The regular traders, who travel from village to village, set up a market place in Piazza Matteotti, Polizzi’s garden piazza in front of the 16^th century Church –“La Chiesa del Carmine” every Wednesday morning.

It is just down from the village’s Piazza Umberto along Via G Borgese. And, shoppers stroll Via Borgese’s length on their way to the market stalls stopping to chat and take in the vast view to the valley below and the lower slopes of the majestic Madonie Mountains.

It is not quite summer and the market stalls are laden: the “firsts” of the season are there and boxes are stacked - local broad beans and globe artichokes, peppers-red, green and yellow, ripe fragrant tomatoes, (from towns like Pachino on Sicily's south eastern edge) ripe nespole, deep red cherries from interior towns like Chiusa Scalafani and sweet strawberries from Marsala on Sicily’s African coast are all arranged and set high; and the last of the sweet oranges from the orchards of Etna.

Trays of pulses- lentils, chickpeas and beans sit alongside exotic spices and, the Slow Food endorsed badda bean which is grown and harvested just outside Polizzi are all scooped for weighing.

'Fragole e ciliegie' calls a young dark eyed stallholder dressed in a hooded jumper (to break the early summer cool still lingering in the mountain air) as he  fills bags with strawberries, peppers and small tomatoes. 

Fresh veal, chicken, horse meat and thick pork and fennel sausages are displayed on the racks of large refrigerated vans hitched to generators. Business is brisk: sausages and veal are bought for lunch or dinner and the local cheeses – caciocavallo and fresh ricotta. Soon the ricotta will be used to fill cannoli shells and will also be served on the antipasto platters in some of the restaurants in Polizzi. And caciocavallo, another local food which carries the Slow Food snail logo will be enjoyed as a great eating cheese.

Groups of locals with bags of fresh produce and the odd purchases from the clothing and flower stalls head back up the incline of Via G Borgese as the midday bells of some of Polizzi's churches ring out.

Salve,

Suzanne

Edited August & September 2015;  The original blog mentioned the bells of Carmine ringing out at midday. The Carmine bells are only rung on the feast of The Holy Crucifix in May and for special ceremonies. Suzanne