Mercado de Querença is back and will dedicate the first edition of its new season, which will take place on Sunday, the 25th of October, to sweet potatoes.
Until May, whoever goes to Largo da Igreja, in the heart of this mountain village in the municipality of Loulé, on the last Sunday of each month, between 10 am and 13 pm, will be able to find and take home fresh products, many of them locally produced and according to traditional methods.
Vegetables and fruits, dried fruits, wine, honey, medronho brandy and handicrafts are some of the mountain treasures that can be found here. In addition to these “usual suspects”, each edition highlights a different product, which inspires various activities that take place throughout the morning.
The edition that will take place this weekend will be no exception. To celebrate sweet potato, Projeto Querença, which relaunched the market a few years ago and continues to boost it, this initiative invited Paulo Botelho, a culinary lover who will give a live demonstration, preparing a dish and a regional dessert based on the base. of that ingredient. At the end, visitors will be able to taste the delicacies made by this specialist.
On this day, there is also the «Autumn Walk», organized by the Casa do Povo of Querença. The 8-kilometer route will start at 9:00 am and the meeting point is at Largo de Igreja de Querença.
This wave of animation that invades the village of Loulé, once a month, for a good part of the year, has been making a difference, not only in the local economy, but also in the motivation of the population in this low-density area of the Algarve.
Second revealed to Sul Informação Querença Project coordinator João Ministro, the event has been growing. «We started with 15 stalls and there was already an edition in which we had 32. In recent times, normally, we have around 23 stalls per market. And the products have also been diversifying», he said.
Another effect of this monthly market was to encourage local producers. "There were people who didn't stop producing because of the market, others increased the production they already had and there are even some producers who didn't sell, but who are now taking the opportunity to make some money," he said.
This dynamism is, moreover, one of the missions of the Querença Project, a «territorial intervention initiative that aims to contribute to the enhancement of natural and cultural resources in the Querença region, involving young entrepreneurs and creatives with ideas capable of dynamizing the territory and, at the same time, boost job creation», according to the City Council of Loulé.
The Querença Project is the result of a partnership between the Municipality of Loulé, the Union of Parishes of Querença, Tôr and Benafim and Proactivetur, Lda. It has the support of the IEFP and the Regional Center for Innovation of the Algarve / University of Algarve.
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