Farmers' Markets, Bulgaria

Meeting those, whose hands and effort were implied in the possibility to serve clean food on the table – the tomatoes, the parsnip, the apples; the hands that produced the cheese and took care of the bees to derive most purified honey for the winter tea is an exciting encounter and it is wonderful to see the Farmers’ Markets gaining on popularity lately, as they are introducing the culture of the delicious and healthy food while the sustainable consuming becomes more and more efficient. The first successfully restored Farmers’ Market was open in 2013 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria to set firm bases for a new type of cooperation among the producers in the country.

Promoting environmentally-friendly life values, nature protection, responsible and resource efficient behavior preserving the common natural heritage are concepts communicated though the initiative to support local producers on a regional level among large and diverse groups enabling the community to broaden perspective through active cooperation while evolving from local and regional context to a network of affirmed common values. From the very start this is an ambitious initiative and a completely exciting challenge, is driving the community to a more defined collaboration among the people in it.

The idea behind the Farmers’ Market is to provide a detour to better local food and to support the local producers. The facilitated access to quality produce sold by the farmers themselves is not only building potential for the community, but also is an opportunity to enjoy the market days in having small chat on food with the locals. With a walk around the abundance of goods at the marketplace, one gets the impression that such places could be referred as of living breathing organism of the community.

Based on promoting the reasonable use of the natural resources by means of the traditional approaches merging new green technologies, the Farmers’ Market concept intends to set certain behavioral patterns and attitudes at each individual and particularly among the youngest thus forming an awareness of a life in line with the environment.