Kaiser-Josef-Markt, Graz, Austria

Kaiser Josef Markt, Graz, Austria

The city’s largest farmers’ market is open Monday – Saturday, 6 a.m. – 1 p.m. You’ll find it behind the Opernhaus on Glacisstrasse. Bread, flowers, fruit, vegetables – there’s enough here to put together a respectable picnic for the Schlossberg or the Stadtpark.

The guidebooks will advise you to sample Styrian Kürbiskernöl “(“pumpkin seed oil”). Colloquially known as black gold, the nutty oil can be used as an ingredient in salad dressings, drizzled on ice cream, or ingested to combat enlarged prostates. Browning/cooking it destroys the oil’s essential fatty acids and adds a bitter taste, so it’s probably best left in the raw.