El Prat farmer’s market, buy directly from the farmer

We continue to know more things about our city and its character. El Prat de Llobregat has been an agricultural town all its life. With time, it endured industrialization, and even today, there are several families that live on agriculture. They are organizing an outdoor market every Saturday where they sell their own harvest. We are talking about the Mercat de Pagès del Prat.

There you can smell, touch and buy seasonal products. And bring them to MuchaMasia to cook or eat them. MuchaMasia is the rural hostel urbà del Prat de Llobregat. We are ten minutes from the center of Barcelona and ten minutes from the airport. In this way, we are located in this privileged environment, we also have first class vegetables. Take your basket, we go to the Mercat de Pagès.

“El Mercat del Pagès”

For some years now, the inhabitants of El Prat have the good fortune to enjoy an open-air farmers market. The “payeses” are the local denomination of farmers. Every Saturday morning, they bring their product to the Plaza de Pau Casals. This plaza is three minutes walk from Muchamasia.

So, very early, farmers put a variety of seasonal products that smell fresh. Even some vegetables still carry the morning dew. Fresher is impossible. The Mercat de Pagès brings together farmers from El Prat de Llobregat and nearby towns. All of them with the intention of offering their own seasonal product.

You will never find bananas or kiwis. But yes, depending on the season, Prat artichoke, tomatoes, potatoes, cherries, melons or green beans. The market lasts from morning to lunchtime. But you know how this works, who gets up early, God helps him. That means there will be products sold out by midmorning.

Buy it and cook it in MuchaMasia

We propose a fun activity. And surely, you can NOT do it in any other hostel in Barcelona. What do you think to get up early on Saturday and enjoy the morning bustle of Mercat de Pagès? And also, with what you buy, you can prepare some very top dishes. Because what we offer you is the idea that you buy what you want to cook yourself. Potatoes, beans, salad greens, spinach, tender garlic, tomatoes … These are first quality products that you can use as a chef in our kitchen with total freedom. You buy it, you cook it and you eat it. With products of first quality, seasonal and proximity.

The agricultural tradition of El Prat

We have already explained that we live surrounded by a Parc Agrari and a special environment. The agricultural tradition of the Prat begins in the mid-14th century, when our town was created. We are in the middle of a fertile delta, thanks to the sediments provided by the Llobregat River, and the underground aquifer.

First of dry land, then came rice (and malaria). In the twentieth century, the cultivation of artichokes and lettuces grew exponentially and trains loaded with vegetables from Prat went to the heart of Europe. The development of industry and infrastructure has been increasingly limiting the agricultural land. Today, it is a few families of the Delta that can live off agriculture. But they are still working to continue being the granary of Barcelona. Products are collected in the morning and in a few hours you have them at the table.

We are friends with several local farmers. From Xavi Oliva and Andrea Segú, who have El Rebost del Pagès. De Josep i de Rosa, with La Masía del Prat, or Agustí García Santafe in El Pagès del Remolar. All of them work from sunrise to sunset to offer us a first class product, next to MuchaMasia.