 |
Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
|
|||
|
The Farmers' MarketThe Saturday market is very much part of the Barnes weekly scene. The wealth of stalls offer organic meat and eggs, tomatoes, fruit, apple juices, vegetables, breads, pasta, as well as home-made pies and chutneys. We talked to the stallholders from Ringden Farm in Sussex about their experience at the market.
Apart from the first two markets, we have attended every one since the beginning, which must be about eight years ago. Barnes is surely the closest thing to a village you could find - it even has a village green, complete with pond. We live in a rural area - our nearest village being Flimwell. The last remaining shop/post office closed four years ago as they could no longer compete with the supermarkets. We lost a valuable resource when that happened as it was where you caught up with all the local news. Now, we feel we know more people in Barnes than at home. We have seen customers' children grow up in the time we have been coming to the market and sadly one or two of our regular customers have died. We are primarily fruit growers who have diversified into juice production. Now, the apple juice part of the business supports the growing of the fruit - adding value to the crop. With the new emphasis on local foods and reducing food miles, there has been a renewed interest in what we can produce in this country for ourselves. One problem in relying on imported food is the loss of farming in this country due to lack of viability of the businesses that are associated with farming. There comes a time when the whole chain of farmer and suppliers collapses and it may be very difficult to put it back in place again in the future. We do our best to supply our customers in Barnes with English apples and pears. I stress this as we still get asked if our fruit is English! Some of our customers have visited the farm and we are always pleased to see them. We were however surprised when a regular customer from Barnes moved to Milford and turned up at the market there one Sunday. How's that for customer loyalty? Obviously, we sell our produce at the Farmers' Market for business reasons, but we also enjoy meeting the people who come along and chat to us and include us in their community. We find ourselves asked an array of questions about fruit - from pruning trees, to the potassium content of apple juice, to how best to bake a Bramley! If we can provide an answer we are happy to do so. Chris and Lesley |
| ||
