Fresh locally grown food is back on the menu after the territory's three farmers' markets rebooted on the weekend.
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Canberra's foodies flooded exhibition park, Canberra University and Woden to stock up on produce after a Christmas-New Year hiatus.
Stallholders were greeted with long queues, with shoppers keen to get in before the heat of the day.
Canberra's newest farmers' market, at the University of Canberra on Saturday afternoons, attracted a more modest 25 stalls and several hundred shoppers.
Russell Farr, who runs Windellama Organics, usually sells at all three markets but only opened on Sunday after a Boxing Day hailstorm – the second for 2013 – wiped out much of his produce.
“We lost all our fruit for the year, and lost all our vegetables twice,” Mr Farr said.
Mr Farr – who sells mix produce, including garlic, mixed greens, berries, and eggs - plans to be at all three by February.
Mr Farr said his organically certified produce was growing in popularity as the markets boomed.
“People appreciate knowing there food isn't contaminated by chemicals or pesticides,” he said.
“Even though everything is labelled certified organic, people are want to confirm it is genuinely organic and there's nothing nasty used.
“One of the best things about going to a market is developing relationships with customers who come back each week.”
Southside Farmers Market manager Stanley van Wijk said the relationship between buyer and seller was one of the reasons for the expansion into Belconnen on a Saturday afternoon.
Mr van Wijk said the 65 stall Sunday market was attracting almost 3000 shoppers each week.
He said creating the Saturday afternoon market would give Canberrans a third option, with the added benefit of introducing the farmers' market experience to new customers.
“We can to keep that much more relaxed focus so you don't have to get up at 6am, you can arrive at 9am and there's still lots of produce left,” Mr van Wijk said.
“It's important to our growers and producers because they like to talk to customers and the customers like to talk to the people that produce their food."
Mr van Wijk said consumers were increasingly aware of environmental concerns like food miles, buying seasonal produce, and organic growing when shopping.
“The fact they can talk to the person who grew and ask them how they've done it is important too.
“It's the next level of buying Australian.
“People are becoming more educated to the fact you can get better quality food and it's better for the farmers to buy directly from them."