Islington Market

This market is the most homely of the lot. I like it for the fact that there are quite a few different stores here that are not at the other markets, and the fact that there are lots of fruit and vegetable and meat producers. We picked up some beautiful (and huge!!) Portebello Cup mushrooms (£6.90/kg) and 3 bags of apples and pears. They have lots of cakes and bread too but I refrained on this occasion. The only problem is, we can’t get our milk at this market.

Info

Every Sunday 10am – 2pm
William Tyndale School (behind the Town Hall)
Upper Street
Islington
N1
Website

Marylebone Market

We are well on our way of working through all of London’s Farmers Market. Marylebone Market is held every Sunday, and our main reason we were going was to pick up unpasteurised milk from Lincolnshire Poachers , who apparently have the best. And they probably do too, as we got there 1 hour after the market opened, and they had sold out. Fortunately they told us that we could pre-order next time. There was no milk at the Alham Wood cheese store either, but I did pick up some lovely and creamy buffalo cheese.

The stalls are very similar to Notthing Hill, there are your vegetables, meat, cheese, bread and cakes, as well as some jams and pickles. There are also seafood and a French catering stall to add to the mix.

There was nothing particularly appealing, so picked up some good looking pork belly and vegetables only. We left though, with a potato pie (£1.20) from the bakery.

Info

Every Sunday 10am – 2pm
Cramer Street Car park corner Moxton St
Just off Marylebone High Street
London
W1
Website

A Day @ Notting Hill

After having gone to Borough Market a couple of times, I was looking for an alternative, and Notting Hill Farmers Market fit the bill. Don’t get it confused with the nearby Portobello Rd Market. This is a small market with everything you need and not too much to distract you with. There’s that community feel, and best of all, prices are quite reasonable. Same as the supermarket, so why wouldn’t you buy straight from the farmers? We picked up:

• Milk (£1.49 for 2 pints)
• St George Goats Cheese (£21.99/kg)
• Apples and pears (£1.80/kg)
• Brown California sourdough (£2.70)
• 6 mince pies (£1)
• Pain au chocolate (£1.45)
• Leg of mutton (£10)
• cabbage (£.50)
• 2 English spinach for £1

We will definitely be back.

Since we were so closed, we decided we should check out Portobello Road Market, so we joined the hordes and hordes of tourists heading the same way. The police handing out beware of pickpockets at the entrance to the markets was a bad sign, but the market was quite charming. Lots of antiques (not sure if they were real antiques or jus for show), lots of colour and noise. If it wasn’t for the huge crowd, this would actually be a lovely day out.

To get away from the crowd, we actually got some decent coffee from Coffeeplant. The cappuccino (£1.60) was most definitely more than passable. We were tempted by the street stall seller shouting out “6 tiramisu for £1”, but as expected, the tiramisus were really bad. We also picked up some King Edwards (£0.25/kg) before heading home.

Info

Notting Hill
Every Saturday 9am – 1pm
Car park behind Waterstones, access via Kensington Place
junction of Kensington Church Street
W8
Website

Portobello Road Market
Every Saturday
Portobello Road
London
W11 1LU
Website

Borough Market

For a foodie, I have to say, I have only had 2 forays to Borough Market. Why? 2 reasons. One. The market is very commercial, the store holders are usually employees or are running small business, rather than a real “farmers market”. This makes the prices somewhat expensive and the service somehow not so personal. Two. It’s just extremely crowded at all times for you to be able to enjoy it fully. Saying that though, you can still find a large variety of food, of pretty good quality here, and most importantly, this is the home of Monmouth Coffees, the best coffee in London I have encountered.

Out of all my experiences, I have so far tried:

• Monmouth cappuccino (2), all made with a double shot of espresso!
• WODL (Raclette) (or the Raclette Guy) for Toasted sarnies (£4)
• Strawberry - 2 punnets for (£2.50)
• Raspbery for (£1) at Jock Stark
• Mortiner cheese, £14.50/kg
• Flour Power City Pain au Levain – white. A naturally fermented sourdough, (£ 2.50 for half a 800g round)

Info

Fri noon-6pm and Sat 9am-4pm
Borough High Street
Stoney Street and Winchester Walk
London
SE1 1TL
Phone+44 (0) 20 7403 8403
Website

Good Living Growers’ Market

Went to our 1st Growers Market of the year on Sat. This is one of my favourite activities. I love looking at all the different and unusual products - it used to be quite exclusive, but nowadays you can buy most of the stuff at the shops, so it's not quite as exciting anymore. However, I still really enjoy taste testing before I buy (or not buy)!

Every market I always buy 2 things without fail though, these are:

• Bread from La Tartine (not actual website but has good product listing) - They make the most heavenly organic sourdoughs. You can't buy their bread anywhere else (they have no retail outlet). I have tried almost all the varieties, including multi grain, wholemeal, spelt, pumpkin, rye... but my 2 favourites are the carraway seed and the fruit bread. The breads aren't cheap.... $5 for the carraway and other loaves, and $6 for the fruit loaf, but in my opinion, worth every cent!
• Dried fruit from Honest to Goodness- These people sells all types of organic dried fruits and nut. I usually can't justify paying much more for organic, but 2 standouts from this shop are the dried dates (@$20/kg they are actually cheaper than conventional dates) and my new find, dried apricots (@$15/kg). I always buy 1 kg of dates at this place, next time I am going to branch out and try their other fruits.

We splashed out on venison at this market. This meat was always something I wanted to try but could never justify the price. Since we've been on the CSIRO diet and have to eat a lot of lean meat, we've decided to give it a go because, well, you get pretty sick of eating chicken and beef. Slokky did a roast yesterday, and the meat was really really tender and lean, but not chewy! I've decided this is a meat I would like to eat once in a while.

Info

Pyrmont Bay Park opposite Star City Casino
Sydney NSW 2000
First Saturday of Every Month
7am - 11am
Phone (02) 9282 3606