As you will know, we had to decide to suspend Hexham Farmers’ Market during the Corona COVID-19 outbreak but that doesn’t mean you have to do without high quality, locally produced food completely. Quite a few of our producers will  take telephone or online orders and either deliver to your door, or send out their products.  The group is likely to be changing, depending on how long the current situation lasts, but people happy to do so are as of today (20/4/2020) as follows (some minimum orders may apply):

Askerton Castle Estate: Organic meat and chicken. Delivery on Fridays.

Slackhouse Farm: Organic Birdoswald Cheese, yoghurt, milk, eggs. Delivery: Tuesday

Noisette Catering: home-made ready meals. Delivery Fridays, so orders by Monday please

Ravensworth Grange: Rare breed pork

Muckle Brewing: Locally brewed beers

Northumberland Honey Co: the clue is in the name!

Durham Soap Company: We all need soap now!

Meraki Cacao: Scruptious cacao bars

Stonehouse Smokery: high quality charcuterie

Hallsford Farm: Beef, lamb and sausages as well as some products from other places

Northumberland Cheese Company: variety of cheeses amde with cows, sheeps and goats milk

Spicy Monkey: the curry sauces that you’re used to from the market as well as other goodies

Cumberland Mustard: variety of mustards and other condiments

Others, including Bread and Roses bakery are working on an online shop and testing the logistics.

To celebrate our 20th anniversary this year we’ve created a calendar for 2020 (see what we did there?) with pictures from most of the producers at the market. The calendar is for sale at the markets between now and Christmas and as well as giving some lovely behind-the-scenes images the calendar includes the market dates for next year. The calendars cost £5 each.  For an additional £1.35 we can send the calendar in the post too (UK only, other countries will be more expensive).  Please contact us on hexhamfarmersmarket (at) gmail.com to ask for details about having it sent out.

It is our aim to create a page where you can get a bit more information about all the images in the calendar, especially which of the producer or producer’s product(s) it features and that page will be developed over the next few weeks.

This Saturday, 26 October 2019, isn’t just the date of the next Hexham Farmers’ Market, it is also the day for the popular Hexham Spook Night. To allow for the set up of some of the rides on the Market Place our farmers’ market will close at the slightly earlier time of 12noon.

To celebrate all things spooky Hexham Farmers’ Market will be doing a ‘Guess the weight of the pumpkin‘ competition. It’s free for anyone to enter and the prize at the end of the market is the pumpkin concerned. You will also be able to pick up a range of pumpkin recipes, courtesy of Food Durham, to encourage you to think of pumpkins as food, not just decoration, and to highlight the scandal of food waste. You can share your ideas for using your pumpkin in cooking on social media using #PumpkinRescue.

The pumpkin will be supplied by Richard from East Grange Farm in County Durham, whose Pick Your Own pumpkin patch will be open between 10am and 3pm every day between Saturday 26 and Thursday 31 October

Customers and producers at Hexham Farmers’ Market celebrate the market’s 20th anniversary on Saturday 28 September with music, a full set of producers and, of course, cake!

The market which is one of the oldest in the region, was started by a few local producers who were looking for new ways of connecting direct with consumers.  It allowed them to talk to their customers about the way they farm, how their products are produced and to make it easier for people to buy local. Hexham Farmers’ Market has maintained that ethos and still all producers are from within about 50 miles of Hexham, they make the produce they sell and there will always be someone on the stall who can talk with knowledge and expertise about the produce on sale.  Two important arguments for shopping at Hexham Farmers’ Market were, and continue to be, that by having a direct connection with producers, customers have access to food they can trust, and shopping at a farmers’ market puts money direct into the local economy.  In recent years the issue of climate change and the nature emergency have been added to concerns and farmers’ markets play a role in that too. Carbon emissions associated with both producion and transport of food at the market are much reduced.

At this Saturday’s farmers’ market there will be a full complement of the current producers, some of whom have been coming for all of those 20 years.  Two of the very first group of producers, Hexham Country Markets (who started off as the Farmers’ Wives) and Cumberland Mustard, still regularly attend and at least half of the producers have been coming for more than 10 years.

Louise English of Hexham Country Markets, and Director of Hexham Farmers’ Market Ltd said: Things have changed quite a lot since those very early days. We started at the Hexham Mart and were there for about two years before we relocated to the Market Place.  At that time the County Council would put up the stalls but we’ve been using our own stalls and gazebos for a few years now. I’m delighted the market has continued to thrive.’

Hexham Farmers’ Market will celebrate with performances from young musicians Samantha and Emma Bull from Byrness, and from members of the Tynedale Community Choir.  The arriversary cake will be cut at about 11.45 and shared with customers and producers.

To celebrate Hexham Farmers’ Market has also created a special calendar for 2020 with images from a very wide range of producers at the market and giving all the farmers’ market dates for next year.  The calendar will be on sale from the first market in October onwards.

Peter Samsom, the market manager since 2009 said: ‘Hexham Farmers Market is a very special community of local producers and loyal customers who care about their food, where it comes from, how it’s produced and what goes into it. We have an amazing group of loyal customers who turn up in good weather and bad and I’m pleased to say that people have become friends over those years.  We very much look forward to coninuing to be here for many years to come.’