Springwood Growers Market

The Springwood Growers Market has run on the fourth Sunday of every month since August 2015, and its selling point has stayed the same throughout: the people behind the tables grew or made what is on them. Around 50 growers and producers trade at the Blue Mountains Theatre and Community Hub on Macquarie Road each month, from 8am to 12pm.

Farm to table without the middle step

The range is broader than a produce market. Organic and chemical-free fruit and vegetables anchor it, alongside meats, breads and cheeses, olive oils and local wines, nuts and honey, free-range eggs, spices and condiments. Plants and seedlings do consistent trade, which suits a mountains crowd with gardens and a growing season quite different to Sydney's. The baked goods table covers gluten free and vegan, and the prepared food shifts month to month depending on which vendors are in: gnocchi, bagels, dumplings and doughnuts have all had a run.

Springwood sits in the lower Blue Mountains, close enough to the western Sydney basin and the Hawkesbury for growers to make the trip up the highway, which is what makes a genuine growers market viable here where it might not be higher up the range. Producers from further west, including Orange, also send stock down.

Planning your visit

The 8am to 12pm window is genuinely short for a monthly market, so treat noon as a hard stop rather than a guide. Arriving in the first hour gets you the full spread from the growers, particularly on produce and eggs.

Watch the December date. The market shifts to the third Sunday that month so it falls before Christmas rather than after it, which catches out regulars who have the fourth Sunday locked into their calendar. The venue is on Macquarie Road in the middle of Springwood, an easy walk from the station if you would rather take the train up than drive, and there is parking around the town centre.