The invading forces were massing on both the northern and southern flanks. A classic pincer military manoeuvre to get first crack at the freerange eggs, the giant silverbeet, the coffee carts, the Cornish pasties and ‘Tomato Lyn's' tomatoes
and the like.

It's 7.15am Saturday morning and the insurgents are a couple of dozen diehard early-birds waiting for the Tauranga Farmers Market to open for business. By 7.30am they've probably swelled to nearly a hundred, although crowd counts are a lottery.

'It's hilarious in a horrendous kind of way,” says one eager punter waiting in the queue. 'Trixie will be on her phone waiting for the moment, waiting for 7.45am. Then it's open slather.”

They've even seen one person in a moonboot running into the market when it opened.

Trixie is Trixie Allan – manager of the Tauranga Farmers Market. Stallholders setting up their gazebos for the day are always pleased to see Trixie arrive with her keys shortly after daybreak.

The keys are to the toilet block. 'They need a pee before we open,” says Trixie. Because once the market opens there'll be no time for mundanities like bladder comfort.

Fresh and local

People will be more absorbed in Mavis' chutneys, jams and sauces, or Chris and Wynn's pulverised macadamias – a superfood you know!

Or even Mary's vegies still sporting real Welcome Bay soil and real, live Welcome Bay slugs. 'That's because there's very little spray on them,” reassures Mary.

But why a queue for a bunch of carrots, an iced apple juice or a Dutch croquette? The supermarket down the road opens at 7am?

They could be in and outta there and home for breakfast by the time the farmers market opens.

I just raised the question and there's an outcry.

'No way! Absolutely not!” yells one of the faithful. 'Lovely fresh local produce.

'You don't know where the stuff in the supermarkets is from or how long it's been carted around the country in trucks.”

Trixie knows – before she was entrusted with the keys to the toilet block she grew tomatoes.

'We sold our produce to a broker and that's what irks me. Our produce went all the way to a dispatch centre in Auckland and back before landing on the supermarket shelf. All that unnecessary food mileage.”

Much of the farmers market produce is picked the day before or the morning of.

There's the Saturday morning friends, the market mates. 'And occasional margarita mates,” chips in one wag. They are the farmers market loyalists, who catch up mostly just once-a-week for some bonding, some banter and a coffee – one of the 400 or so brewed by Vicki and Les Diggleman each Saturday at the market.

Eggs and cat photos

While on spreadsheets and numbers, there's 5000 freerange chooks scratching away on a farm on the way to Katikati. These chooks do noble work – popping out clutches of eggs just for the farmers market, and belying an egg shortage. Bless them!

'Yes, it is about eggs,” says egg lady Nicki McLeay. She's yakking to this reporter but still fussing and getting stuff done. 'But it's also about cat photos.” How did we get from eggs to cats? 'It's also about children and grandchildren.

'We see couples getting together at the Tauranga Farmers Market, having families and then we watch the kids grow up. So it's more than just eggs, there's something special about this place.” Tauranga Farmers Market is open from 7.45am to midday Saturdays.

Tauranga Farmers Market managerTrixie Allan showing a customer the most fabulously large silverbeet leaves on offer.