Feeling free and easy at the Freedom Market, Paarl

 9 June 2024

 

FREEDOM MARKET

Freedom Village, R301- Wemmershoek Road, Paarl

 

We’ve been visiting various weekend dog friendly markets around the Cape Peninsula, and as far afield as Philippi  for a while now because most of them are dog friendly and they’re outings for the Yorkies as much as they are for us.

 

Some markets, like the Hout Bay Craft Market and Under the Trees in Constantia, are the old fashioned open air kind with gazebos and covered stalls run by small,  independent traders. Other markets, seemingly the most common these days, have permanent structures, like Root 44, the Elgin Railway Market, the Hout Bay Harbour Market and the Oranjezicht City Farm Market  and are simply large scale commercial ventures with, at best, a barely informal cloak.

 

Markets have become hugely popular and the largest, most commercial have the permanent structures so they can operate in all weather conditions throughout the year, a sign of the financial pressures of operating the market and trading there. 

Whatever. A market can be fun and many of them offer surprisingly varied,  interesting and tasty food.

 

Today, after our mini break to Vrede en Lust, it was the turn of the Freedom Market seeing as how we were in the neighbourhood so to speak.  For some reason, the wife had thought the market was in the vicinity of Pniël, on the Helshoogte road, which is quite close to Vrede en Lust, but the GPS soon led us much further away on a road that once was a narrow, dodgy local road but has been widened and is bordered by many new (to us) gate community developments.  It’s a distance from central Paarl but clearly a fast expanding section of Paarl.

 

The Freedom Market is reminiscent of the market just outside Philippi in that there a permanent, barn-like structure that houses the food court as well as a large space dedicated to handcrafts and the kind of deli products one finds at “farm stalls” all over the Western Cape, and a large outdoors area with tables where visitors can park off  and relax while  enjoying the culinary delights on offer.  A huge marquee tent covers one part of the seating and the tables on the open lawn are shaded by strategically place umbrellas.

 

There are also a couple of other buildings, one which seems to be a deli too, also with pizza, and the other one Is a pub.  We didn’t investigate. 

 

Some markets offer live music, usually some poor sod in a corner with a guitar, preprogrammed backing tracks and a  PA system, performing their versions of “classic” rock tunes, mostly from the ‘70s.  Obviously, whoever organises the markets believe that it’s an attraction for their patrons but we don’t like it.  

 

Rather follow the lead of Freedom Market and the Hout Bay Market and just play some popular hits, performed by the artists who had the hits, as background music on the PA.

 

The food on offer at the Freedom Market wasn’t exactly from all corners of the  globe, wide in variety or mind blowing. Pizza seemed to be most popular but there is Indian style food too, a biltong station, smoothies, pancakes and, of course coffee.  

 

We’d had breakfast and tried only the pancakes and coffee. I don’t say that one must judge the value of a market by the quality of its pancakes but if they’re no good, it does raise suspicions and will certainly not persuade us to return.

 

These pancakes were no good. Too thick, too doughy, too rubbery and not sweet enough.

 

The coffee was good.

 

Okay, so I’ll concede that the pizzas may be of a high standard, hence the popularity, and in this respect the Freedom Market may be a lovely spot for basking in the warmth of the sun (protected by shade, of course)  munching on a pizza while getting delicately day drunk on the alcoholic beverage of your choice.

 

However, even this pleasant prospect won’t be sufficient motivation to return unless we happen to be in the area again. Cape Town has more than enough quality in this department.