Valka market showcases autumn harvest abundance
Every Saturday, Valka's market draws both Latvian and Estonian shoppers seeking fresh vegetables, flowers and forest goods. Traders report strong demand for potatoes, cucumbers and chanterelle mushrooms.
August marks the season when garden harvests ripen and the first mushrooms and berries can be gathered in the forests. This abundance is most visible at town markets, including the one in Valka. Trading days fall on Tuesdays, Thursdays and especially Saturdays, when the market fills with buyers not only from Latvia but also from neighboring Estonia.
Elza Markova, a representative of the "Luternieki" farm, says the highest demand is for potatoes, cucumbers, onions and tomatoes, with long queues forming at meat stalls. Many shoppers buy cucumbers together with flowering dill stalks for home pickling, as well as new potatoes, which they consider tastier than those sold in stores.
Flowers and plants
Flowers are also widely available — colorful gladioli and lisianthus, as well as bouquets of autumn blooms that people buy both for home and to take to cemeteries. One flower vendor says this season has been successful for her, as Estonian buyers eagerly purchase potted, blooming hydrangeas — one customer bought eight pots at once.
Berries and mushrooms
Forest products at the market include lingonberries and chanterelles. Lingonberry sales remain slow for now, as the berries are still small and unripe, though experts predict a good forest harvest this year. As for mushrooms, vendors mainly offer chanterelles, since other varieties are scarce in the forests — most birch boletes are wormy, while aspen boletes or porcini remain only a dream for now.
