to hate people who go to farmers' markets

[kittensrockmyworld]

I went past a famers market yesterday and the kids were totally sucked in by the cake stall, it was at this point that i had to drag them away due to the prices!

£5 for some chilly Jam & £10 for some pasta. Maybe I'm slightly jealous of people being able to afford it, however it is just plain annoying that people can waste so much money on the stuff!!!

[cantspel]

If you want to support british farmers then you dont need to go any further then morrisons. They only sell british meat and employ properly trained butchers to prepare the meat instore. No need to pay over the odds in a farmers market.

[Sparklingbrook]

I have never eaten chutney.

[GrowSomeCress]

There are some things which are overly expensive but others which are very reasonable given the time and effort put in.

Really high quality and good tasting too usually.

So yeah YABU

[AThingInYourLife]

Me neither, Sparkling.

You're not the only one :o

[Sparklingbrook]

I have got to my forties without a nagging feeling something is missing AThing.

[LeeCoakley]

Another chutney virgin here. And I hate the word. In the same league as 'panties' for wince value imo.

[Selks]

Our local farmers market is amazing value. The odd expensive chutney but great value breads, cheese, tarts, quiches, meat and veg. Love it. So hate me!

[Sparklingbrook]

I also think marmalade is vile (although DawnDonna's marmalade cake is yum). I don't like the look of all the worms in the jar.

[fallon8]

"Farmers market". More like,some enterprising person has bought a job lot from Lidle,and daft lot that you are,,you fall for it...

[thermalsinapril]

Farmers' markets with decent, good quality but reasonably-priced food - thumbs up.

Farmers' markets with overpriced, overpackaged tat masquerading as from "farmers" but actually from a Londoner who keeps a couple of ducks at their second home in the Cotswolds and visits them every other weekend - thumbs down.

[AmberLeaf]

When I visit London I always like to go round Borough Market. Some of the stuff there is amazing

Borough market is fab.

But it is a victim of it's own success and HFW et al

There is another similar nearby that is like Borough market a few years back. I won't say where or it will end up like BM!

[cantspel]

We have a french market here. I am sure the sellers go around the hypermarket before getting on the boat then scatter a bit of straw around it before some mug comes along and pays 5 times the actual cost of the item which they could have bought in lidl anyway.

[CheCazzo]

Hmmm - well tbh MrsSchadenfreude it shouldn't cost pennies to make your own preserves. I think maybe you exaggerate slightly! It might be very cheap to make a chutney using, say, 29p vinegar and 49p powdered garlic from Lidl along with bruised fruit scrumped from the churchyard (something I am not completely averse to as long as it's not bruised!) and yes, I can and do recycle jars if they look nice but really, you're making something you want to be proud of and that tastes good and for me that means not compromising on ingredients or appearance!

[Startail]

Now asparagus from the farm gate is another patter entirely. Especially as they sell big buddles of all the slightly too small for the green grocers at a £1.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Oooh, good. I needed this thread today.

I went along to the farmer's market this morning, because I've never lived that near one and it sounded quite nice and said there was a stall with someone Japanese doing home-made Japanese food, etc. etc.

I wasn't that impressed TBH.

[CheCazzo]

But did you buy anything LRD?

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I did, because we'd gone. I bought cured meat which looked fine, and DH bought - predictably - jelly from the chutney stall. Will see how it all tastes later.

I prefer the selection and the prices at a proper market, but what annoyed me was that if you're going to set up a website with a programme of what stalls will be there on what date, it should be more-or-less accurate. If you say the market goes 10-1, it shouldn't be mostly empty by 11. IMO.

[CheCazzo]

Just as a matter of interest - what jelly was it and how much did it cost?

[nosepoke]

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

Redcurrant (ingredients, redcurrants, sugar, lemon juice - very snob). £2.50.

Mind you I make my own chutney and it's a damn sight nicer than anything I've ever bought, because it tastes how I like it.

[blondefriend]

sneaking in

I love a farmer's market. I actually just enjoy going. Sometimes I buy things, sometimes I don't. I usually buy the game which is actually a very good price most of the time as I (and my kids) love venison and I much prefer the idea of eating something that has been wild most of its life. I also eat most of the tasters and then feel guilty and buy something such as dark chocolate for my dairy-free son or a good cheddar. But never the curry sauces - I make better at home. Or the jams/chutneys as my MIL and childminder make those. My childminder makes a fab chili jelly which she sells for £3.50.

Oh and it all fits nicely in the carrier in the bottom of my bugaboo - sorry to be a cliché.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I miss free game.

It was the one good thing about going out with wanker farmer ex. Much free game.

[Trills]

I've just been to the farm shop for reasonably-price free range eggs, expensive cheese and and expensive pork pie. They were about to close so I got some seedy rolls and a fruit loaf for free :o

[CheCazzo]

I think £2.50 is pretty reasonable for that jelly - redcurrants are never cheap and when I make it I concentrate them right down so there's actually some flavour in the end product.
I agree with you about making your own chutney - how anyone eats and enjoys supermarket stuff is beyond me! Best one I ever made was from churchyard scrumped apples and some French walnuts. Delicious!

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

I think 2.50 is pretty reasonable too. DH says it was quite tasty. It was the stuff I didn't buy that I wasn't so taken by (she says, stating the obvious). And the crap organization.

There's a farm shop in the village I grew up in, which is the least pretentious thing in the world as it's being going since the 70s and, erm, sells stuff of the farm. I don't think that's remotely posh. But it keeps normal opening hours and actually sells what you expect it to sell.

[VinegarDrinker]

The one nearest us has strict criteria as to what counts as local and therefore able to be sold there - has to be grown/produced within 50 miles IIRC (we are in London). And it is the farmers manning the stalls.

I don't shop there but it's run by the same community organisation that runs the local veg box scheme which we are part of. We don't use supermarkets, haven't for over 5 years.

Most of our other local markets (not "farmers markets") are as described in the OP though, and we only ever go to window shop or occasionally buy a nice takeaway lunch.