Today we celebrate the second Advent Sunday of four here in Sweden. So I thought it was a perfect day to visit a traditional old style Christmas market nearby. More specifically the Christmas market I visited was located at a big farm called Bubbetorps Farm, about 5 kilometers from where I live. Now of course I brought my camera, and I took A LOT OF photos! Lol!
Below are some of the photos I took at Bubbetorps Farm Old Style Christmas Market earlier today.
Welcome!
There were a lot of super cute animals at the Christmas market! Like these adorable donkeys.
Who were very popular indeed!
As was this lovely little pony.
Some a bit more unusual animals I saw at the farm were these cool alpacas.
Who seemed pretty relaxed.
I also saw these wonderful horses in action while I was there.
Ahh, some good old style transportation.
Dogs were of course also allowed to visit the Christmas market. And I just thought this one had the kindest eyes, such a beautiful dog indeed.
Hey Santa!
Hey Mr...ehum Bzzz Bee. Well, he was a nice bee who offered everyone a taste of his Swedish honey.
We were all also very welcome to taste these different cheeses at the Christmas market.
As well as cold smoked and cured salmon.
Even bites of cured moose beef (left) and deer sausage (right) were offered at the Christmas market.
There were also a lot of sweet Christmas goodies for sale, like these ones!
Though I think they were almost too pretty to eat... well, almost! Hehe.
I would not have been able to wait until Lucia, December 13th, to eat these pretty ginger bread cookies!
Candied apples were also for sale at the Christmas market. ALMOST a healthy snack. :p
Just like candied almonds. :p
Huge Christmas tree!
Where perhaps these cute Christmas goats came from?
Lady Santa was keeping a watchful eye over the Christmas market.
And inside Lady Santa's house, Christmas inspired handicrafts were for sale.
God Jul - Merry Christmas!
Fire barrels were placed all around the farm so you could keep warm.
But, after a couple of hours it was finally time for me to go home.
So farewell Bubbetorps Farm Christmas Market! I had a great visit, and perfect weather too! Thank you!
This past Saturday it was once again time for our yearly St. Jacobi market here in Lyckeby in Sweden. A small market that has been held since 1909 in Lyckeby, where I live. This year I managed to arrive at the market just in time for the parade. Yay! I had never seen the St. Jacobi parade before. And what a cute parade! It had such a small town feel to it. Cozy and fun without any fancy decorations. Now I did bring my camera but in the last minute I decided to film it instead. So below is my video of this years St. Jacobi market parade. :-)
I recently visited a lovely market called Tosia Bonnadan - Crazy Farmers Day in my neighbour town Ronneby in Sweden. Ronneby is about 30 kilometres from Karlskrona where I live. And it was a beautiful photogenic day so of course I snapped some shots while I was there. :p
Many of the market stands were lined up along the Ronnebyån - Ronneby river.
The Crazy Farmers Market is quite popular and attracts about 100 000 visitors during its three days every year. Quite a lot of people for a town with about 29 000 inhabitants.
A fun and refreshing market stand/truck this year was this flower auction type of event thingy, something I had never seen before. An energetic, "mad scientist" type of guy shouted out with German accent from his flower truck that he sold the cheapest and best flowers of the entire market. Boy was he popular! Not only among those who wanted to buy some cheap flowers but also among those who just wanted a bit of entertainment. Lol!
Langos!!! Yay! I simply cannot leave a market without eating one of these babies!!! Lol! However I didn't order my usual toppings this time. Instead of red onions and caviar I had pineapple and curry with shrimps and sour cream on my Lango. A combination I'll definitely eat again! Hm... Which reminds me... I have to find out when the next nearby market is. Because now I feel like eating Langooooooos! :p
Yay! Now the Leaf market is a truly traditional Karlskrona market, in fact this market has been a yearly tradition in Karlskrona for over 200 years.
It's also the first major market of the summer season so it's always packed with people.
Originally the Leaf market was when farmers went into town to sell shrubs and flowers, which were used as decorations around farms. And although flowers still are a popular part of the market today, there are a lot of other things for sale at the market stalls as well.
Like handcraft.
Brända mandlar - Roasted almonds covered in melted sugar. These are so good! Especially when they are freshly made.
Home made candy.
Old fashioned chocolate covered cream buns.
Which look like this inside. But the white stuff is not cream, it's whipped egg white.
Swedish strawberries, which are a huge seller at the Leaf market. This is of course because the Leaf market take place the day (always a Thursday) before Midsummer's Eve. And something you HAVE TO EAT on Midsummer's Eve is strawberry cake!!!
Another very popular berry at the Leaf market is Bigarrå - a sort of Cherry.
Of course all this walking around creates an appetite! And my favourite market food to eat is Langos! And there are plenty of Lango carts to choose from at this market.
Langos is not a Swedish speciality though, it's a Hungarian dish. It consists of fried bread with different toppings. I love to have sour cream, shrimps, caviar and red onions on my Lango. It's sort of like a mini pizza when I think about it.
And here I am devouring a Lango at the Leaf market. So tasty!!!!
A major concern each year is how the weather is going to turn out on the day of the Leaf market. But I have to say that, although there were a few rain clouds in the sky, the weather was pretty nice at Karlskronas Leaf market this year. :-)
Today is Advent third. And besides lighting a candle in my Advent candlestick and eating rice pudding every Advent Sunday, I try to visit at least one old fashioned Christmas market every year. So this afternoon I decided to uphold yet another of my December traditions. I grabbed my sister and off we went to an old farm called Hässlelyckans gård, located a few kilometres outside of Lyckeby. Every Advent Sunday they have a small and cosy Christmas market here, inspired by the 1600s.
In the above pic is the farm, Hässlelyckans gård. Second pic from above; a suspicious doggie. I bet he thought those Christmas goats looked a bit weird (which they do). LOL! In the third and fourth pic; more Christmas goats, and a stand where they sold different kinds of smoked fish.
And here are some pics of the old farm shop, which was filled with lovely traditional home made products. Like different kind of drinks made according to traditional recipes, home made crisp bread, candy, honey etc. I bought something called juniper berry root beer. All in all it was a nice and charming Christmas market. :-)
Today it was time for the annual St Jacobi market right here in Lyckeby, Sweden. A market that has been a held since 1909. And I have memories of being at it when I was a child, but somehow I remember it as a lot bigger than it is today. We could spend hours there. Today it took me about ten minutes to check the whole thing out. I don't know if it's because I have lost interest or because markets always seemed bigger and more fun to me when I was a child?
Anyway, after my quickie at the market it was off to work for a few hours...After that dinner at mums, turkey - yum! My aunt and her husband are there over the weekend so it was fun to see and talk to them as well. And on the way home from mums we made a little stop in the forest to let Lisen and Diva run around in the fields for a while :-)
Below are some pics from today.
Above: From the market today. Below left: Todays dinner. Below right: Not sure if it's Diva or Lisen, but it's one of them anyway. Listening and looking out for wild animals.
