Hello everyone,
It’s been a couple of weeks since we moved to Kaohsiung. Can anyone recommend a farmer’s market selling local and organic fruit and veggies, thank you.
Hardly any organic stuff, and if so, can you really believe them?
Anyway, go to Lotus Lake on west side (towards northwest part). Road on both sides filled with small fruit and vegetable trucks daily (best in mornings) selling freshly harvested stuff.
See green circle.
Can also visit famous Hello Market (underlined, best on Saturday)
Like anywhere, hydroponic is the way to go tbh. chemical and pesticide free.
for Chiayi
If u can buy from here directly then its the way to go, same for any country really. Korea has this aswell as Okinawa and a few other countries are taking upon this.
Also i think PX Mart from what ive read sells this hydroponic produce? If so its likely from that massive farm in Taoyuan
Local and organic in the markets is tricky, it isn’t labelled and even if it was you couldn’t trust that
Carrefour and PX Mart have signs in English indicating organic and point of origin, for what that is worth
Plenty of fresh, traditional, wet markets around though. I go to one morning market (Sanmin) and one evening market (Ziyou), depending on the time I want to buy and where I am. The Sanmin market is kinda gross, I don’t go often.
Sadly, this is a true fact in 2024. Environment is beyond dirty, so it’s literally true. Organic certifiers are always changing their rules to allow for higher ppm now…for obvious reasons. So literally organic may not exist, but it does indicate a certain standard for production.
The key advantage to buying organic is that you can at least be sure the farmers aren’t themselves spraying stuff. They can be liars. This is an issue, as in any industry.
Many times organic is the same price as poisonous produce, ie. Organic mushrooms, rice, beans etc all being similar, sometimes cheaper, than the contaminated produce.
I second ctaitungs suggestion on the lake market. We go there sometimes as well when in kaohsiug. There are also numerous organic type shops in kaohsiung that sell certified organic produce. More expensive than a farmer direct purhase obviously, but available. Most supermarkets also now have options available due to public demand.
Last option is online. It’s the best option in so far as selection, availability, price and supporting the person doing nearly all the work. But shipping times and very small fees are of course the trade off. A tiny trade off in my opinion, but some people complain.
Edited for typos. It would be a shame to temp/delete such important discussion on something the op clearly cares about and wants to find out more
Japan sprays even heavier than Taiwan and their imports into Taiwan are CONSTANTLY getting flagged by our FDA at customs for exceeding poison levels. I no longer trust food from Japan.
Edit. Many farmers markets also sell imported foods/ingredients/packaging. Taiwan has setup a decent system for publi display of such that have been caught.