Markets

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I like to learn about different cultures. I thought this was an interesting article.

Marta Shokalo

BBC Ukrainian Service

Why do Ukrainians still prefer to buy their food and clothes on the street?

Most Ukrainians shop at the markets which have thrived since the early 1990s. But as the economy grows, will they disappear? Locals doubt it.

"Try my pickled gherkins, crunchy and spicy." 62 year old Nadia invites me to try, and gives me one out of the big bucket.

She travels to Kiev every Saturday from a little town called Pryluky, 200 kilometres away.

"I need to come here. I am a pensioner and I have a son, who is a student. I try to support him as much as I can." Nadia smiles and buries her hands in her fur coat pockets.

The little market where Nadia sells her gherkins is not far from where I live. Home grown and homemade produce lies out on the side of the pavement including potatoes, beetroot, carrots, apples, dried fruits, jars with pickles, jam and eggs.

On the meat stall there are chops of fresh beef and pork, slightly frozen, as it is -10 C today. Pigs' heads and trotters are on display, alongside homemade blood sausages, or black pudding.

"Buy our potatoes - we grow them at home, freshly homemade sausages, tender pork fat from the pigs we feed ourselves," cry out the villagers.

There is an expression in Ukraine, "buy from babushkas", a synonym for homemade and organic.

This is one of the main reasons people come here for food. Recently Ukrainian shops and supermarkets have started selling imported vegetables and people haven't warmed to the idea.

There are potatoes from Egypt, beetroot, apples and carrots from Poland and even blackberries from Mexico.

Most of the vendors who buy and sell here have known their customers for years. Sometimes sellers don't even need to ask buyers what they want.

My colleague Svitlana has bought dairy produce from the same lady for more than 10 years.

"She has several regular clients. When she comes to our market every Sunday, she never spends more than an hour there. Good for her and for us", she says.

Some people who sell at the market do it to boost their 700 hryvnia ($88) per month pension. For most young people who live in the countryside, growing and selling food is the only way to earn a living

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/direct/ukraine/9409814.stm

Edited March 13, 2011 by Rebecca Jo

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

It is a tradition which will be long in dying. During Soviet times the framers were allowed a small plot of land to supplement the pay the received for working on the state farms, which was very low. Free markets being what they are, the farmers grew the "good stuff" ontheir small plots and took them to the markets. At the time it was illegal to have a private business with this small exception. However, people, mostly older women, made things and sold them on the black market, if you can call it that. I have trouble in imagining "illegal black market cookies and cakes" or sweaters, socks, clothing repairs, etc. A person employed by the state as a shoemaker would also offer his services "on the side" for cash...at the risk of going to prison for "stealing from the state" Going to the source became the synonym for quality. Everyone had what the state paid them, plus what they had "benefits" from their type of work, or what their friends did and they traded for. I always get a chuckle when people say the government needs to "regulate" things. People will simply ignore the regulations when it becomes the best way to get along.

When the government changed in 1991 (and loosened considerably in an attempt to maintain communism even before that) other people opened private business and it became "legal" to do what they had always been doing anyway.

My MIL and Alla HATE stores such as "Amstore" (Amctop)and others that have opened in recent years. They say they sell "chemical food" Even here, we buy milk and eggs from the farm, "raw milk" fresh from the cow, eggs from chickens that "walk on the ground" and I go out to the ice fishing villages and buy perch fresh "out of the hole". we buy meat from a local butcher that buys from local farmers and we buy chickens from the same farmer that sells us eggs. To her way of thinking, going to the source is the only way to assure quality. The markets you read of thrive in every city, large cities have several. On weekends, particularly, but every day also, the trains carry farmers with their produce to the cities from the rural areas. Our flat in Donetsk is three bolcks from the market, walking distance. For people that have no cars, that is important. Very few Ukrainians have cars. If you need a package of screws here, you drive 8 miles to Lowe's. There you walk three blocks to the market, find a vendor selling hardware and dig through his coffee cans and cigar boxes until you find the screws you want and then bargain with him on the price. I am not convinced they are better screws. There are also small, very small, grocery stores and meat shops and pastry shops in what we would consider regular "storefront" shops also. By far most people shop at the market. There are also modern malls in every city and many people will shop there. Oddly enough foreign products have always been considered superior when it comes to "pre fabricated" merchandise. Most big malls have a grocery store also. When I lived in Odessa I bought most of my groceries in the "Galleria Aphina" mall basement. It was closer to my apartment than the markets. Besides, I am used to shopping in a grocery store.

I think a lot of this has to do with they general attitude that things do not need to be refrigerated immediately that all of us married to FSU women struggle with. After all, they bought the milk out of a can that the farmer poured into their pitcher at the market. There were no refrigerators involved in the process. The eggs are sold in the backs of trucks, no refrigeration, no egg cartons, just eggs. The same with pastries fish, etc. Once anything goes in the refrigerator it is no longer "fresh"

On the one hand, Alla will flip out if anything touches the "dirty floor" but will leave meat on the stove for hours and hours and not worry about it.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[Rebecca Jo 1,962]

I prefer free-range (as Alla would say "walk on the ground") meats also. But they are not easy to come by around here and very pricey. The only butcher I am aware of who specializes in free range beef, pork and chicken is 45 miles down the road.

Eggs are also on the shelves in the UK.

[Neonred 3,562]

I think a lot of this has to do with they general attitude that things do not need to be refrigerated immediately that all of us married to FSU women struggle with. After all, they bought the milk out of a can that the farmer poured into their pitcher at the market. There were no refrigerators involved in the process. The eggs are sold in the backs of trucks, no refrigeration, no egg cartons, just eggs. The same with pastries fish, etc. Once anything goes in the refrigerator it is no longer "fresh"

On the one hand, Alla will flip out if anything touches the "dirty floor" but will leave meat on the stove for hours and hours and not worry about it.

Same in our house. Meat and most cooked meals DO NOT go into the fridge until at least the next day. Always worries me, but I have not gotten sick here yet. Was not so lucky when I was visiting in Russia, however.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Same in our house. Meat and most cooked meals DO NOT go into the fridge until at least the next day. Always worries me, but I have not gotten sick here yet. Was not so lucky when I was visiting in Russia, however.

I know. I have defied everything we have been taught in this regard. as alla says "and no one is dead". Then again, Alla now drinks tap water without boiling.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I prefer free-range (as Alla would say "walk on the ground") meats also. But they are not easy to come by around here and very pricey. The only butcher I am aware of who specializes in free range beef, pork and chicken is 45 miles down the road.

Eggs are also on the shelves in the UK.

The difference I find, and I think this is important. There is no such thing as "free range" eggs and chicken and "organic" BS in Ukraine. It just is eggs and chicken and vegetables. Except for the "supermarkets" like "Amctop" the vegetables in the store are "dirty" You wash them because they are covered with DIRT. They pull them out of the ground and sell them. I was SURE Alla would be impressed with our produce markets. I mean they LOOK good. They make me hungry to walk into them (I think that is the idea) Alla walked into the first "Price Chopper" and stopped dead. I thought she was impressed. No. her thought? "what is wrong with all this stuff that they have to try and make it look good and wash it?" Sure the varity was overwhelming, but if vegatables are "clean" Ukrainians get suspicious. Maybe they are not fresh, maybe they used chemicals to wash them. maybe they are not really red or green, maybe it is just the lights they use.

If you said "free range" to Alla she would have no idea what it meant (well, she probably does now) That is just how chickens live, isn't it? she is mostly worried about chemicals in their feed, hormones, that they are "too fat" etc. Eating such things cannot be healthy. Cooking it, leaving it in the pan for 16 hours...THAT is OK.

There just is no "trends" in food. Fresh food IS more expensive and Ukrainians have no problem with this idea. The produce sold at the market in the SU was more expensive than cucumbers at the state store. People understood, you pay for quality. You also did not stand in line to buy the better products, because it was more expensive. Soviet citizens got an excellent education in "supply and demand"

Edited March 13, 2011 by Gary and Alla

[easyukraine 1]

I am all for the farmers market, having owned a farm a few years back. we sold vegetables from the hay wagon along the road and made a few bucks doing it. I like the outdoes markets in most countries like a giant flee market lol.

[slim 1,525]

I bet they'll be there for a long time but as the population of old folks dies off and the lazy, texting, young folks grow older, they'll replace the markets with onestop shops and big stores. Wal-Mart will conquer the world.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

I bet they'll be there for a long time but as the population of old folks dies off and the lazy, texting, young folks grow older, they'll replace the markets with onestop shops and big stores. Wal-Mart will conquer the world.

I am afraid you could be right.

Once low price becomes the only goal, all else goes in the toilet.

[Nina~ 431]

I prefer free-range (as Alla would say "walk on the ground") meats also. But they are not easy to come by around here and very pricey. The only butcher I am aware of who specializes in free range beef, pork and chicken is 45 miles down the road.

Eggs are also on the shelves in the UK.

Free range chickens are not necessarily better than caged eggs. Recent studies have shown than free range chicken & their eggs have a higher concentration of PCB. It is probably safer to eat caged chicken, eggs unless you can find a farm like Gary that is not close to any factories or toxic dumpsite and buy the eggs directly from them.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Free range chickens are not necessarily better than caged eggs. Recent studies have shown than free range chicken & their eggs have a higher concentration of PCB. It is probably safer to eat caged chicken, eggs unless you can find a farm like Gary that is not close to any factories or toxic dumpsite and buy the eggs directly from them.

Tell it to a Ukrainian woman that lives downstream of Chernobyl in the area of the world where people have the highest concentrations of mercury in their systems. It is just the way it has been for probably centuries. Alla objects to "factory food" and "chemical food" I bought some milk the other day at the grocery because it was late and I did not want to wake the farmer (they have an outdoor refrigerator and money jar, it is the "honor system" but their dogs bark like crazy and those people go to bed about 7pm) she took one sip of the "factory milk" and refused to drink any more of it, saying it is "not even milk"

She does not care if I eat that stuff but she does not want it in the house. She is trying to prevent the boys from developing a taste for "junk" To their credit, they are not at all interested in chips, ice cream, etc. They eat fruit non-stop. You cannot buy enough. Buy more, they will eat more. They do not like canned food or soup (poison!) Fast food restaraunts? NO WAY! (Sergey worked at McDonalds last summer ) and Pasha works weekends at a drive in theatre snack bar. It is everywhere!

[^_^ 5,021]

Wal-Mart will conquer the world.

Praise God.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

Tell it to a Ukrainian woman that lives downstream of Chernobyl in the area of the world where people have the highest concentrations of mercury in their systems. It is just the way it has been for probably centuries. Alla objects to "factory food" and "chemical food" I bought some milk the other day at the grocery because it was late and I did not want to wake the farmer (they have an outdoor refrigerator and money jar, it is the "honor system" but their dogs bark like crazy and those people go to bed about 7pm) she took one sip of the "factory milk" and refused to drink any more of it, saying it is "not even milk"

She does not care if I eat that stuff but she does not want it in the house. She is trying to prevent the boys from developing a taste for "junk" To their credit, they are not at all interested in chips, ice cream, etc. They eat fruit non-stop. You cannot buy enough. Buy more, they will eat more. They do not like canned food or soup (poison!) Fast food restaraunts? NO WAY! (Sergey worked at McDonalds last summer ) and Pasha works weekends at a drive in theatre snack bar. It is everywhere!

Thank god it's not only me that deals with this. I love McDonalds..amongst many other fast food joints, and she won't do McDonalds unless I beg her, and then it's one of those stupid salads for her...Big Macs and Quarter Pounders for me

Same with the fruits and salads though...she spends more time in the produce section then the rest of the store combined. And for the food left out..ya it's me that puts it in the fridge, if not it would be sitting there all night.

Edited March 14, 2011 by Why_Me

[easyukraine 1]

well I always seem to loose a few pounds when I go over but not to worry I put it back on when I get home

[Captain Hammer 113]

well I always seem to loose a few pounds when I go over but not to worry I put it back on when I get home

Heh, it's the opposite for me. My wife's mom is an amazing cook and makes sure I'm almost bursting after meals. It's a good thing I walked almost everywhere, heh.

I like the outdoor markets, and of course it's more than just food, and sometimes even the food is still on two or 4 legs. About the only times we went to the indoor markets was for pharmaceuticals and "fashionable clothes."