I love the Cheese Ladies in Zagreb. Every day they come to the main market and set up their displays in the outdoor area. The cheeses they sell are made by their husbands either in the Alps or, during Winter, in barns at home. In spring the men take their cattle up to the alpine pastures and stay there until the cold weather sets in. The women go up once a week taking food and supplies, when they come down they bring back cheeses and yoghurts to sell at the markets.

There is a whole row of outdoor cheese stalls set in the freezing cold of a Zagreb winter. The women have a real sense of humour and have the cameraderie that is nurtured by the shared trials of a tradional way of life. In other parts of the market are the Zagreb Potato Women with their gnarled hands, another section is home to the Saurkraut Guild, and so on. It is the same throughout Eastern Europe.

Regular customers are greeted by name, foreigners are still provided with banter and laughter despite an inability to communicate in a shared spoken language. And, at closing time, there are small amounts of produce at most stalls left out for the homeless and hungry to collect – dignity still intact as there has been no need to beg for food or money.

In Australia this has all been stolen from us by Woolworths and Coles – our communities are so much poorer because of it. I would willingly trapse through snow to buy my potatoes from an ancient woman with dirt-worn, arthritic hands. I don’t like saurkraut enough to stand in a queue but I love watching it being sold.  I am still moved every time I see the little piles of cabbages,  packs of saurkraut, or mounds of fruit and veg left out daily for others to collect at closing time. Also, I would really love to be able to go to the market each day and listen to the stories of the stoic but cheerful Cheese Ladies. Sigh…. We have supermarkets that make sure this will never happen at home. I must be dreaming ….

F C-S