Coal Creek Farmers Market

The Coal Creek Farmers Market trades on the second Saturday of every month, 8am to 12.30pm, in the carpark of Coal Creek Community Park and Museum on Silkstone Road at Korumburra. The venue is not incidental. Coal Creek is Gippsland's largest open air heritage village, and the market sets up at the gate of a recreated coal mining township.

A short list, mostly grown within the shire

South Gippsland is dairy and vegetable country with a wet, green climate, and the stalls reflect that rather than a curated food-hall selection. Expect local and organic vegetables, fruit, herbs and nuts, free range eggs, locally caught fish, olives and olive oil, wine, honey, sourdough breads, preserves, chutneys and jams, goats cheese, fresh pasta, roses and plants. It is a produce market first, so the trading window is short and the growers who sell out leave. Entry is free, parking is free, and dogs on a lead are welcome.

The market is plastic bag free and the organisers are direct about it: bring a trolley, baskets or your own bags. Because the site is a museum park rather than a town square, there is space, shade and somewhere for children to go once the shopping is done, and the heritage village itself is worth building the morning around rather than treating as scenery.

Worth knowing before you set out

Second Saturday, 8am to 12.30pm, and the early half is when the produce is at its best. Korumburra is about ninety minutes from Melbourne on the South Gippsland Highway, which makes this a plausible day trip rather than a quick errand, so bring cash for the smaller growers and plan to stay for the museum park. The market runs in the carpark, so it goes ahead in most weather, but Gippsland mornings in winter are genuinely cold and there is not much shelter between the stalls. This is Bunurong and Gunaikurnai country.