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One of our farmers faxed us an article in the Daily Mail about
round carrots being sold by Waitrose. Is this really a story? Never
mind the fact that we've been selling them for three years. Last
year it was sprouts on stalk that turned up on supermarket shelves,
shrink wrapped to death. Sometimes we think that we're a huge development
department for supermarkets, and we suppose we must be doing something
right for our farmers to be copied so much!
We know that we're never going to have markets the size
of a Food Lovers Fair or Borough, but we'll keep on supplying you
with your weekly shop. A quote from Jane Grigson, the wonderful
food writer turned up on Cheryl's desk this week and she thinks
it's very relevant to the way we work-
'We have more than enough masterpieces. What
we need is a better standard of ordinariness'
We hope that no farmer would be insulted by being called
ordinary. We strive to have the highest quality produce at the markets
as we can, but it's food for every day, not for treats. It's not
tied up with pink ribbons. You take it home; you cook it, eat it
and enjoy it. Sometimes we'll have rare breeds of meat, sometimes
we won't, but it will always taste good. We will have the occasional
treat and chocolate truffle at market (made from 50% local cream)
and we hope you can treat the farmers' markets as part of your enjoyable
weekly routine. Whilst we can easily get euphoric over the first
season sweetcorn, or a perfect berry, we trust that you can eat
the food you buy from our markets without feeling that you have
to act with total reverence towards it!
One minute it's raining so hard we can't get any wetter,
and we wish that all our sites were covered. (Covered sites are
on our wish list) Then the sun comes out and the plums and cobnuts
start appearing at market, and it seems as if autumn is in too much
of a hurry to get here. The weather has caused massive problems
for our honey producers, as bees don't like the cold. Some of our
producers have been worried about their bees starving to death,
and eating all their stores. Added to this, two of our favourite
honey producers have long term illnesses which is why you may not
have seen honey at many markets. More about this later. The weather
hasn't affected our efforts to publicise all our existing markets,
giving a push to those that don't receive as much as attention as
they should!
Thank you to all of you who have sent us letters and e-mails.
We appreciate them all and have printed a selection below including
our favourite, which wins a case of apple juice.
The National Association of Farmers' Markets have been forging
ahead with their certification scheme. Some markets have already
received their certification from the independent body carrying
out the inspections, and we hope it won't be too long before ours
are tested.
What's new at market?
Plums are in, including several varieties of gages, Czars, Edwards,
damsons (for the best crumbles and jams) and Victorias. New season
cobnuts have arrived, tayberries, late summer strawberries, blueberries,
gooseberries are all at their best. New season Worcesters, sweet
& juicy. Discovery apples & discovery juice too. Comice
pears and Russet apples have appeared but they're still very hard.
We're looking forward to trying Apple & plum juice from Mole
End farm. Sweetcorn has arrived from Perry Court farm, Isle of Wight
garlic farm and Kingcup Farm. Joan Atwood, Frognall Farm (Palmers
Green and Peckham) has got very adventurous. She's currently got
okra and asparagus peas, banana squash and will soon have tomatillos.
Banana squash is a delicate flavoured, thin-skinned variety - quite
delicious. Treat asparagus peas like sugar snap peas - cook them
quickly and eat them whole. They do taste like asparagus! Look out
for new season game - partridge, mallard, pigeon and rabbit. Native
oysters started on the 31st August. Mussels start soon. Mole End
farm have a delicious new apple and plum juice - find them at Pimlico
Road and Whetstone.
New Producers
William and Margaret Reeve - great organic cows milk cheese at
Pimlico Rd
Rowan Tree Farm - beautifully packaged goat's cheese at Uxbridge
- tastes good too!
Malcolm Stone the apple man back at Ealing
Simply Fish - from Suffolk, selling wet fish from their own boat
at Wimbledon and Peckham
The Tenterden Cheese Makers - organic soft cheese and mozzarella
at Pimlico
Farmhouse Faire - Organic Cows milk, yoghurt and cheeses from their
herd in Norfolk selling at Pimlico
Scotch Lodge Farm- Pies made on the farm from their own reared meats
in Northants -sell at Pimlico, Whetstone, and hope to do Finchley Road
soon.
London Honey Company - Honey and related products from London hives
-sell at Pimlico
Mole End Farm - Organic fruit and juice from Kent - sell at Pimlico
& Whetstone
Perry Court Organics - Biodynamic vegetables, their own flour and
beef- sell at Whetstone & Pimlico
Local Farmers Meat - Beef and lamb from Buckinghamshire at Pimlico
and Whetstone
Woburn Country Foods - Pork, hams and bacon from close to the Woburn
estate. Sell at Whetstone and Pimlico
Richard Haward - Oyster farmer from Essex selling at Pimlico
Patisserie Organic- Bread and cakes from this organic baker at Pimlico
Bell Bar Nursery - Interesting plants from this nursery in Herts
specialising in bamboo's -sell at Whetstone
Beatbush farm - Organic lamb from Essex -sells at Pimlico - hope
to start in Blackheath in October.
Millets Fruit- Juice, soft fruit and top fruit from Oxfordshire
selling at Uxbridge
Pattinson Fruit Farm- Organic lamb, baked products and top fruit
selling at Whetstone
Butterstone fine foods- French patisserie selling at Palmers Green
We love have plants and flowers at the markets. The Real Flower
Company has made a real impact at Pimlico. Scented English garden
roses grown by the company in Hampshire have been an absolute delight.
The company also have a flower delivery service offering a range
of sumptuous hand tied bouquets of the finest scented garden roses,
herbs and seasonal flowers. The company aims to combine scent colour
and texture to create unusual and sensual bouquets. Real Flower
Company can deliver flowers from Tuesday to Friday (Saturday by
arrangement) nationwide. Flowers can be ordered online at www.realflowers.co.uk
or over the telephone on 01962 771548. Call Rosebie or Julian to
arrange the delivery of your flowers.
Congratulations to Chegworth Valley, whose apple and raspberry
juice has just won a gold award at this years Great Taste Awards
held at the Speciality & Fine Food Fair at Olympia.
Market News
Whetstone
Organic meat - beef from Perry Court organic farm and organic lamb
from Pattisons farm. Honey at last from Keith our Norfolk honey
man.
Peckham
Cookery demonstrations will start mid September, by local customer
and Good Housekeeping food writer Emma Marsden.
We are pleased to say that wet fish will be back from the 2nd Sunday
in September. Most of our fishermen sell on Saturdays too and often
sell out, or have little left to bring to market on Sundays. They
could go home and bring back fresh stocks but this could mean they'd
risk not selling their whole catch on Sundays. Simply Fish will
try to attend monthly, and we'll continue to try to get Brighton
Fish to fill the gaps. Low Wood Farm are back weekly with their
range of organic meats.
Palmers Green celebrated its 2nd anniversary in August.
Thanks to everyone who attended - the weather, for once was lovely,
which meant that the jazz band didn't have to empty water out of
their trombones! Pioneer Nursery, our guest producer for the day;
hope to be able to attend monthly. Watch this space. Manor Farm
had some amazing sunflowers that sold out in the first hour. Thanks
to Local Farmers' Meat for filling in at the last minute. If you
like their beef and lamb, they usually sell at Pimlico on
Saturdays.
Ealing has been looking a little ragged around the edges
recently. We're aware, and trying to pull it up again. Bank holiday
is always a bad market as many producers take the opportunity to
take a brief break. Adam Clayton who has returned to Ealing with
his wide selection of organic vegetables is happy to be back at
Notting Hill.
Cartreff herb farm are back at Twickenham twice a month - next appearances
September 14th & 28th. We will also have a new nursery at Twickenham
selling a range of plants and pot herbs starting in September.
Pimlico Rd - native oysters are in season from the 31st
August.
Blackheath-We hope to have organic lamb and beef from Nicola
Bulgin of Beatbush Farm and organic pork from Dan Green from October.
Nicola will also attend every two weeks at Notting Hill selling
organic lamb only.
New markets?
Not at the moment, but things change fast. We'll let you know if
anything new opens.
Honey schedule
You can still find honey at some markets.
Keith Morgan, our Norfolk honey man attends as many markets as he
can, monthly.
Palmers Green week one
Blackheath week two
Twickenham week three
Wimbledon & Pimlico Rd week four
New- Whetstone monthly from September 6th
He will also sell at Islington and Notting Hill, commitments to
his bees permitting.
The London Honey Company attend Pimlico week two
Mike Gill attends Twickenham week one
Sweetcroft Honey attends Uxbridge and Ealing week three
We are doing our best to find honey for Finchley Road, Peckham,
Islington and Notting Hill. We hope that Sandra who usually sells
at Finchley Road will be able to attend again when she's better.
She is getting to Notting Hill on the first week in the month.
Letters
Star letter - From Margot Marshall
Thank you for this very informative email. I am very excited about
the
Pimlico Road Farmers' Market, which opened last Saturday. I took
my 2 1/2
year old daughter and thought we would only last a few minutes before
she
would want to leave. Not at all! I plied her with a delicious pain
au
chocolat from one of the stands and then proceeded to buy my produce,
sausages and eggs. We then headed for the honey stand where she
was
captivated by the display of bees busying themselves making honey
and
swarming around the queen bee which was helpfully marked with a
white dot so
we could see her. My daughter was fascinated with the bees and suggested
that I buy every kind of honey jar she could see! (We bought some
'Greenwich' honey which is delicious! ) A photographer took a picture
of her
staring at the bees - which was probably a lovely photo.
I then thought I would really try her patience and order a plate
of oysters.
We sat on a bench and she was fascinated and proceeded to eat two
oysters!
We finally peeled ourselves away, very reluctantly indeed! I cannot
wait to
return on Saturday.
Thank you Margot, the image of your young daughter tucking into
a plate of oysters was too much to resist. You win a case of apple
juice from Chegworth Valley.
From Bernadette Boyde
Many, many thanks for the wonderful work you do; it is a joy for
me to go to Islington market every Sunday and I wonder how I managed
before;( having lived in Islington for 30 years and raised 4 children).
Having read your message and the chapter called " talking of
organics" I hope that I am in the majority in saying that for
me what is important in a farmers' market is FRESHNESS (what you
buy there easily keeps a week to 10 days as against 48h from the
supermarket) SEASONALITY, but mostly PROXIMITY. Figures showing
the thousands of miles driven every day by articulated lorries coming
to the UK from all EU members countries but mostly from Greece,
Italy and Spain, with accompanying pollution and general damage
to the countryside and quality of life of neighbouring people (refer
to the problems encountered in the Alpine valleys leading to the
transalpine tunnels) are shocking and insane. All that to bring
us produce which has been harvested before being ripe thus denying
them any flavour and often will rot before reaching maturity. I
am not interested in organics which has to be flown over and it
cannot be the way forward except perhaps for a wealthy minority.
PROXIMITY and WHOLESOMENESS should guide us. Thank you again.B.B.
From Jean
Thank you for putting me on your list so quickly! I only put my
details down
on Saturday.
The Pimlico Market in Pimlico Road is WONDERFUL.
If you have been you will have noticed there is a complete lack
of good (or
any) fresh produce in the area, and what has been on offer at the
market in
the first 2 weeks has been superb. I will certainly be using it
every week,
not only because the food is so good, but also as a disabled person,
to be
able to get good fruit and vegetables, as well as other cheese and
eggs etc.
so close to home will make my life so much easier! All the people
running
the stores have been very friendly and informative, and it is really
bringing back a community spirit in the road. I saw people at the
market I
haven't seen for years.
Congratulations to all concerned
From Helena, London SW8
I have so enjoyed my English apples, strawberries, all sorts of
veg, and my
partner his wonderful chickens, lamb and steak from the Finchley
Road and
Peckham markets. And buying from real people. And the prices are
so good for the most part.
Make old supermarkets looked like cocked hats!
Thank you
From Anna
Thank you very much Cheryl. That was very interesting.
I use the Finchley Road market, still struggling in the Home Base
car park! We don't eat meat, but do eat fish and chicken. The guys
from Brighton have transformed our lives - gorgeous fresh fish at
a reasonable price - fantastic! And I cannot imagine life without
Tim Norton's gorgeous eggs and now he's producing magnificent chickens
too. We desperately miss the goat's cheese and yoghurt. And we wish
that David Deme was not the only one with organic produce. It's
quite sad, after buying our lovely bread, apples, eggs, fish and
honey, we have to go into Simsbury's to buy imported carrots and
potatoes etc. However, that good news about the Clarkes returning,
I believe they use as few pesticides and herbicides as possible.
It would be interesting if some scientific research was done to
compare ultra fresh produce, grown with minimal chemical fertilisers,
with imported organic, which is obviously not so fresh.
Thank you for your comments Anna - we now do have goat's cheese
at Finchley Road, and the only reason we don't have organic vegetables
is lack of space. We hope that when we move back to Eton Avenue
- which probably won't be until next year - we'll be back to our
old form.
From Robina Coker
May I say what a joy and absolute delight it was to visit this
new Farmers' Market last Saturday. As a local resident I should
be happy to shop there for the majority of my weekly food purchases.
I do so very much hope it will continue beyond the trial period-preferably
indefinitely. It has the potential to revolutionise my standard
of living and make life in London far more enjoyable. I know I am
not alone in feeling this way. One lady in the queue next to me
said 'it's like living again'. When I was handed an egg box to fill
with my choice of fresh free range organic eggs (laid the day before)
I felt we were deprived city dwellers being revived! When I later
discovered that a well-known supermarket not too distant from here
was selling Argentinean organic onions (the only choice of organic
onions available in this store) I was absolutely disgusted. Surely
we should be supporting farmers in this country, and especially
those who are developing environmentally-friendly sustainable farming
practices. The Pimlico farmer's market is one (most pleasurable)
way of doing just that.
Many congratulations and please, please, let it continue!
Thank you for all your letters and comments - please keep
them coming in. Not all the letters are complementary - we're only
human after all. The last letter in this vein from an Ealing customer
complaining about the lack of stalls in August was followed by another
note the next week saying how much better the market was. August
is always a slow time, and with the harvests at the end of the month
continuing into September, it's often all hands to the fields and
the markets can lose out.
Where's the market…
Some of you have commented that you can't tell if you're at a farmers'
market because of the lack of signs. Sometimes this is because we're
not allowed to put up any signs or banners, other times it's because
our existing banners have blown away or been stolen, though who
would want an A board or market banner we can't think. Anyway, we
are doing our best to make sure that:
- Every market has a manager's table in a prominent position,
with information, rules, leaflets, comments book for you to sign
and add your points & mailing list to join.
- Every manager has a badge to makes them stand out, so you know
who to speak to if you have a question.
- Ideally, we would like for every market to have a permanent
sign up - but this is hard to achieve in London. In the meantime,
we are working on having signs with our recognisable logo on them
at each market.
- Every market to have boards displaying names of producers who
attend weekly, and those who come monthly or twice monthly, with
additional information about new season products.
We love it when managers put out tasters on their tables, like
the managers at Palmers Green do each week.
Car free day, Sunday 22nd September
This year we're taking part in two car free events. Merton council
are organising theirs in Wimbledon Town Centre, and Camden Council
are running one in Bloomsbury near Gower Street. We'll put out details
soon.
Apple Day
This year it falls on the 21st October but we'll be celebrating
at markets on the weekend of the 19th & 20th October. We're
still in the planning stages so look out for details and please
get in touch if you know of any old games associated with apples,
stories associated with them, recipes etc.
Organic Targets Bill - 29th July
Friends of the Earth and the Organic Targets Campaign have welcomed
the recent commitment by the Government for British organic producers
to supply 70% of the domestic market - the same level as conventional
producers. Congratulations to The Organic Targets Campaign who worked
so hard to bring the action plan about. We're happy to see that
there's a move forward, and look forward to a date being given for
the targets.
Website
Our new improved website will soon be up and running, with better
information about each market, including printable maps showing
market location and what you can buy there. We welcome your comments.
Recipes
If you're a gardener, you know that it's the glut season for courgettes.
Here are a few recipes that make the most of them.
Courgettes with capers and garlic
This a wonderful gutsy sauce adapted from Chez Martha Rose by Martha
Rose Schulman. She serves it with cold steamed fish - I love it
as a pasta sauce or with plain boiled or baked rice.
Serves 6
1 tbl olive oil
1 small onion finely chopped
150 g capers, rinsed and chopped in a food processor or mashed with
a pestle and mortar.
4 -6 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped (can be mashed with the
addition of a little salt in the mortar with the capers
1 lg can tomatoes or 1.2 kg ripe tomatoes, peeled, seeded and chopped
Pinch of sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
¼ - ½ teaspoon fresh thyme
2 - 3 teaspoons chopped fresh basil
½ kilo courgettes - a mixture of green and golden is nice
- sliced thinly
Heat the olive oil in a large heavy-based frying pan and add the
onion. Sauté for a few minutes and add the courgettes. Stir
and cover and let soften for about ten minutes. Don't let it catch
- add a little more oil if necessary. Add the caper garlic mixture
and stir, add the tomatoes and the sugar. If you're using canned
whole tomatoes, crush them with your hand as you put them in the
pan or if you're too squeamish, use a spoon but it won't be as satisfying!
Cook over a slow to medium heat for about 20 minutes. Add a little
water if necessary. Season and add the herbs. Serve hot, cold or
warm. Feel free to add less capers but it's the capers that make
this dish.
Courgette flowers stuffed with soft cheese and cob nuts
I have to confess, I've never cooked with these before. Peter Clarke
of Kingcup Farm gave me some to try, so I rushed around the market
looking for inspiration. Nigel and Rosemary Dyer have started to
bring patty pan squash en fleur, which are equally nice to use.
I didn't want to take the usual route of frying the flowers in batter,
and I wanted to use cobnuts, which are just in, so here's what I
came up with.
1 packet of courgette en fleur (about 5 or 6 per pack)
1 packet of Holly Park Organics soft cheese infused with chives
(about 150g)
A handful of breadcrumbs
100g cobnuts (after hulling)
A little olive oil
Preheat the oven and oil & warm a flat baking sheet or dish
In a bowl, mash the cheese till smooth. Add breadcrumbs. You only
want about third breadcrumbs to 2/3 cheese. Chop the cobnuts roughly
and add to the mixture. Season and carefully stuff into the flowers.
Pinch the petals together and place the courgettes on the baking
sheet. Brush with a little olive oil and place in oven for about
5 minutes. The stuffing will barely be hot, but any longer and the
flowers will burn.
Serves 2 people as a light lunch or starter.
Summer recipes with gooseberries
We hear a lot of comments about what to do with gooseberries. Two
recipes. A savoury to serve with fish and a sorbet that's quite
spectacular if made with red (desert) gooseberries.
Gooseberry relish
One onion diced and softened in a little olive oil
200g gooseberries
200g apples, peeled and chopped
50g raisins
1 nut of ginger, chopped
100g sugar
50ml white wine vinegar
Bunch of marjoram, lemon balm or lovage if you can find it
Place all ingredients in a heavy saucepan, bring gently to the
boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Cool.
Gooseberry sorbet
For the syrup
300ml water
175 g caster sugar
For the sorbet
675g gooseberries (no need to top and tail)
1 tbs granulated sugar
Juice of 1 ½ lemons
To make the syrup, boil the water and caster sugar together, lower
the heat and turn off when the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool.
Meanwhile cook the gooseberries with sugar and a tablespoon of water
until soft.
Process the gooseberries until smooth then sieve the puree. If you
don't have a processor, just sieve.
Combine the puree with the sugar syrup and add lemon juice.
Either pour into shallow container and freeze or follow directions
on ice ream machine. If the former, freeze until ice crystals form
around the edges. Break up mixture, process until smooth then refreeze.
Repeat the process several times.
Do you have any recipes to share with us? We're looking for recipes
using squash as we have so many different varieties at market.
That's it for now. Keep your comments, questions and criticisms
coming in.
See you at market,
Cheryl & Mark
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