the dublin food co op

This splendidly altruistic organisation has been vital in introducing the concept of a farmers' market - or at least a Dublin version of it - to Saturday morning shoppers, and it has gone some way to filing the enormous gap which exists in the capital city for a true market where one can buy the produce from the people who actually grow it. Organic and bio-dynamic growers line up and sell alongside the cost-cut dried goods and the agit-prop leaflets. The organisers do like it if you are prepared to lend a hand, so for some the Co-op becomes a social place. For others of us, however, it remains principally a place in which to buy peerless vegetables. But Dublin needs a true farmers' and growers' and artisans' street market, soonest.