On the road…
Finding food on the road
It is ironic for us, who prefer foods produced in the region we are travelling through, that the only source of fruit and veges in many rural towns is the supermarket. The produce there is certainly not local.
It is true that locally-baked breads are sometimes available in rural towns in Australia, however unless you are content with variations on sliced white you might be disappointed. This was the situation in the northern NSW town of Wauchope, where we stayed awhile on our current road trip. There are two bakers in town, however they offer much the same product and most of it is plain white bread. If you want something out of the ordinary then it’s a drive into Port Macquarie, 20km away. Alternatively, it’s around the corner to the supermarket.
The town’s supermarket is an IGA (Independent Grocers Association) owned by the local Hastings Co-op. Walking through its doors we found a good range of breads including sourdough, rye, wholemeal and more. It seems ironic that in a town capable of supporting a supermarket and two bakers, neither of those bakers produce much other than the common sliced white. They have ceded the market for other breads to the supermarket.
Are farmers’ markets a solution?
On our road trip we have encountered a few farmers’ markets where we resupplied with fresh foods.
Sometimes, we hear about how travellers can resupply from rural farmers’ markets while on the road. There is truth in this and we do it when we can, however it is at best a partial truth.
Farmers’ markets are too scattered, too infrequent to become a reliable source of fresh food for travellers. You have to be in town on the one day of the week when the farmers’ market is there and in the hours when the market is open.
We were fortunate to restock at the weekly farmers’ market in Wauchope showgrounds. Even tiny Comboyne, high on its plateau above the coastal plain with its avocado farms has a small, quarterly makers market. We bought some of the ‘windfall avocados’ on offer an a big bag of local comquarts as well as other fruit and vegetables. In Hobart, it was the popular Sunday Farm Gate market. Saturday’s Salamanca Market also sells locally grown fruit and veges, however it is an arts and craft market with few fresh food sellers. In northern Tasmania there is a Saturday morning Harvest Launceston.
When I mentioned on social media the difficulty of resupplying at farmers’ markets while on the road, helpful people posted links to guides and other information about the location of the markets. Useful that this was, a glance through the information disclosed the geographic scarcity of the markets.
The grocer
What about the local greencrocer? These are more accessible to people on the road because, unlike farmers’ markets, they are open through the day and on most days of the week.
Some sell locally-grown produce and local, processed food products. Some sell organically-grown. We were happy to find greengrocers in towns like Dorrigo, Bellingen and Wingham which we passed through in NSW. Wingham even has a bulk food store.
The difficulty is that in some towns there is no grocer at all. Perhaps there was once and perhaps it was put out of business when the supermarket came to town. Now the supermarket provides what the town grocer once did.
The co-op
Other sources of fresh foods for us on our road trip have been the few food co-ops we encountered.
For those living the van life, the cooperatives are more reliable as a food resupply source than farmers’ markets because they operate normal shop hours. Still, they have been few and far between, being found mainly in towns that have seen an influx of city people over the past 40 years or so, places like Katoomba, Bega and the NSW Illawarra with its Flame Tree Community Food Co-op in Thirroul.
It is also the type of food
A complicating factor for vanlifers and others on the road is that the bulk of their food purchases are preserved and packaged foods. These we supplement with fresh foods where we can.
Why preserved foods packaged in cans and packets, or dried foods? The answer is obvious. Foods have to be long-life and transportable. Without refrigeration, fresh vegetables might last two, at most three days in the temperatures we encounter along the Australian East Coast. Some fruits last longer however even they start to soften after a few days if not kept in a cool, shady place in the van.
Fresh food requires refrigeration and soon wilts without it, especially in the heat of summer. Van refrigerators are small. Thirty-five litres is the largest capacity that will comfortable fit into a small to medium-sized van like a VW Multivan or a Toyota HiAce. Those in motorhomes can carry larger refrigerators, however even the smaller motorhomes offer limitations to those whose travels take them along narrow, gravel secondary roads and to out of the way places. Cool boxes have the same size disadvantage as refrigerators and require ice.
We can buy preserved and canned goods from food co-ops and organic food stores, however doing that foregoes supporting local growers and processors. There is little by way of local canned goods and some canned and preserved products are imported. Other than supporting the retailer, it is little different to shopping in the supermarket.
This is why the supermarket remains the prime food source for most van lifers and other travellers. They have the range of products and are often cheaper than organic food stores. Price matters to vanlifers living on limited incomes, such as seasonal workers and pensioners.
It is access that leads vanlifers through the supermarket doors, however. The simple reality is that supemarkets, the Woolworths, Coles, Aldis and IGAs, are found in just about any sizeable town and often open into the early evening or longer.
Good but difficult
The local food movement has done much to promote the nutritional and economic values of buying local. We have tried to do that on our current road trip. We would like to have bought local more frequently, however local food is not available everywhere. Resupplying at town greengrocers, farmers’ markets and food co-ops is one of those good ideas that can be difficult to implement when you are on the road.
What is your experience obtaining fresh and processed foods, the produce of the region you travel through on your road trip?
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