London Farm

I am not a huge fan of farmers’ markets. I wanted to be, and I tried to go regularly to my local one. After a while, I just found it so over-priced. I'm all for supporting local people, small producers and the like, but only if they are giving you value for the money - the whole idea was to cut out the middle man; surely this should make things less expensive rather than more?

This, of course, may not be the case with all the markets up and down the country, but certainly in my experience across most of London it is. Somehow we folks in London are supposed to shell out far more than our country cousins for exactly the same thing. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for spending extra pennies to get great things, but quite often the prices are so far out of whack it just seems daft.

Not so with Clapham Farmer's Market; small and unassuming, the market takes place every Sunday featuring a select few producers in the playground of a primary school. Friendly stall-holders sell great produce at reasonable prices. It was a cold, drizzly winter's day when I visited, the sort of day when all you want to do is stay indoors; there wasn’t a huge number of sellers there, but those that were kept everyone's spirits up, perky and proud of their products, despite the cold. The folks from Chegworth Valley were selling their wonderful fruit and fruit juices - famous for their apple juice, they make a number of varieties using different apples. One of my favourites, the russet, makes an appearance, which had me all smiles. The farm shop, Twelve Green Acres, also had a stall, selling their lovely completely organic range of meats - pork, beef, chicken and a variety of game, sourced from three different farms in the Dorset area, one of which deserves a mention just for it's name which I love, Lytchett Minster.

Also present were the people from Perry Court Farm; they produce their food on land that has been free from any agricultural chemicals for almost 50 years - quite an achievement.