4/06/2010

PESTICIDES AND THE FOOD CHAIN. Food Markets.




WHAT ARE FARMERS MARKETS? http://www.lfm.org.uk/
Our farmers’ markets offer the freshest local food to Londoners every week. Meet the farmers, fishermen, growers and bakers who all share a passion for home grown products.
Easter Opening
Don’t miss the markets over the Easter weekend all markets will be open on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th April. Pick up something for your Easter lunch. Expect fewer stalls on Sunday markets as some producers take a well earned rest.
Look out for new season lamb, rhubarb, spring flowering bulbs and crisp purple sprouting that will all liven up your Easter dinner table, enjoy the break and Happy Easter from all at LFM.
What can I buy?
The following foods and products are available at London Farmer's Markets. All are grown and produced within 100 miles of London. Some produce is organic. Click on a category below for a list of all businesses selling these procducts. To see what's available near you, find your local market.
Beef / Lamb / Pork
All our beef, lamb and pork come from high welfare farms. Look out for rare breeds and a huge selection of sausages. All farmers hang their beef for improved flavour and texture. Some cut on site. Order those more unusual cuts direct from the farm
Vegetables and Salads
Cut or picked within hours of a market ensures great tasting vegetables and salads. Because they're so fresh salads keep well in the fridge
Fruit
Rhubarb in the Spring, strawberries from May, rasperries, blueberries, currants, following on, cherries in July and fresh apples from August, blackberries, pears and plums in September. A huge range of fruit with varieties you'll never find in a supermarket
Cooked Local Foods
Everything from pies and soups to hand made pasta, all made using local ingredients
Eggs
All the eggs at our farmers' markets are free range or organic. You won't find fresher unless you keep your own hens!
Breads and Cakes
Local artisan bakers with a huge range of breads from tradtional bloomers to gluten free. Home baked cakes using free range or organic eggs and local ingredients where possible. Look out for seasonal specials.
Honey / Preserves
Local beekeepers selling London and regional honey. Preserves made using locally grown fruit and vegetableS
Fish
Shellfish and wet fish sold fresh from their day boats, caught from the south and east coast. To sell at our markets fishermen must have a licensed fishing vessel. Storms and strong winds sometimes stops fish getting to market but you'll usually find a good seasonal range.
Drinks
Juice, cider and wine, all made by the farmer and grower using their own fruit.
Garden Plants and Cut Flowers
Get expert advice from the growers and enjoy cut flowers that last for ages. You'll find specialist nurseries at our markets with fantastic ranges. Don't miss our annual garden plant fairs in the Spring.

Cheese and Dairy
All sold by the farmers using milk from their own herds. You'll find a huge range of award winning cheddars, unpasteurised milk and cream, buffalo, cow and goats cheese and yogurt.
Poultry / Game
All poultry is free range or organic. Game is wild and seasonal.
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Marylebone Farmers’ Market
Marylebone Farmers' Market put the 'Marylebone Village' on the map as a destination for great food. On Sundays, the market site usually has between 30 and 40 stalls and is heaving with locals doing their weekly shopping, as well as food enthusiasts from all over the capital.
There is a good reason why the market attracts so many people from far and wide. There is something for everyone, whether it be Adrian Izzard's unusual salad leaves, James Coe's outstanding beef and lamb, a mushroom sandwich from The Mushroom Table, or freshly shucked oysters from the Maldon Seafood Company. Sunnyfields Farm's mountains of veg are always a crowd pleaser.

Exmouth MarketClerkenwell, LondonEC1R 4QA
A food market bustling with an eclectic mix of producers, farmers and local artisans returns to Exmouth Market every Friday and Saturday. Stallholders include Neal's Yard Cheeses, De Gustibus and the Monmouth Coffee Company. Together with specialist producers such as Isle of Wight Tomatoes and Born and Bread, stalls display mouthwatering delicacies. Clerkenwell's talented designers and artists also have the chance to show off their creations.
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Which are you choices, your options?
Do you buy in food markets?
Do you think they sell healthier food?
Why, why not?
Have a look at the farmer's blog: http://www.lfm.org.uk/farmers-blog/

11 comments:

  1. Anyone buying in food markets, real food in the "old fashioned way"? Have you visited these ones in London or NYC?

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  2. Carmen Escolar Langa4/19/10, 6:26 PM

    Unfortunalety living and working in Madrid, there is little chance to do so as in a small village, at least in my area. I buy ecological eggs weekly in the herborist nearby, but apart from that I can't find anything else. Sometimes in C. Ingles I find vegetables and fruits grown in an ecological/organic way, however they are far too expensive.
    No, I haven't been to these two but I remember visiting a biological market in Amsterdam, some years ago, it was just great, they had quite a range of products: fruits, vegetables, alive chickens, milk, cheese, homemade cakes with whole cereals and brown sugar(strudel)....
    Just to think of it makes me feel jummy!!

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  3. Paloma Blanco4/19/10, 7:42 PM

    I do not buy in any food market because I don´t have much time and I don´t like to spend time on doing it so I usually buy on Caprabo or Carrefour or places like this , where you have your fruit selected and perfectly packed and don´t have to wait until the stall owner asks you what do But I remember when I was a child to have gone with my mum to this markets and always there was someone who used to pull the leg to the childs like me and as I was a bit shy I didn´t like at all.Nowadays curiously I visit food markets when I am holidaying because you find very interesting things on it specially if you go to an Asian market.

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  4. Hi Carmen, have you tried Meracado de Ventas, 3rd floor? (C/Virgen de la alegría,Tube:Carmen)
    Anyway you both, Carmen and Paloma) are right, if you are in a hurry the easiest way to buy is going to a shopping centre of hypermarket where it is not easy to find what we like. Big cities are slowly going back to this new (old?)kind or markets, at least once a week.

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  5. Bruce Tarlton4/22/10, 10:45 AM

    I don´t want to sound smug or anything but I´m a really lucky chap! As I have a house in East London and another here close to Lleida, I go back regularly for short weekend breaks and one of my favourite haunts are these wonderful markets. As I don´t need to take to any hand luggage with me I tend to fill my hand luggage suitcase up with loads of foods which I can´t readily get in my part of Spain!! Shame we can´t bring liquids through customs as the soups are really marvellous!!

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  6. Where can I fnd that kind of markets?

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  7. Bruce,
    Thank you very much indeed, you have absolutely ruined my day... :-( -weep-
    A house in London AND another one in Lleida...sigh.
    A dream come true!!
    The pools, the horses, how was that??

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  8. Anonymous said...
    Where can I fnd that kind of markets?

    Where do you live? Town Halls usually offer this kind of info.

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  9. You could do a search in Google under London Markets. That should bring up info about these markets. If not, using the list above you could enter the names of the markets you are interested in and you may well find that quite a few of them have their own website.

    Just remains to say that one of the loveliest things one can do on a Sunday morning is to visit a London market.....see ya!!

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  10. It's so sad that we don't have this kind of thing in Madrid. I have read a lot about pesticides and toxins in our food. I have been to some Health stores (even in large supermarkets like Hipercor) and I bought some organic food. The problem is that it's really really expensive compared to "normal" food, and also, the quality of the products was not very good, let's say the food wasn't very "fresh"; the meat and fruit was in packages that had been packed a LONG time ago and the food came from places like South Africa, so give me fresh fruit and meat with pesticides and hormones any time, before that organic food that was packed centuries ago in another continent any time of the day...

    Now, if we had one of these markets here in Madrid that would be a different story...

    María Badía Santiago

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  11. HI I'm Mari Carme Garcia Jara and I live in a town in Barcelona. When you have read the word town you my think that we do have this sort of markets here but you where wrong because a town in Barcelona minds the same that a city the only different is that we don't have all that noise and all that people.
    So that basicly means that I don't know one.

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