Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Oasis of Freshness

Looking to buy some olives, nuts, seeds, taralli (for a photo and recipe click here) or lemons?
L'Oasi della Freschezza is the place to go! You can see many mobile vendors like this one around Molfetta. There are many who sell fruit and vegetables, some on the back of small trucks like this one, and others who set up a sort of semi-permanent business on the sidewalk or even in the center divider of the street. The legality of many of these vendors is an ongoing topic of discussion around town...as in, do these guys actually have a business license? And do we want to have vendors blocking our sidewalks and spilling out into the street at times?
I'd be willing to bet that this guy, Sergio Mutti, has his papers in order. He was quite happy to have his picture taken and give me his name and the name of his enterprise!

14 comments:

VP said...

Nice post and photos. Very, very interesting merchandise!

MrCachet said...

I'm curious - did you reverse this photo? It appears the steering wheel of the truck is not on the Euro side of the vehicle. Nice photo, but it doesn't make me any less curious.

B SQUARED said...

We used to have these when I was young. Alas, they are all gone or legislated out of existence.

Hilda said...

We have the same problem, and the same freshness! :)

But no seeds and nuts like this! Mmmm…

Saretta said...

Poet, are you hungry for a snack? :-)

MrCachet, Italian cars have the steering wheel on the left and we drive on the right side of the street, unlike British or Japanese vehicles.

Bsquared, I suppose there are good sides and bad sides to regulating things.

Hilda, these are some favorite snack foods here.

Lowell said...

License or no, I'd love to have access to these goodies! Very interesting post!

Clueless in Boston said...

Great way to get fresh farm items. Too bad the town doesn't have an area set up for them to sell their goods. Or does Molfetta have such a Farmers Market area?

Rosaria Williams said...

Do we have nuts and olives available to snack on the streets?

Unknown said...

I would have a bit of everything right now! Just look at those olives! The green ones were allways my favourites! Mmmmm.... :-) The 1st shot is just great!

Tinsie said...

The produce looks good, as does Sergio ;-)

Ann said...

Why isn't Serio tagged as a Molfettan face? He should be.

Maria Verivaki said...

delicious food!

Ann said...

You could make him the top photo, I think it would still be relevant, and add the Molfettan faces tag. Or make him a separate post on the same day. Rules are meant to be broken.

Julie said...

I agree with Ann: just make the last image the first one and add the tag. Noone will pay attention to a change of that type. You have done more than required. It is a lovely story about Sergio, with such wonderful context. Even if you dont want to alter the order of the images, you might like to consider adjusting the title and adding the appropriate label.

It is a lovely post ...