San Sebastian Pulguero - Better than Expected!

This morning I went with friend Diana on a trip to the San Sebastian Pulguero (flea market). I was hoping for some animals and vegetables but really figured it would be more of the same...brown brown and brown and hairy. Before we even got into the official flea market we were in the unofficial one where people take up the parking spaces and display their I-don't-want-to-pay-for-a-space stuff. I always used to be pissed at this when I bought a booth at art fairs and other people benefited from the crowds without paying.  There were all kinds of things ranging from crap (plastic sparkly studded stuff, old motors, junk, flip flops etc.) to awesome plants and vegetables! There were lots of chickens: fancy ones and regular ones, big ones and small ones; an assortment of fancy Palomas (doves), pigs, goats, rabbits and of course some puppies. I was very pleased at the low number of puppies. My thoughts of an aviary-like gazebo filled with beautiful birds came back into my mind (and left again).

Then we came across this guy with the avocados in a cage! I figured they must be a high theft item (coffee here is under lock and key in the supermarkets the way booze was in the states) but after talking to the guy found out it was to prevent people from bruising them! This late in the season avocados are like gold and the 2-4 dollar price tags are evidence of that! People here love to handle everything, roughly, and never buy things - it makes shopping all that more disturbing to see people touch every single tomato, pressing them, then leaving with nothing. Good idea - avocado cage.

We went at around 10 in the morning before the crowds, but also before a lot of the vendors. The thing goes until 9 at night.

Here's a fancy rooster.

This rooster is the size of a toddler! The guy had chicks for $3 and I may want one because the white bitch (hen) doesn't have a buddy now that Big Red joined othesr in the neighborhood.

There were plenty of hairy brown vegetables (which would be fine if you didn't have to waste energy boiling them forever) and the usual pimientos, calabaza, chayotes, culantro...there were batata amarillas (they call them sweet potatoes but they aren't really like sweet potatoes they are really really good), cilantro, and other normal stuff.

This time of year there are oranges and there are always bananas, plantains breadfruit etc.

I scored some organic snap peas and some fresh turmeric which I plan on planting! (note the roots and no they aren't insect larvae!)

I also scored this cool $4 purse (the strap on my larger one broke and I hate carrying a purse so this is perfect).

For $2 I scored a couple chayotes to plant.

Local and WHOLE BEAN coffee.

There was a large selection of plants including interesting and unusual fruit trees/shrubs. There were grape, raspberry, blueberry bushes and cacao, longan , olive and some other unusual trees. I'll check Enaidas for grafted ones first and then maybe go back for a few things. I got a couple $3 hibiscus that had great color and nice shapes.

The other day when I was making crackers I went into the yard and discovered I DON'T have rosemary, mint, lemons, culantro oregano and many other things I use regularly. It is time to get my garden in order and get this stuff in so I got a few $1 starts instead of doing it from seed. Now I have pots so I can start some seeds after I get these guys planted!

There was a nice enough variety of fresh produce that I may go there every friday since it is 15 minutes from my house! Between SAMS, the pulguero and what I can get going in the yard we should be eating well pretty soon!