Saturday market reopens

On Saturday November 28th, the weekly Saturday Market at the Auroville Youth Centre re-opened. Despite the threat of heavy downpours, eight stalls were set up in an effort to instill new energy into the ‘Localicious’ movement initiated by Krishna from Solitude Farm two years ago. Localicious is an initiative to promote locally-grown food. Stalls showed products manufactured by Auroville Village Action Groups’ social enterprises such as ethnic wear, spirulina, crochet lamps and stuffed animals. Several farm products were also available, such as cheeses from Anapurna and Aurogreen. And there were organic clothes from Colours of Nature; seedlings, tinctures, medical weeds, pickles, and gardening info material by Erin and Ricardo. Even some beautiful jewellery by Maddalena (aka Madda) from Nine Palms was for sale. To top it, delicious dosais were prepared by the Youth Centre team.

At the moment, Localicious is a group of friends working together and is relatively small- scale. According to Ricardo, a 24 year old volunteer who came to Auroville in June 2014 to assess our food security and now helps run an urban farming project, the idea behind Localicious is to “reconnect people with what the local environment provides.” He explains that “the market is an opportunity to showcase Auroville’s products and resources in a spirit of fraternity. It aims at mobilising people towards relocalising our diet and using resources more efficiently.”

Although the market is part of a larger platform that aims to supports local Auroville farms, they are also a social event to bring people together. Madda, who is part of the organising team and was slightly disappointed that several stall holders did not show up, is certain that it will pick up in the future. After all, who doesn’t want to spend a Saturday morning contributing to the livelihood of our bioregion’s inhabitants and supporting Localicious, if all it takes is to admire (and show appreciation by purchasing) Auroville’s diverse local produce, while sipping on organic fruit juice, and having tasty dosais for lunch?