Pound A Bowl

The place where I stay is a small town which has weekend markets with everything from vegetable stalls to celtic jwellery stalls.

I love roaming about in these markets.

The best stalls are ' Pound a Bowl ' stalls.
They sell fresh farm fruits and vegetables.
Bowls of fruits and vegetables are arranged in various bowls of same size, and 2-3 people are busy at each stall.
The variety keeps chnaging with availability and there is always a range to choose from.

Grapes, bananas, pineapples, apples, peaches, plums, pears,oranges, grapefruits, melons,passion fruits, summer berries like strawberries, blackberries,rasberries, cherries,dates and a few more fruits that am still trying to identify :-)

Then there are veggies like aubergines (thats brinjals :-) ),pumkins,radishes, cabbages,tomatoes, cherry tomatoes,shallots, spring onions, carrots, spinach, rocket salad(its some kinda greens),gourds, parnsnips, suedes,okra (bhindi), beans, sprouts,parsley,capsicums,cauliflowers,mushrooms and all that.
At times we find flower boquets, small potted pansies sharing space as well.

The aubergines are the shiniest purple i've seen and the berries are the juciest I have tasted.

One person at the front of the stall will be busy shouting
'Pounda Ball - Pounda Ball ' ( Pound a Bowl) interspersed with a more personal note,
' care for fresh grapes - honey? ' ,
'how'bt these aubergines dah-ling ' for a passing by customer.
One person is behind the make-shift counter managing cash - with
'here's your change -dear',
' a bowl of bananas - ya? ',
'yes sweetheart - whatdaya want?'.
'Thats 2 pounds baby' .
This person can be anyone from a cute little elderly lady to a pimply teenager with spikes . But the dialogue is always same :-)

One person is kinda behind-the-scene , refilling the bowls, emptying the crates, stacking goods in that small makeshift stall.

The places are always merry, the products almost always look clean,healthy and inviting and always appear to be the best bargain. The stalls are never messy, the people at the stalls never snobbish or rude and they all seem very happy to have you at the stall.
The business is always quick and by 5.00 in the evening, the stalls are empty and packed up to leave.

Of the small everyday joys that we look for, this one is on my top-10 (or whatever) list and I make sure that on weekends I tick this one off as 'passed with flying colors' :-)