I find myself musing about summer fruit at the moment, which I suppose is seasonally relevant. I have to say I was genuinely shocked to see the price of summer fruit in the local supermarket. Having bought several punnets of cherries at Wallington which were demolished in no time (and I would up until now have declared myself to be no fan of cherries, but these are simply delicious), I thought I would buy some more British cherries on my weekly shop. However, they were about twice the price! It just goes to show that there really are great seasonal bargains to be had at the Farmers’ Markets – something I though I knew well enough, but even I was surprised!
It was also nice to see piles of Merton Glory cherries on Ringden’s stall at the last Wallington market – can’t get much more local than a cherry bred 5 miles down the road.
The Traditional Cheese Dairy was a real treat, as expected. We tried the Lord of the Hundreds, a ewe’s milk cheese, which was something special, and the unpasteurised Broad Oak Cheddar, which has a real kick to it. Their stall is lovely too – they bring the whole cheeses and everything is cut and wrapped in front of you. It felt like a bit of France, only in the heart of Wallington.
I shall be off to Sutton High Street on Thursday to check out the state of the renovations and see if there is to be any disruption to the Sutton FM next Saturday (9.30 – 1.30 outside Waterstones). Hopefully the worst of the work is now over, and we can settle down to a routine of sorts. We had lots of banners and flyers out at Move It At the Manor today, so that should bring some new faces in.
Just to let you know that I also have a blog at http://www.bridgefarmlingfield.wordpress.com If you trawl through the posts and pages you will find lots of pictures of the staff, pigs and other animals , news, pricelists markets etc. I am now going to email my views on the “improvements” at the market site at Wallington – something to the effect that they will totally ruin the charming, private, sheltered, walled garden and give us an ugly space open to the elements and an unenviable view of the car park. That is not going to attract customers or stallholders. Also, the stalls at the front lead customers to investigate the market. Without them and with a wet,windy and uninviting site the Market will die. Surely in this time of recession the council could find something better to spend the taxpayers money on?
Regards
Sheila
Thanks Sheila, I really appreciate your support with this! The more people we can get to add their voices the better. We will be doing our best to raise awareness at the next two markets (thankfully they have extended the consultation to the end of September rather than the end of July, as was). Have visited your blog by the way, and much enjoyed it. I shall investigate putting links from our website…
All the best,
Lisa