This coming Saturday, 25 September 2021, is our first market after the Autumn Equinox and it is a fabulous time to visit the farmers’ market: the gardens providing lots of food so we have lots of choice from the veg stalls and the choice of jams and chuneys is brilliant.  As we are getting to some kind of new normal  after the Covid pandemic festivals and events have also started up again, so we do have a few producers who are going off to the Festival of Thrift in Redcar,  but we still have a brilliant array of regulars and new producers.

We’re celebrating the last few days of #SourdoughSeptember with Andrew from Bread and Roses providing you with a delicious choice of sourdough breads. Sourdough is a name for a mixture (dough or batter) of water and cereal flour containing a culture of naturally occurring yeasts and lactic acid bacteria. It is often also used to name breads and pancakes made using such a culture.

Yeasts and bacteria are present all around us – for example in the air, soil and water. Those well suited to bread production are found in relatively high populations on the surface of cereal grains, such as wheat. By grinding the grains into flour and providing a suitable environment for these microorganisms to thrive (basically by adding water, maintaining an appropriate temperature, and providing food in the form of more flour) these populations can be increased in size and concentration, where they co-exist in a symbiotic relationship.  Like yoghurt and kimchi sourdough bread is a fermented prodcut which your gut microbione will thank you for.

It’s also Organic September which celebrates all organic farming and food prodcution. Organic farming is one of the ways in which farming and nature can live in harmony and we’re delight to have a good spread of organic prodcuers at the market: Bluebell Organics with their vegetables and fruit, Askerton Castle Esate and Middlemay Lamb, both selling organic meat and Slackhouse Farm with organic cheese, milk and yoghurt.

On top of all that we’ll have music from Samantha and Emma from Birness in Upper Redesdale playing fiddle and clog dancing.

You’ll be very welcome between about 9am and 1.30pm on Saturday 25 September 2021!

With various festivals and events starting up again, weddings doing a bit of a catch-up and people trying to take a holdiday with their children, we have a slightly bijou market on Saturday 28 August.  However, a part of that slightly smallerm but perfectly formed mix we have two interesting guest prodcuers as well as a lot of your favourites.

The Red Welly Food Co is a small batch producer based in the heart of the Eden Valley in Cumbria. They produce some big flavours with their 2 types of bacon jam,their range of unique hot sauces and their natural rubs/seasonings. You can use the products in any way you choose, and they believe you shouldn’t put any product in one box. However, they know that the Cumbrian BBQ rub works really well on chicken, fish, tofu, in dressings and even in vegetables.

The people at The Yolker are North-East based producers of gourmet, flavoured Scotch Eggs with a soft-set yolk.

They are handmade using the finest locally produced ingredients from locally sourced suppliers with eggs from Northumbrian Free Range Eggs at Matfen. They offer 7 different varieties all named after well-known films and film quotes and they include both gluten-free and vegetarian options.

We hope you’ll give them a very warm welcome!

The market will be in its usual place on the Market Place and around Hexham Abbey between 9am and 1.30pm.

This weekend marks the one year anniversary of the return of the farmners’ market after the very first lockdown in Spring 2020 and we’re delighted to not have missed one since. Yes, there have been some changes: our larger area around Hexham Abbey has been a real success and most of our producers now take card payments.

We’re deligthed to welcome back this week Mari and Geoff from Cumberland Mustard and Julie from Pure Plants. Northern Ark, Hexham Country Market and Tim Foxall will all be with us, as well as most of the rest of our wonderful prodcuers who have kept coming right throughout that past year.  We’ll also be bringing back music for the first time since late 2019!  Missing this week with be Bluebell Organics and Stonehouse Smokery, as they are both having a well-deserved break.

Now that the scaffolding around the abbey is all gone we’ll be using the area along the footpath to the Sele again and you’ll find four of our producers there.  You can find a full plan for the market here.

Today, 21 May 2021, the regulations around who needs to charge for plastic bags have changed, which means that if you ask for a plastic bags most of our producers will need to charge you a minimum of 10p per bags.   Hexham Farmers’ Market wholeheartedly supports this change as we really need to cut down of the use of single use plastic (and plastic in general) where we can.  Fortunately many of our customers already bring their own bags and containers and we strongly encourage you to continue to do so. The charge will also apply to biodegradable bags.

There are some exceptions like bags for uncooked meat, fish and poultry, vegetable ‘contaminated’ with soil and food in containers that nare not secure enough to prevent leakage while handling.  Our producers don’t have to charge for bags that have previously been used of for papert bags.

Take away message: bring your own bags and containers and if you do have to ask for a bag, please be prepared to pay the 10p charge.

You can for info about the plastic bag charge and the responsibilites here.

“Plastic Bag” by londonista_londonist is licensed under CC BY 2.0