Wednesday Feira Part Two

I attended the Wednesday night feira again this week and I couldn’t pass up writing about the experience. The first time we went it was after my husband came home from work and we got there about 8:00pm after many things were sold out and people were beginning to close up shop. Rumor had it that the event started at about 5:30pm. With the longer days coming on, this allowed me to walk out there when it started and still get back before dark.

I arrived at the feira at about 5:20pm and it was already packed. There were about double the amount of people as there had been the last time and the stands were overflowing. People were already beginning to pick out their produce. I went directly to the peanut stand to get some amendoim doce, sweet peanuts. They are the better than honey roasted by far. I picked out the pack I wanted and began to hand the guy the money. He started telling me something that I couldn’t quite understand. It took me a while because of the language barrier, but then I realized he was telling me that they couldn’t begin until 5:30pm. It was 5:26pm.

So I said okay and walked away, planning to come back later. At that point I began to look around and realized that people weren’t actually buying things yet as it had appeared at first. They were all standing over their selection as if they were ready to hear the word 'go.' At one quick moment, things started to roll. Money was passed, fruit was picked out, lettuce bagged – it was crazy. As I looked at my watch I realized that a siren was going off in the distance. It was similar to our 12:00 storm siren test here in the states. So I guess this is their cue to begin selling at the market. I’d like to learn more as to whether this is law or just practice.

Attending the feira earlier in the evening was a completely different experience. There was so much more produce. I also couldn’t believe the amount of great looking baked goods and sushi. Yep, sushi. It looked wonderful actually.

By the way, I went back and got the peanuts. The guy had them waiting for me. They were great as always.