Mary Portas - Car Boot Sales

fc123

lostinrates wrote: »

I find this too. we had a very good genuine butcher/farm shop near us where we used to live, here the few I'e seen are our ''lifestyle'' shops....some local produce but lots of crackers that are cheaper at aitrose (and in fact, cheaper at Harrods food hall) and fancy pasta and jars of expensive preserves

Strange isn't it? You have thought that in proper countryside there would be loads and not pricey ones.

The produce we buy is from Kent and the pig man is from Sussex somewhere. The bread people are called 'london something' so they are local.
Maybe the high footfall helps keeps prices lower as it is rammed whatever the weather and I have to queue at every stall.

PasturesNew

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Are Farmers markets actually lower cost?

Never been to one. Not sure if there is one anywhere near to me, which is bizzare, considering the amount of farms.

All we have is a multitude of farm shops. They are OK, but don't really sell that much stuff. Half of the she;ves are filled things such as Olive oil bottled with multicoloured pasta, for £8.99.

While, to be fair, the meat is better quality, so it should be, for the price.

Maybe I'm not exploring enough. But most farm shops I have been too, seem to be excuses for selling Dandelion and Elderflower cordial at £3.95 for a 500ml bottle.

Even eggs, I remember not too long back, were £3.15 a dozen. Free range see....so free range you can actually see them running around, which again, is nice, but bloody expensive.

Farmers markets are hard work to even find.... then, you discover that their opening times are [a] while people are at work irregular (stuff like 2nd Tuesday of the month) [c] short opening hours (2 hours in the day) .... so, overall, you never know when/where they are.

http://www.devonsmallholders.co.uk/farmersmarkets.html
http://www.dartmooraccommodation.co.uk/pages/food_&_drink/farmers_markets.html
http://www.localfoods.org.uk/local-food-directory?catid=18

There's a few links to get you looking.

I just looked where I am now ..... and, it seems, there's one just 200 yards from me..... open 9-11 Friday mornings; that comes under rules [a] and [c] .... and another source says 10-12.... which means if I can't be there 10-11 then I run the risk of missing it anyway...... bet it's just 6 stalls anyway. If I remember, I'll go and peek (got to locate it first), it's tucked away and indoors.

lostinrates

fc123 wrote: »

Strange isn't it? You have thought that in proper countryside there would be loads and not pricey ones.

The produce we buy is from Kent and the pig man is from Sussex somewhere. The bread people are called 'london something' so they are local.
Maybe the high footfall helps keeps prices lower as it is rammed whatever the weather and I have to queue at every stall.

most of my meat now comes direct from farmers, christmas we are having a rib of beef I swapped for some storage space for a farmer ''up top of hill'' because its less windy down here. He also gave me half a delicious lamb. Its not organic but its v. high welfare standards, so a perfect swap. Green gorers here are MUCH cheaper than farmers markets and shops for veg/fruit....but the shelf life is a bit shorter. Occasionlly you find ate sales of sacks of potatos which are good value, and I buy horse carrots for the kitchen:o