Farmers Markets

Agutka

Shopping at the Farmers' Market is a luxury for us, excellent quality but silly prices, compared to supermarkets. The local market sells poor quality/really old produce for same prices as supermarket and even the local PYO is only worth it for the stuff you eat before you pay. Although you can't beat it for freshness!

Maybe it's a south thing, but supermarkets win for me every time, unless I get very lucky...

Does anyone know if the miles travelled by a vegetable count as farm-shop or farm-home? I'm trying to figure out the air miles in the pick-your-own cauliflower I chopped last night.

itsmylife_2

Our local butchers is extremely expensive, so I go to the Market in Belfast on a Friday. The butchers there do fabulous package deals on their meat which you can then freeze. The fruit and veg stalls are also great with many of the goods being a bit cheaper, and if they aren't cheaper than the supermarket, they certainly are better quality and therefore last longer, so less wasted!

COOLTRIKERCHICK

i havent got that problem... our local butcher ( well 5 miles away in the next village ) is fantastic... and for 8 sausages .lamb and mint or pork and leek... etc the ones he makes himself and won loads of awards for works out roughtly about £2.40 ish for 8 depending on the weight.....

i find that shopping locally was worked out money saving for me.....i have found that the farmers markets around here expensive.......:eek: ......

fruit and veg ..i must admit i have had some weeks where the fruit and veg have peaked over their best shall we say....but then i just dont buy from that place.. or market stall...

moanymoany

I live in crawley and we have no individual shops. Everything I've bought at the Friday and Saturday market is poor quality and not as cheap as you would think. We have a farmer's market once a month, the nearest weekly farmers market is Horsham which is great but not cheap and after paying petrol and parking.....!

It's back to Tesco. From time to time I go to Lidl in Horley so really what choice do I have?

Penny-Pincher!!

Luckily, we have a good local general market.

I refuse to pay the extortinate prices of famers markets!

PP
xx

flourgirl

We're lucky here too, we have a great fruit and veg market and a very good meat and fish market.
Today I bought
3kg Braeburns
1kg Golden Delicious
1kg Vine Tomatoes
1 whole cucumber
2Lg Red Peppers
4 Lg Baking Potatoes
1kg Carrots
1 Lg Cabbage
1Lg Cauli
2 Corn Cobs
4 Leeks
1 bunch of Beetroot all for £12.20 :j

btw 5lbs of lincolnshire potatoes were £1.00

We also have a good farmers market and the prices are very reasonable

nappentass

We're lucky having a great little butcher down the road, no they can't compete with the supermarket for price but IMHO they do on quality and taste.
Remember these are often also small businesses and I know our butcher works hard and wants to make a living, like I do.
I want to have the choice and not be forced to buy from supermarkets, who are in business to make money for their shareholders, so I choose to try and support our local butcher as much as I can afford, to try to help retain choice for myself and others.

Ok I'll get off my sopabox now

Jill

welshgirlmel

Surely if the greengrocers/farmers markets are selling products past their best that is due to bad management, being greedy and keeping it too long, obviously when they received/dug up the fruit and veg it was good quality.

I went to a farmers market for the first time last week and generally thought it was good. I wasn`t sure about buying meat there though as they had big cool boxes and wasnt sure it was kept at the right temperature.
I bought half a dozen free range eggs, a pint of milk, local honey, sun dried tomato foaccia and it came to £5.10

http://www.farmersmarkets.net/ - useful as it lists local markets

Queenie

welshgirlmel wrote: »

Surely if the greengrocers/farmers markets are selling products past their best that is due to bad management, being greedy and keeping it too long, obviously when they received/dug up the fruit and veg it was good quality. ...

How does it make them greedy? It's all down to supply and demand. If the customers don't come in and buy, then yes, you could put it down to poor management, but greed?

I'm very lucky that I have all the major supermarkets in my area - all competing for custom, plus greengrocers, local farm shops and a couple of good butchers.

Yes, the local butchers does seem to be more expensive than the supermarkets, but then their meats aren't pumped full water and often you are getting better quality meat from a butcher in terms of source and breeding. A joint from the butchers never shrinks anywhere near as much as a supermarket joint and the flavour isn't there to the same degree either IMHO.

Only at my local butchers can I get (free!) chicken bones for making stock and often those bones have meat on them that I can take off for making a stir fry or a good soup. Can't get that at my supermarket. Those chiller cabinets aren't able to give me advice on how best to cook that particular meat either and are shockingly poor at flirting and banter, not to mention how else you find out how Mrs Jones is after her fall? :laugh: I've lost count of the times I've been given "... an extra handful, D'rlin, 'cos today's got a 'Y' in it" ... don't get that at the supermarket.

From my local farm shop, they've given my lads a bag of cherries to munch on between them while I shop, or a banana each. My sacks of spuds are carried to the car for me and are far cheaper than buying them by the lb or Kg in the supermarkets. They are not as expensive as Farmers Markets and I'm not a lover of FM's, bit over priced for my liking, especially as I'm spoilt for choice really.

I do still use the supermarkets - I'm a terror for yellow stickered bounty -- but I'm also regular with the local businesses; I like the 'human' touch

HopeElizzy

I use my local butcher and the greengrocer in the local market on a Saturday morning.
Yes, the butcher does cost me more than Mr T but I'm getting much better quality meat. It's all locally produced and as I work in the local vets I know the farmers that are supplying it I know not everyone has that advantage but you can see the quality of meat you are buying. I'm not particularly knowledgable about meat but when what I buy in a supermarket goes off after 2 days and the stuff from the butcher lasts so much longer it makes me wonder what has happened to the supermarket stuff before it reaches me!

My trip to the grocers this morning cost me about £7.50 and I have:
4 Apricots
4 bananas
2lb Carrots
4lb Lincolnshire potatoes
1lb Cherries
A punnet of raspberries
5 Braeburn apples
and a bag of Grapes

I agree with Queenie regarding "the human touch". I know the name of our butcher and grocer. We usually go as a family and they always pass the time of day with us. Ds (3yo) has broken his leg so is getting alot of attention from them all including sweeties from the butcher!!

Recoveringspendaholic - I'm sorry I can't help with your query but the farmers market near me only ran once a month and now not at all. It only had hog roast so not very big!