On a recent visit to Durban, I popped in on a rainy Saturday morning at the Litchi Orchard Market in Umhlali, near Ballito. I can never resist weekend food markets and I love trying new ones out.
The Litchi Orchard Market is small and chilled – the perfect place to come if you have kids, don’t want to be jostled by crowds and want to be able to shop around without bumping into people every minute. Though small, the market has great produce on offer: delicious artisan breads, a fantastic array of cheeses, preserves, pickles and chilli sauces, homebaked cakes, biscuits and other sweet treats, great coffee from a specialist coffee roaster, bacon-and-egg rolls, artisan beers, free-range chickens, olives, organic fruit and veg, baked German goods, and chicken samoosas that my two-year-old cousin loves because they’re not spicy.
In addition to the food market, there are a few stalls selling clothes and jewellery, there’s a nursery where you can buy garden plants, food plants and trees, and there’s also a cafe if you want to sit down and have a coffee and cake (or delicious red velvet cupcakes). During litchi season (December) you can pick your own litchis from the orchard.
The Litchi Orchard Market is open on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of each month from 8am to 1pm, and there’s a night market on the last Friday of each month.
Contact details
Tel 032-525-5118
Web www.litchiorchard.co.za
Address Seaforth Avenue, Foxhill (Umhlali), KwaZulu-Natal
