In one space we can meet with a community of growers, farmers, bakers, artisans, baristas and cooks.

Shoppers enjoy the ability to engage directly with local producers, learning their stories and intimately understanding their produce and how it came to be.

These markets also provide us with the chance to purchase their wares without a portion of the selling price being diverted to packaging and distribution.

Besides the Orange Farmers Market, which occurs on the second Saturday of each month, the Central West is blessed with several markets held around the region on different dates.

Bathurst, Blayney, Forbes, Dubbo, Mudgee, Tarana, Cowra, Canowindra, Millthorpe, Molong all host various markets where customers can buy directly from producers.

As a chef who moved to Orange in 2017 for the opportunity to cook with local produce I found the Orange Farmer's Market to be a tremendous resource.

I was able to very quickly build a network of top quality suppliers and gain a true appreciation of our community of producers.

My monthly visit now involves at least a dozen stops as I stock up on goods and check in on seasonal updates, and perhaps my favourite of these stops has been to see potato farmer Doug Dagg who goes by the handle Farmer Doug.

You'll be hard pressed to find anybody more knowledgeable or passionate about the humble spud.

Mr Dagg has spent more than 40 years working with potatoes. A career in agricultural science has taken him around the country before settling just south of Millthorpe in Brown's Creek.

Farmer Doug's potatoes thrive in the mineral rich clay soils around Millthorpe. Their eating qualities are worlds apart from most potatoes found on a supermarket shelf. Many of those mass produced varieties have been grown in sandy soil for easy cleaning with nutrients pumped in in the form of artificial fertilisers.

A focus on uniform size, an accelerated growing season, and mass transportability tends to mean a big sacrifice in flavour as well as nutrition.

Mr Dagg is drawn to several less common varieties which all offer a wide range of culinary strengths.

Jacklyn's have a dense and waxy golden interior which is wonderful steamed or roasted. Crimson Pearl and Midnight Pearl are both terrific in salads where their respective bright pink and deep purple flesh provides a dramatic visual effect. Elizabeth's Choice is a rare and beautiful all rounder whose thin skin makes it too fragile to be widely feasible. Otway Golds are a personal favourite for their use as a creamy cloud-like mash with terrific flavour.

Farmer Doug no longer has a stall at the farmer's market but shoppers can buy direct from his signposted farm on Brown's Creek Road.

His wife Elizabeth also tends a nursery there. They can be visited on the weekends or by appointment during the week.

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