I used to trade at the farmer’s market in Parson’s Green, in the Fulham area of London, until last summer. We had a lovely little market, but alas -with three weeks notice – lfm.org.uk who managed the market, and the vast majority of farmer’s markets in London, shut us down.

After a few attempts at starting farmer’s markets in the area, we – the small group of ex traders, customers and local residents, are now aiming to create a ‘community run’ farmer’s market. And will be having a public meeting in the area at some point, and will set up a steering group to push on with our aims.

Online

Aswell as our website, and Facebook page, we now have an account on Instagram and Twitter, aswell as a private Facebook group:

Website: http://parsonsgreenmarket.org/

Public Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/parsonsgreenmarket/

Private Facebook group: Friends of Parson’s Green Market https://www.facebook.com/groups/2306798286055298/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/friends_of_pg_farmers_market/

Twitter: Screen-name:- friends_of_pg_farmers_market : https://twitter.com/PGMark6

Country & City

Aswell as being online, our little market has it’s roots in both the city (London ) and the country. Each weekend farmers would load their vans full of produce, picked or caught, the day before in most cases, and head for our old market hosted in a school playground in Fulham/Parson’s Green, London. I would travel the near 40 miles from the centre of Kent, the county directly south of the city. Other traders would travel from near me in Kent, Essex, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire – and probably the furthest was a stall who would journey up from the Isle of Wight.

Contrast this with many supermarket staples, of our fresh fruit and vegetable shopping, some coming as far afield as New Zealand, and South America. For fresh produce this does not make sense. Better by far for the environment, for local farming communities and in many cases our health, local means fresher and in many (most if not all) cases better quality. Saying this, some things it does make sense to source from arounfd the world. Where would we be without bannanas, and coffee, dates from Iran, and olives and olive oils from Spain Italy Greece …

One thing both buying locally, and buying from abroad have in common: there is a direct connection, with the country/the farm, with the city/the customer and shop/market. A farmer’s market has a more direct connection with farms which, like the one i work for – you can visit during the summer ‘open days’. You can actually call in any time and we will sell you whatever we can direct. As in most cities, London has many communities of people from all over the world. Our market had a very large French community in the area, many Italian people live nearby; and in London their are large communities from Turkey, the Middle East, Russia and Eastern Europe – especially Poland … All these communities also have a connection from country to city, even abroad – having shops and businesses selling produce that would not normally be found in an English supermarket, catering for traditional English tastes. And so the grapevine of commerce stretches from the fishermen of the Baltic, traditional Polish and Russian butchers, Turkish olive growers, Indian rice producers, aswell as fresh local produce, from in – and just outside London.

And now our little market community can be reached online. So please get in touch, if you would like a say in this community led market. Even leaving a comment of support is of great help. And one day soon, the grapevine of Kent, Essex, Lincoln’ and Warwickshire farmers, will be reconnected to communities in London, they would travel to each weekend.