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Christmas 2023

Saturday 9 December sees the return of the very popular Hexham Christmas Market which the farmers’ market is an integral part of. There will be over 100 stalls in the Market Place, around the Abbey, in the Abbey and the Priory Buildings of the Abbey and on the Cloister lawn. To give everyone an opportunity to get round them all we’ll be there from 9am until 3pm (indoor stalls from 9.30 onwards) which is a little longer than usual.

We’re delighted to have a full complement of stalls with the very welcome return of Ian Nixon from Spicy Monkey and Francesca Lawson from Lovesome Oil. We can look forward to the absolutely delicious stollen slices from Bread and Roses bakery, brilliant gifts from the likes of the Durham Soap Company, Tim Foxall Spatulas or the cacao bars from Vicky at Meraki Cacao. You can fill your festive table with great food from lots of local producers so look no further for your beef, lamb and pork, cheeses, cakes, jams and chutneys, charcuterie or fermented goods like kimchi and sauerkraut (maybe a good idea to add in for the festive period). For drinks check out Muckle Brewery for a beer for every palette, a great variety of meads from Northumberland Honey and Mead or traditional cider and apple wine from J&R Armitage- you’ll find the latter on the Cloister Lawn by the Abbey. The full list of producers at the farmers’ market part of the Christmas event is here.

800 years of markets in Hexham

On Saturday 24 September we celebrate the fact that Hexham received its Market Charter 800 years ago. We’re proud to be part of that very long tradition.

On the day we will be visited by time travellers from those 800 years, going from the raid on Hexham by William Wallace in 1279, past the Hexham Riots in 1761 to people from the slightly more recent past. It will be an interesting day and we hope you’ll come and share it with us and Hexham Town Council, which is responsible for organising the event. The event is expected to start at 12.22!

The death of Her Majesty The Queen

The directors and producers of Hexham Farmers’ Market were deeply saddened to hear about the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth yesterday. We extend our condolences to all members of the Royal Family.

We have decided to go ahead with the farmers’ market scheduled for tomorrow as normal, be it in a slightly reduced form. We will not have any music or flags, to reflect the national period of mourning.

New pasta producer at the market

We’re delighted to welcome Imogen and her partner from the Northern Pasta Company to the market on 27 August 2022. They are based in Kendal which is right on our 50 mile radius (we measure as the crow flies) but as we don’t have anyone else producing pasta we’d be happy to have them with us. The pasta is hand made and they use spelt flour and semolina from farms like Gilchester’s Organics near Matfen.

Can’t wait to try this great new product!

Plant swap at the farmers’ market

On Saturday 14 May 2022 we see the very welcome return of Transition Tynedale’s popular plant swap. We’ve always been advocates of people knowing where their food comes from. Being able to talk to or ask questions of the person who made, grew or reared the food you are buying is one of our core criteria. We’re also advocates of people growing some of their own food, even if it is just a pot of herbs on a window sill. Both are important parts of a more towards greater resilience and food sovereignty, where we take responsibility for the food that we eat.

So we’re delighted to have the plant swap back. Most gardeners will grow more seedlings than they know what to do with; after all, you never know quite how many seeds are going to germinate, or how many might get eaten by sneaky slugs. We’re hoping that some of those surplus plants will make it to the market on Saturday for others to be helped out by them. More often than not we have more plants than we know what to do with, and if you haven’t got anything to add to the stall, don’t worry, you’d be welcome to take a few home and grow them on at home anyway.

In addition to the plant swap stall we have 22 fabulous local producers of great food and drink, all from within 50 miles of Hexham. The market runs between 9am and 1.30pm.

Two years on

This week is the second anniversary of the start of the Covid pandemic and the time we closed down, be it for a very short time. On the last market in 2020 the 10 Avenue Band had been booked to play music at the market and iut is only right that they’ll be coming back this Saturday, 26 March 2022. The 10th Aevnue Band is a colourful and very lively street band and we look really forward to having them with us this Saturday.

!0th Avenue Band in Morecambe ( (c) 10th Avenue Band))

We’ll also have Cycling Minds with us which will be providing free bicycle health checks.

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