Farmer's Market
Next Farmer Market: Saturday 07 April 2012
at Bell St Car Park, 09:00-13:00.
2012 Dates for your diary:
Saturday 07 April
Saturday 2 June
Saturday 1 September
Saturday 3 November
Sunday 16 December
ALL ENQUIRIES ABOUT THIS MARKET NOW TO 01279 724537.
Sawbridgeworth Farmers' Market Origins
Sawbridgeworth Farmers’ Market started life on Saturday 5th of May 2007. For many of the 3,500 visitors to our town on that day the market was a novelty. Many were totally new to the concept and others had been waiting for years for such a market to come to our town.
Farmers’ Markets existed since the days when currency was first introduced which allowed people to sell their excess produce at the end of each harvest and often the farmers who were selling their farms produce would meet in the town square to sell their wares.
Soon the king realised that taxes could be collected and it may surprise some but Sawbridgeworth’s Market Charter of 1222 predates that of Bishop’s Stortford by over a hundred years, our town had a richer agricultural hinterland in those days.
In many towns and villages across the globe the primary means of income for the local residents is farming, and weekly markets are a part of normal existence.The fortunes of such markets and the link with local farming in small market towns of Great Britain hit the buffers for a variety of social and economic reasons.
With the advent of the big supermarket people have got used to purchasing their produce pre-packaged and have lost interest in food in general and the link to its local production. The customer no longer had to worry about seasonality and worldwide transport systems were able to supply food at all times of the year.
It is only due to a recent interest in food thanks mainly to concerns by all for the environment, television programs informing people about the damage intensive farming is doing to our way of life and our planet that Farmers’ Markets have surfaced in the public consciousness.
If you are health conscious then Sawbridgeworth Farmers’ Market is one of the best places to source your fresh fruit and vegetables, along with your meat, fish, home baking and everything else to fulfil a balanced healthy diet. You can also be certain that your food is local and fresh, and not full of artificial preservatives to keep it fresh on the shelves for longer.
There are no middle-men or global corporations preventing you from finding out more about the food that you eat and feed to your friends and family. There is no ‘smoke and mirrors’ labelling issues that the big supermarkets would rather you didn’t find out about.When you purchase produce at a good Farmers’ Market you are supporting your local economy and the community in which you live.
You can also provide the sellers with valued feedback about their produce and develop a rapport with local suppliers and providers of food. You can pick up tips, recipes and best ways of preparing food from the people who have brought it to you from the point of production.
There has been a tendency where Farmers' Markets don’t enforce the rules and they gradually creep further and further away from the ethics, principles and local identity.
Sawbridgeworth Farmers’ Market is wholly the result of a grass roots community effort and has rigidly stuck to its principle of localness, publishing exact distances that produce has travelled to the market area from point of production. It is has also pursued good standards of presentation and ensured that all regulations are complied with. This is often the difference between an enterprise that puts community and local economy support before purely profit motives.
And when the market is not on some of the fresh produce is available through the town’s local supermarket Gravelle Budgens who support the principle of local food.
The Sawbridgeworth Farmers’ Market was set up by a small group of dedicated local individuals under the umbrella of the Sawbridgeworth Town Partnership.
It is one of the most successful markets in Herts and Essex and after 3 years it has now been handed over to the Sawbridgeworth Town Council who will continue to run it as main organiser.
For more information:
Telephone Sawbridgeworth Town Council on: 01279 724537
Or email: info@sawbridgeworth-tc.gov.uk