SA Farmers Market Pooraka

Six in the morning is not a typo. This is a Sunday market that runs on grower time rather than brunch time, on the site of the South Australian Produce Market at Pooraka, and by seven it is already busy. The whole thing is undercover, which in an Adelaide summer is the difference between a pleasant morning and an ordeal.

Produce at the front, bric-a-brac behind

Two markets share the space and most people come for both. The farm fresh produce is the draw and the prices are the reason people drive across town for it. Behind that sits a sprawl of bric-a-brac where the fun is entirely in the digging, and a cafe for when your arms are full.

The two dollar gate is worth a word, because it puts some people off and it should not. It is per adult, children are free, and it buys you a thousand free car parks and a roof, which is a better deal than most free markets where the parking is the problem.

Good to know before you go

Come early and bring cash for the stalls even though the gate takes card. The best of the produce moves in the first couple of hours, and by noon the crowd is thinning and some stallholders are packing up ahead of the one o'clock finish. Vehicle entry is off Merchant Crescent; if the main lot is full, the overflow paddock off Diagonal Road handles the rest, though it closes after heavy rain. Walk-in entry is from Burma Road and Diagonal Road. Bring your own bags and something to carry a box in, because the volume you can buy here for the money tends to surprise first timers.