s about the walnuts from Sorrento, or the ‘Piennolo’ tomatoes from Vesuvius, or the zucchini from San Pasquale, these educational taste workshops, which include informative narrative about time-honored practices and gastronomic traditions from the farms, are sure to keep customers deliciously entertained —enjoying a slow taste of Campania one season at a time.

Since these are small-scale farmers and artisan producers they have a hard time competing in the large-scale food marketplace, even though small-scale production is often preferred as it produces high-quality results. Grounded in a higher purpose mission, these community-run Earth Markets provide these select growers and producers, that have demonstrated their environmentally sustainable methods, with a friendly, non-competitive communal hub to sell their wholesome products directly to customers at fair market prices.

Due to their deep respect for the natural world and admirable change-making methods, supporting the community farmers and their agricultural and cultural heritage by shopping local —seems like a natural choice to me. After all, they have chosen to dedicate the extra time, energy, and resources to provide customers the opportunity to buy high-quality food to nourish their families and help to protect the environment by doing so —deepening the meaning of the shopping experience to one in which will undoubtedly make a difference.

In essence, the Slow Food Organization envisions a world  in which all people can access and enjoy food that is good for them, good for those who grow it, and good for the planet.

Plus, agriculture and climate change are intricately intertwined. While these community farmers are implementing their environmentally sustainable methods, they are simultaneously being challenged by the effects of climate change; the extreme weather events, drought, flooding, and other natural disasters. For instance, during late summer not long ago, there was an unprecedented hail storm that dropped golfball size hail down over the countryside, causing the under-ripened olives to fall off the bountiful trees that blanket the fertile hills of the Sorrento Coast. Hence, the numerous farmers that rely on the health of olive production were denied of their livelihood that season; no fruit, no olive oil, no profits. The increase in the negative impacts of climate change are depriving the livelihoods of farmers all over the Sorrento Coast and around the world. The reality is small-scale farmers need our support to help sustain their farms; organic farming practices and families, as they are adapting and building resilience to climate change.

In any case, it’s farmers’ markets like the Earth Market Sorrento Coast that foster a strong sense of community between the growers/producers and eaters. They give customers the chance to align with goodness and work in harmony on a communal level to help to preserve the local food culture and protect the natural world in which we all share together. 

From the seasonal reflections from the farm; the sights, tastes, textures, and fragrances of the multi-sensory shopping experience, to the numerous health benefits of eating the freshest of fruits, vegetables, herbs, and even edible flowers, that are all chemical free, to supporting the people who produce the nutritious, high-quality food in your local community, to helping to protect the natural world in which we all share —there are countless reasons to shop locally and support your community of farmers —and to think globally, with a higher purpose mission, as climate change is the greatest threat to our planet.

So, stop by your local Earth Market or farmers’ market; buy a bag of fruit, some veggies, or any other delicious edibles as you please —let’s take action and make a difference together!

♥

Slow Food Earth Market Sorrento Coast (Mercato della Terra della Costiera Sorrentina), Piazza della Repubblica, Piano di Sorrento (Na), open once a month, on the second Sunday from 9 am to 1 pm.

• For more information about the Slow Food Earth Market Sorrento Coast —  click here
• To find the Slow Food Earth Market nearest to you — click here
• For more information about the Slow Food International Organization — click here