A NEW DAWNI

It’s Saturday morning and stall holders across Queensland are unloading the week’s haul in an east-to-west ripple of farmers and artisans bumping in. Marquees are going up, coffee machines are turning on, boxes are being unloaded and early risers keen to fill baskets are sniffing the goods.

For anyone who has ever uttered the words “paddock to plate” in earnest, shopping at a local farmers market is a way of life. And the first flap of the butterfly wing belongs to Brisbane gourmand Jan Power. When Power began Brisbane’s first farmers markets more than 30 years ago she also unleashed a torrent of replicas across the state, and the country for that matter.

The first Jan Powers Farmers Markets (JPFM) held back in 1994 was a much