Markets in the Adelaide Hills: Every Market, Every Date
By Steph, Carey Gully local
Market mornings are when the Hills comes out. Neighbours stop to chat between the stalls, kids pull you towards whatever smells best, and the person handing over your veg is often the one who grew it. It is family time, it is buying local, and it is the easiest way to see what is actually in season up here.
Every market has its own feel, from the elms on Mann Street in Mount Barker to Druid Avenue in Stirling. Each runs to a different calendar too: some weekly, some monthly, and Gumeracha only when a month stretches to five Sundays. Keeping track is the hard part, so we have put them all in one place.
Each market below shows its next dates. Tap a date to save it to your calendar, or use the yellow button to add every market at once. Your calendar then keeps itself up to date as new dates come in.
Every Hills market, in your calendar
One tap adds them all. Your calendar keeps itself up to date, so new dates turn up and cancelled ones disappear without you doing a thing.
Grab a coffee and work your way from the eggs and honey to the cheese, milk and seafood, all from the people who produce them. Growers and artisans fill the hall and the grass beside it, with a bit of entertainment while you shop.
Shop in the shade of the big old elm trees, with live music playing and the kids loose on the lawn. Meet the faces behind the food you take home, and stay for a workshop or a talk if one is on.
Every stall here is run by a young maker, selling what they made after two workshops on market life and branding. Buy something and you are backing their first real business.
Second Saturday of the month (not January, June, July or August)
Browse inside and out for candles, books, jewellery, jams and treats for the dog, then buy a raffle ticket while the kids get their faces painted. Everything you spend helps look after the memorial hall it is held in.
Work your way from room to room and out across the car park, past produce, antiques, tools, textiles and plants. Then sit down in the café for coffee and a scone at a market that has been running since about 2004.
Third Saturday, October to May, alongside the farmers market
Candles, pottery, leathergoods and timber boards join the farmers market, each made by the person behind the table. Do the week's shop, then find a gift you will not see anywhere else.
Pick up fresh produce, home baking and a second-hand book or two, with arts, crafts and plants on the tables as well. The Rotary Club of Onkaparinga runs it, and it carries on every month of the year.
First and third Sunday of the month (no market on the first Sunday in January)
Plan your weekly shop around it: produce, plants, art and crafts straight from local makers and growers. Its usual hall is getting a facelift, so for now you will find it in the show hall at the oval.
Stirling, Laneways and side streets of Stirling village
Fourth Sunday, September to April (third Sunday in December, none in January)
Duck into the laneways and the market turns colourful, cosy and a little bit crazy, with performance artists working the side streets. Run by the village's own businesses, it has twice won Mainstreet SA's best market award and now sits in its Hall of Fame.
Fourth Sunday of the month (third Sunday in December)
Come for the rare natives and cottage plants, and leave with a posy, a jar of chutney and a pie for later. Between the plant stalls you will find pottery, wrought iron, antiques and handmade gifts.
Wander the oval for home grown produce, preserves and baked goods, with plants, homemade gifts and crafts in between. Everything on the tables was grown, baked or made by the people selling it.
Rain or shine, this one stays dry: the stalls fill the old institute, and a few more spill outside when the sun is out. Leave time afterwards for a wander past the old buildings and the marble sculptures by the lake.
Catch it when the month stretches to a fifth weekend, and handmade and artisan stalls fill a leafy park with colour. Miss one and the next could be months away.
Shop the farmers market as the light goes, with a local choir singing, a kids trail to follow and a visit from Santa. Food and artisan stalls, face painting and live entertainment fill the rest of the evening.
Dates come from the markets themselves and update every week. Markets can change at short notice, so check the market's own page before a long drive. Running a market and spotted a change? Tell us.
