Blog

Damp Apple Day success

Any Market Manager fears a poor weather forecast and when you get messages from your traders in the run-up to a market asking if the market is likely to go ahead, you pay extra attention to the forecast! When you then find the day is likely to wet but not too windy, you set your expectations accordingly and hope for the best.

Our Apple Day on 13 October was in the middle of the weekend when Storm Calum was in the news, but turned out to be an excellent day, despite the damp. Yes, it rained; yes, people got very wet, but our wonderful customers came anyway and supported their local farmers’ market.

Our friends from Transition Tynedale did a stirling job turning the apple glut into bottles and bottles of delicious apple juice, Ros from Rookhope had her apple knowledge tested and provided customers with information and, crucially, names for their mystery apple varieties and everyone actually had a pretty good time! And when you get a wide variety of stallholders tell you they’re done well, you know the day was a success!

Mushrooms from coffee!


We’re delighted that we’ll be joined on Saturday 11 August by the YMCA from Newcsatle with a new product for the market. They have set up a social entreprise which uses coffee waste from cafes in the city and turn it into high value oyster mushrooms. In the process they are not just producing a product but they are also training and employing young people. A win-win for all! You can find more about the business here .

The market on Saturday 11 August 2018 starts at 9am and finishes at 2pm. You can find us in the Market Place in the historic heart of Hexham.

Buttercup comes to market

Carron of Middlemay Lamb brought her dairy cow Buttercup to the market on at the end of July. Buttercup gives children (and adults!) an opportunity to have a go at hand milking, which is a real skill. If you didn’t get to see her, we’ll try and let you know about Buttercup’s next appearance via our social media pages.

Cut flowers from Northumberland

We delighted that we will have cut flowers from Northumberland at the market on Saturday 28 July 2018. Kate Kirsopp-Reed and her sister grow their flowers near Otterburn in the Rede Valley, a challenging place to be growing flowers! They will be trying the market as a guest.

Rede Valley Flower’s stall at the market

Products with personality

This Tim Foxall spatula clearly has a personality. Hope it found a new home!

Music livens up the market

We’re always keen to have people play music at the market and you will have noticed that we had Cream Tees from Barnard Castle playing with us on the last market in May.  They were in Hexhan for the Hexham Gathering and we were pleased the young people were able to join us for a slot too.  None of us knew that the Market place would be reverberating with the sound of drumming for an hour between 11 and 12!

Fortunately there was enough time for Cream Tees to give us a portion of their repertoire,  once the drums fell silent.

We’re delighted that Jack Famelton, a young Northumbrian piper will join us on the first market in June.