In praise of the Sunday farmers' market
A press release lands on my desk claiming that more people in London visit farmers' markets on a Sunday morning than attend church.
I'm not sure I buy this. I'm no church goer but I know enough people in my part of west London who are (although I suspect secondary education rather than God is frequently the motivation) to believe that congregations are in reasonable health.
Having said that there is a spritual buzz about our local farmers' market at Dukes Meadow in Chiswick that sets me up for the Sabbath better than any sermon. You can't quite do a full grocery shop but you can get quite close, particularly on meat, fish, vegetables and bread.
It is not the trendiest farmers' market in town, tucked away on a car park next to the charmingly tatty Masonian Bowling Club pavilion.
It's also a bit light on celebs. Until last week the only shopper I'd recognised was Bamber Gascoigne. But on Sunday Colin Firth breezed in with his family looking, annoyingly, younger and taller than his various grumpy on screen personas.
But would I swap it for a Sunday supermarket sweep? Never. Supermarkets are so convenient, so all pervasively woven into our "time poor" lifestyles that it is difficult to imagine existence in London without them. But it is possible to design them out of your routine. Only when you stop going and dip into the alternatives do you realise what a soul destroying experience they can be. I always found one of the odder aspects of the campaign for longer shopping hours on Sunday was working out who would want to spend the day of rest in Tesco or Sainsbury's.
Of course market prices can be higher, but if you shop selectively, not cripplingly so. I bought two pork steaks for about £1.50 each on Sunday and cooked them last night. The quality was palpably higher than the usual, taste-lite meat often on offer in the supermarkets.
Sometimes I worry for Chiswick farmers' market. There are Sundays during the darker months when the "congregation" is alarmingly thin and the number of stalls diminishes to single figures. But they are a hardy lot and deserve to survive and prosper in a world where Tesco has ten branches within a 15 minute drive on a quiet Sunday.
They may be middle class cliches but the lessons that my children learn about where food comes from and how it changes with the seasons I believe to be important ones. We might not "do God" on a Sunday morning in our household - but neither will we ever "do Tesco" while there are other options available.
Really glad you enjoy the market and thank you for the kind comments and your support of it. The market is unusual in a number of ways, it is the only market in London that is organised as a social enterprise, by local people. Dukes Meadows Trust who run the market also built and manage the new paddling pool in the park, the market helps towards the running costs. The Masonian Bowls club benefits from the market and their members also help maintain the park. In the seven years that the market has been going the farmers, Bowls Club folk and many local people have become friends.
Dukes Meadows trust volunteers work on the park every two weeks on a Sunday and usually finish off with a beer in the club, as we are all members. It is very sociable and very much a community place, as you say not trendy or the typical Chiswick, a lot of us live in the surrounding Council properties, but there is usually a good mix of people from all around Chiswick.
Next time you are there on a Sunday if you call in at the club we would be happy to buy you a beer.
Posted by: Kathleen Healy | 13/10/2007 at 07:13 PM