Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Farmers' market in Brixton

Went for the first time yesterday.
Had a sausage roll and bought some herbs.
Saw a stunningly beautiful woman towards the Brixton Road end.
There was something about the way she moved that caught my eye.
I watched her for a moment or two,
The way she interacted with the stall holders,
She seemed full of life,
Delightful,exquisite,
I wanted her.

Then went for coffee and something to eat,
In the newly relocated San Marino with a friend.

The beautiful woman came in to make a purchase.
And whilst at the counter,
She turned around and smiled at me.
It made my day.

:)
 
Went for the first time yesterday.
Had a sausage roll and bought some herbs.
Saw a stunningly beautiful woman towards the Brixton Road end.
There was something about the way she moved that caught my eye.
I watched her for a moment or two,
The way she interacted with the stall holders,
She seemed full of life,
Delightful,exquisite,
I wanted her.

Then went for coffee and something to eat,
In the newly relocated San Marino with a friend.

The beautiful woman came in to make a purchase.
And whilst at the counter,
She turned around and smiled at me.
It made my day.

Creepy.
 
Lady running the plant stall today informed me that in two weeks there would be a 'plant fair'. I guess that means a number of the plant stalls will attend.

*makes shopping list*
 
Spring Plant Fair

Spring Plant Fair @ Brixton Farmers’ Market
10 –2 Sunday 23rd May

Next to Brixton Recreation Centre
Brixton Station Road SW2

A spectacular range of plants for sale including herbaceous plants, annuals, bedding and hanging basket plants, herbs, wildflowers, climbers, shrubs and fruit trees and much more, something to suit every gardener. Independent nurseries, ornamental growers plus English grown cut flowers will all be there.
The nursery staff will be on hand to offer help and growing advice with some special tricks of the trade for any problems you may have in the garden.
Plus the regular farmers market will be open as usual for all your fresh food requirements including, fruit, vegetables, meats and dairy
 
Weekly update!

Dear friends of the Brixton Farmers' Market,

We're pleased to announce that the first ever Brixton Plant Fair will take place on Sunday on Brixton Station Road, alongside the Farmers' Market. This means Spring absolutely, definitively has arrived! You’ll be able to find a vast variety of plants on offer from independent specialist nurseries, so there’s no excuse not to get out in the garden and start digging!

We've got a great selection of fantastic specialist nurseries attending, amongst the highlights of which are:

Little Coppice Nursery- Buckinghamshire
This Capel Manor Prize-winning biodynamic nursery are bursting at the seams with ideas, and their passion for plants and for the natural environment shows through from a visit to their Arts and Crafts-inspired Buckinghamshire nursery. The nursery is a community-focused operation, and they organise many talks, growing projects and workshops in schools across London. Aside from this, they have quite amazing plants, especially country garden perennials and shrubs, but also herbs, bulbs, annuals and vegetable seedlings. Plantsman Daniel has a particular fondness for medicinal herbs of the 1600s. www.littlecoppice.com

Rosie’s Garden Plants- Kent
Jackie Aviolet (aka Rosie) grows a little bit of everything on her nursery near Maidstone. She has unusual-looking prickly cacti, colourful Spring bulbs and well over 30 different types of rose bush. Jackie is one of the plant fairs’ real characters and is always happy to stop for a natter with customers.

Cookoo Box Chillies – Kent
Perry and Alice Cook have been growing a vast array of different herbs and perennials since setting up in 1990. Throughout the years, they have been increasingly caught by ‘the chilli bug’, and now specialize in some truly unusual chilli plants, with some quite varied flavours. They’ll be selling both their own saved chilli seeds and established plants, ranging from the fiery Heat Wave to the much milder but dramatic-looking Friar’s Hat. Speak to Alice or Perry for expert advice on sowing and growing. www.cookooboxchillies.com

Herbal Haven- Essex
If its herbs you’re after, John Webster of Herbal Haven has an unparalleled range of both popular garden herbs and unusual specialties. Their range includes, amongst many others, cinnamon basil, chamomile, mugwort, bergamot, wintergreen, marjoram, Jacob’s Ladder, wood sage, heartsease, mullein, elecampaine, bay and St. John’s Wort. We could name them all, but it would take us forever. Go and see for yourself! www.herbalhaven.com

Enjoy the Farmers' Market, and the Plant Fair, on Sunday.

Louise, Emily, Mark, Cheryl, Mark and Arthur
Brixton Farmers' Market - every Sunday 10am-2pm in Brixton Station Road, next to the Recreation Centre.

_________


P.S.

Week 4 of the month = CAKE AND FISH! What, can that be the sun a-shining?? AND A PLANT FAIR AS WELL?!
 
Further news!

We'll have TWO organic veg stalls this weekend!

Akiki will back in Brixton as they liked it so much! Awhh!
http://www.akiki.co.uk/

A new stall this week is DGT Tanner's. They do veg and also...

SOFT FRUIT!!
(though probably just strawberries this early in the year. Alas!)
 
Les's Email update

dear brixton farmers market customer

first time up in a month, was doing our local christchurch food festival when i was last supposed to be up a fortnight ago

not a lot tomorrow im afraid, hope to be sold out by noon, so pl reserve anything to be sure
dover sole £16kg
mullet £6 kg
cockles £4 kg
crayfish £8 kg

regards
les
www.christchurchfish.co.uk
_______
 
Dear friends of the Brixton Farmers' Market,

Just a quick note to let you know this weekend, the farmers' market will be the number one place to come to if you want to pick up early season strawberries and new potatoes. Check out Sopley Farm's fantastic stall, where they'll also be showing off their fantastic asparagus. They might have a bit of rhubarb left to, but best to get there early!

Dave and the team at Sopley Farm pick most of their produce the day before market - so you won't get much fresher, no matter how hard you try!

Enjoy the market this weekend.

Regards,

Louise, Emily, Cheryl, Mark, Danielle and Arthur
Brixton Farmers' Market - every Sunday 10am-2pm in Brixton Station Road, opposite the Recreation Centre.
 
Hmmm, whilst a glut of summer fruit and veg is a joy to behold a little more quality control wouldn't go amiss.

Two punnets of strawberries for £3.50 should be good value but when you get them home and pick out all the mouldy ones on the bottom to find that you have only one punnet left you feel a bit disappointed.

Likewise some 'new' potatoes that are as soft as sponge. :(
 
I'd echo minnie and advise some real caution in purchasing of late.

Carrots and onions in particular from one supplier have gone bendy/rotten all too quickly. Like a gom I kept buying sacks of the things to find half the bag full of soft, green-innarded onions. Truth be told the value and freshness of things like that is often better down the 'ordinary' Brixton market

Shame about the fish man. He was one of the most distinctive and useful stalls there. It does seem to be getting a little more stale there, although I'm hoping that an influx of new summer produce will shake things up a little.

And I'm not falling for the Post Office bakery produce again. White bloomers that are dry and heavy, followed by a baguette that tasted inexplicably like a dry and heavy bloomer. I've never been greatly impressed, but those last two attempts are enough to make me finally scrub them off the options list
 
I don't mind imperfect fruit and veg, I don't mind the odd 'bad bit', to me it means 'real food' and not food that has been irradiated, waxed, stored in nitrogen or otherwise tampered with to last longer but it shouldn't make up 50% of the purchase. Less than about 10% I can live with.

I have never been a fan of Post Office Bakery, Luca bread is infinitely better. Federation Coffee get their croissants from POB which is a shame.

I only once bought off the fish man, some clams and I have to say they were tasteless and £8 bought enough for 2 for spaghetti vongole. Not the greatest value imo. I spent that much because I was hoping for superb flavour to make the kind of vongole I've tasted on the Italian coast. Alas, it was not to be. :(
 
Ach I'm not sure you can blame the fish man for the tastiness of his clams tbh. His stuff always looks as fresh as can be tbh and besides I haven't had vongole since a dramatic food poisoning incident in Paris.

If only (unrealistically)he had a wider selection of stock and wasn't there on a Sunday I'd probably have bought more off him. Too often it was only a few bits and the hard to open (and not enough reward) crayfish and crabs

Agree with you that Luca bread is better. I just thought the POB was worth another go for some unknown reason.

Whatever happened to those chilli plant sellers the bod kept going on about. Both times they've been annouced in advance I've not seen them down there. I want a tepin plant goddamit
 
Hehe, I wasn't 'blaming' him, it was just a statement of fact. They were certainly fresh! Mind you, there is nothing stopping the person who harvests the clams from trying a few before gathering a load and if they are not tasty, well... don't collect any more!
 
POB sunflower bread is delicious.

And if it's chilli plants you're after, we got some a year or so ago from the Brockwell Park greenhouses.
 
I got a few from the Brockwell Greenhouses from their chilli day a fair while back, but they never did do that well tbh.

And besides, it's only one type of chill plant that I'm really after atm - my balcony and windowsills won't hold more. I want little tepins, or wiri wiris if I could find them
 
Ours from the Brockwell Greenhouses didn't do to well. But friends got a different type the same day and were successful.
 
The clams I got from Les were always good, and cheap compared to other sources (Moen and Son). His Dover Sole was a real bargain, especially as fish is always going to be relatively expensive. It's a shame he's gone now, just as a lot more stuff is coming into season. I was looking forward to spankingly fresh mackerel. He always sells out in his other locations, apparently, and as that's not the case in Brixton I guess it's not surprising that he's no longer coming.

I am not a fan of Old Post Office bread either. It's pretty heavy and if I was going to buy bread (I generally make my own) I'd get it from Luca or Blackbird in Herne Hill.

Never had a problem with the rotting onions, strawberries and the like.
 
Never had a problem with the rotting onions, strawberries and the like.
Never had a problem until last week. Looked to me like they had taken old strawberries, spread them across punnets and topped them up with fresher ones. They were from the veg stall ouside San Marino. The ones from the chap with nothing but strawbs, asparagus and potatoes were superb the week before but he wasn't there last week.
 
Never had a problem until last week. Looked to me like they had taken old strawberries, spread them across punnets and topped them up with fresher ones. They were from the veg stall ouside San Marino. The ones from the chap with nothing but strawbs, asparagus and potatoes were superb the week before but he wasn't there last week.

I don't really use that stall - I prefer the one on the other corner.
 
Back
Top Bottom