Woolwich farmers market, or is it?

Seeing a tweet from the local online beer merchants Plumsteadshire of what they were having on sale at the Woolwich farmers market I was intrigued. I have used them many times in the last three lockdowns and I was interested to see what they had on their stall at the RARE Woolwich farmers market and to also check out the actual market.

The Beer stall was great and had a small but varied selection of craft ales, stouts and lagers. I was served by a friendly and beer knowledgeable young lady and I will be back to the stall again when it next opens.

What I was a bit disappointed with though, was the actual farmers market. When you think of farmers market, or at least the ones I have been to, you think of organic fruit and vegetables, half-eaten by pests and insects and way overpriced produce, that your local supermarket would throw away as not being good enough to sell to the public. Yes, you’ve guessed it, I have not fully bought into the organic is better ideology yet. The only thing I want chemical-free is my beer.

The only fruit and vegetables being sold at the market was one seller trading from the back of a van rather than off of a stall. All the other stalls seemed to be food stalls selling various cooked cuisines from around the world as well as the obligatory cheese and chilli oil and artisan bakery stalls.

This is now a bi-monthly food festival rather than a farmers’ market. I’m not complaining by any means. I would rather taste homemade produce or foods from around the world produced from within the local minority communities than overpriced and bug-infested cabbages anytime.

A lot of the regular stallholders were not there, possibly due to the Covid restrictions, perhaps they did not think it worth opening their stalls.
I dare say that the market will get bigger and more varied as it used to be, once we get back to normal and hopefully the market will go back inside again.

(See the events calendar in the what’s on section for opening dates and times).