Dear Readers, for today’s ‘get your leg back into working order’ challenge, I hobbled down to East Finchley Farmers’ Market with my other half – it’s probably not further than my walk to Cherry Tree Wood last week but there’s a bit more up and down hill, so it all helps to get the knee and ankle working.

For those who don’t know, a Farmers’ Market allows producers to sell directly to the public. In London, all the produce has to come from within a 100 mile radius, which seems like a long way, but means that there’s food from Kent and the West Country. The East Finchley market sells lots of organic fruit and veg, meat, cheese, fish, and some pre-prepared meals (they have to contain at least 50 percent local ingredients). They also have locally grown flowers, which is a big pull for me – I like flowers, but don’t want to be air-freighting them from some distant  location. Farmers’ Markets often have very seasonal fruit and veg that is difficult to find in most shops (though yet another shout out for Tony’s Continental here, which has damsons and cobnuts in stock at the moment!

Last time I was at the market it was for the opening day on June 14th, and it was absolutely rammed. Today it was so quiet that I was actually worried for its survival. I’m sure that the holiday season over August would have been poorly attended, but I thought that people were back from holiday by now. Aaargh! I’ve waited so long for a Farmer’s Market, and it would be a shame if it went after such a short time.

I got talking to the people on the flower stall – they were saying what a terrible few months it had been. Last night there was the most terrible thunderstorm in East Finchley, with hailstones making a terrible racket as they bounced off of the roof, and it seems that the flower fields were also flattened. Such are the vagaries of being a farmer of any kind, something it’s so easy to forget when your food comes beautifully trimmed and dirt-free. The organic vegetable stall had a wonderful array of vegetables and fruit, and Chegworth Farm, which does a whole range of fruit juices from their apple orchards, had the last of the raspberries and strawberries. But there were very few customers, and it all looked a little forlorn.

People are always worried that a Farmers’ Market will take trade away from local shops, but my feeling is that people who love food, and cooking, will patronise both: Tony’s is always my first port of call for fruit and veg (and tasty Greek-Cypriot pastries), while I’ll use the Farmer’s Market for things that I can’t get there. The bigger threat to both local shops and the Farmer’s Market are the plethora of supermarkets and online delivery services. Not everyone has the time to wander around getting food from different places, for sure, and I confess to getting some food delivered, but I do hope that we can find a way to support our local shops and the Farmers’ Market, while still using online delivery and supermarkets for convenience? It’s a conundrum, for sure, and not everybody has the time or the money to be hobbling around the Farmers’ Market in search of something unusual.

Do you have a Farmers’ Market, or equivalent? Are your local shops good for produce? I’m fascinated to know how other places shape up on the food shopping front….

And yes, I did manage the walk, though my leg is a bit sore and complaining now. Still, it’s good to test what I can do, and try to push the boundaries gently. I really want to get back to my pilates classes, so next week we’re having a trial run from East Finchley to Islington on the tube, which will involve walking up and down the ‘steps of doom’ at East Finchley Station where I had my accident. I’ll keep you posted!