inspiring choice vs generic supermarket

mum kindly agreed to come and push a pram round the farmers' market at hexham today.   it is on twice a month, the second and fourth saturdays .. but it still takes me about 2 months from deciding to go to actually make it there!  i always get my saturdays muddled / something comes up.

we parked at the bottom of the hill in the wentworth car park and it was seconds before we were in the market place.  passing a busking bagpipe, i LOVE bagpipes. 

when we got into the market place i felt panicked .. it was like a sensory overload .. there were so many stalls and all so different.  i didnt know if i was going to manage to see each one before the kids lost it.  happily they behaved, one went to sleep and the other one enjoyed all the tasters from the stalls, cheese, sausage, CHOCOLATE, cake!   

Hexham Farmers' Market has changed since i stopped selling there 5 years ago (when we set up Vallum).  The core producers are still there like Bywell Smokery, Ravensworth Grange Butchery, Northumbrian Cheese Company and then there are more artisan stalls, more out of the ordinary.  i felt like i could breathe because instead of all the same same same in all the supermarkets i visit (because i can get a trolley to shove two kids in) it was inspiring.  i was excited, buying bread to go with the cheese and chutney form the mad hedgerow man who is a top chef but refuses to use anything but foraged (found to you and me) produce.  he had blackcurrant cordial made from HIS blackcurrants and a fabulous spicy chutney that you KNOW has taken ages to make and mature because the depth of flavour and consistency leaps out at you.  i am so excited  about the food i saw.

a lady i have never heard of was selling cheeses made from goats and cows' unpasteurised milk and they were so crazy - different shapes, colours, ages .. REAL CHEESE!  it seemed a shame to buy some and demolish the display .. the table looked like you could just pull up a chair and get stuck in.

we opened vallum with a farm shop which we later changed into an ice cream parlour, but seeing the market today made me wish i was still selling the Birdoswald cheese made in a stone house by Eric Horn (yes i bought a big wedge of that too). 

i say to anyone who is bored with shopping .. try Hexham Farmers' Market .. it puts the excitement back in food.