We have a farmers market in my town – it’s a smallish market mid-week every couple of weeks.  The problem is that like many people, I’m out at work away from town by week.  But then we do have a “food festival” (larger farmers/producers market) every quarter on a Saturday with one of the main streets closed to accommodate it.  When I went along to it this weekend as ever, I spent loads more money than I expected much of it on food I didn’t strictly need but found some great produce.

The thing is, if you go to these events regularly, you can get a bit of fatigue.  There’s frequently the usual suspects selling their wares – butchers peddling speciality sausages, cheese producers, pickles, chutneys, cup cakes…  And then there’s the cost.  When you are used to supermarket prices, you can find yourself taking a sharp intake of breath when you are told the price of a wedge of artisan cheese produced from local goats.

But that’s kind of missing the point.  It is easy to forget that it costs to produce good food, especially when it is hand-made by specialist producers who simply don’t have the economies of scale of the large supermarket suppliers – and it is the idea of it being specially made on a small scale that appeals.  And even though you do see some repetition, that’s because in this country these days we are so good at producing certain goods (anecdotally it has been suggested that there are nearly twice as many distinct local cheeses in Britain as there are in France).  And besides, you do find some real gems – this time around I found a producer that makes scotch eggs with locally produced “chorizo” sausage meat, and some wonderful savoury pastries such as puff-pastry, feta and pea cakes – they were pretty damn good.

So please, support your local food and farmers markets.  Even if their vendors can seem pricey, they can still be good value for money for what you get.  And if you don’t use them, you may loose them – which I for one think would be a tragedy.