Farmers markets/shops

cooking-mama

following on from the vegebox post,im interested in peoples experience of farmers markets,or farmers shops(we have a farmers shop less than a 10min drive from our house,)but ive found it to be very expensive,especialy their butcher meat,veg is also more expensive than supermarkets and honestly doesnt seem to be as fresh..bendy carrots,rubbery broccoli,know what i mean?,but ive seen an advert for a farmers market for tomorrow,in a town close to me,how do people find these in general with regards to quality and prices?,I do find supermarkets tend to be cheaper,especialy when it comes to organic produce,but,i just cant seem to go and just buy the veg..i always end up buying other stuff:rolleyes:..so possibly the farmers market is a solution for me?

idealy i would love to go back to my weekly vegebag delivery,but it was working out to be very expensive for not a great deal of food.

Pink.

Hi cookingmama,

I can't comment on farmers markets as we don't have one, but our local farm shop sells organic veg, free range eggs etc at very competitive prices and much better quality than the supermarkets.

Obviously it will depend on your local market and farm shop but these threads may help:

Farmers market?

Farm Shop shopping

Pink

keza

we have a local farm shop across the road from our house and although we like the idea of going there to get fresh fruit and veg and supporting our local farmers, i do find it more expsensive than going to a supermarket. xx

Farway

The one farmers market here is very expensive, but it is held in a "well to do" area and the only local store there is Waitrose, so as you can guess they can charge what they want really as the potential customers are rolling in money

maltesers_2

cooking-mama wrote: »

following on from the vegebox post,im interested in peoples experience of farmers markets,or farmers shops(we have a farmers shop less than a 10min drive from our house,)but ive found it to be very expensive,especialy their butcher meat,veg is also more expensive than supermarkets and honestly doesnt seem to be as fresh..bendy carrots,rubbery broccoli,know what i mean?,

Price and value obviously depends where you live. My local 'farm shops' are not really 'local' nor do they offer value. They sell lots of deli type products from all over the world and charge the earth for them. However, the farmers's market is excellent. Today I bought a shoulder of mutton (old sheep) for £4 and some minced beef from little Dexter cows for 2.00. I think the local market is priced to compete with local Somerfield (where the cheapest shoulder of lamb was nearer £7) and Co-op rather than the expensive Waitrose.

There were a lot of stalls offering some excellent choice and variety and rarer cuts including local hare, crayfish and cheaper cuts of meat in small portions like breast of lamb.

The veg all looked gorgeous and fresh but we grow all our own so can't comment on that. Re bendy carrots etc, our super fresh home grown carrots turn 'bendy' very quickly. They taste more carrotty and nice but they do go bendy if kept. This made me concerned about what 'they' do to carrots to stop them going bendy in supermarkets. Similarly, strawberries go off quicker but don't taste like rubber, salads and greens go limp quicker. I think this is normal for any fresh veg but we are not used to it because we have been conditioned to supermarket treated veg.

rhiwfield

maltesers wrote: »

Re bendy carrots etc, our super fresh home grown carrots turn 'bendy' very quickly. They taste more carrotty and nice but they do go bendy if kept. This made me concerned about what 'they' do to carrots to stop them going bendy in supermarkets. Similarly, strawberries go off quicker but don't taste like rubber, salads and greens go limp quicker. I think this is normal for any fresh veg but we are not used to it because we have been conditioned to supermarket treated veg.

Agree with this. We now grow most of our own veg and it doesnt keep well once picked, but then we grow for flavour and not shelf life. Also our veg usually looks more misshapen than the perfect supermarket specimens. But then we dont spray them so we accept the odd blemish. Nor do we use chlorine wash, irradiation or modified atmosphere to preserve our veg and treat the spoilage bacteria!!

henbane

Hi
I use the Farmer's Market a lot. The two main problems are that it's only once every two weeks and you never know who's going to be there. A real problem when you need something in particular ie honey or soap and that supplier hasn't turned up.

I suppose I really go for the quality of the food and the fact it's supporting local producers. I think if you support them then you just have to go with their pricing and forget comparisons. I know foreign butter is cheaper but the Farmer's Market alternative is hand-churned butter. Fish - don't know where it comes from in the supermarket, here it's from Hastings and fished sustainably and doing less damage to the environment. Apples - well I am in Kent - lots of different varieties you'd never see in the shops, plums too. The meat too comes from local farms, some with their own abbatoirs so you know that the animal has had a better life and death. You can also buy locally produced plants and flowers.
And yes, I am hard up - out of work and savings disappearing fast but I'll cling on to buying good food as locally produced as possible for as long as possible and make savings elsewhere (drink, going out etc). I'm also lucky, I've got an allotment and hens so for most of the year I've got all the fruit and veg I can eat.

And I like the atmosphere, meeting and talking to the people who've produced the food, building up relationships and this has led to special orders, free bits and pieces, stuff for my hens and so on, a very pleasurable shopping experience and as I say, it's doing our bit for the local economy.
love Henbane

JayJay14

I find one of the problems with farmers markets or shops is how far you have to go to get to one. We have to drive miles but Asda is nearly next door. I also find them rather expensive but generally the meat and veg do have better flavour. I really wish I could get locally produced items in the town as I always feel really guilty driving so far to buy it.

Gingernutmeg

I use Farmer's Markets fairly regularly - there's a weekly one on Sundays within walking dostance of me, and a fortnightly one that's a drive away. They are more expensive than the supermarkets but the produce is much nicer. The range tends to be fairly limited (in the sense that when you're used to getting 'everything' at the supermarket when you want it it's odd to see stalls full of just tomatoes, for example) but the quality is fantastic, and it's nice to get hold of 'odd' things, like pickling cucumbers, purple broccoli and local cheese. The meat tends to be excellent too. I can't afford to do all of my shopping there but I do make an effort to use them, as I like to buy 'local' produce.

helyg

We have a fab fortnightly farmers market here. My favourite stall is the organic veg growers group, which is just basically a group of local gardeners who sell the stuff that they can't use themselves, which means that you get really cheap in season stuff. It works out much cheaper than the supermarket normal range let alone their organic one, and if you keep going back you find they chuck in freebies "for the kiddies"... I also love a local farmer's stall which sells the rare breed meat that they rear, they do the most amazing wild boar cross sausages which are about £2.20 for 6, they are so full of flavour that they fill a casserole and are cheaper than a lot of premium brand sausages in the supermarket. Gorgeous cake stalls too, although I try to go easy on them! I used to buy my eggs from there for £1 for 6 free range, but now get them from a smallholding in the village where they are £1 for 12.

We have to drive into town to go to the farmers market, but we also have to drive to town to the supermarket, and I know which one I prefer to wander around on a Saturday morning!