Another Foray to Queens Park Farmers Market
I’m developing a rather nice Sunday Morning routine. For the last few weeks I have taken a leisurely walk down to Queens Park Farmers’ Market. I have even written about it before.
There's an almost baffling array of fresh vegetables on sale at Queens Park Farmers' Market.
Today was, in farmers’ market terms, a perfect day. An overcast, cool November morning with the threat of a little rain. It just seems so right. The place was as usual well supported by both stallholders and customers – and there were some very delicious looking things for sale. I had promised myself that I wouldn’t spend more than a tenner. I have been playing fast and loose with the cash reserves and I need to take it easy. Besides, I’m going to Ireland in a couple of weeks time so I want to save some loot.
So, the market:
- Yummy Mummies. Check
- Trendy Daddies. Check
- Tarquins. A brace of them. Check
- Hermiones. Several. Check
- Jemima (not kidding) the Labrador. Check
- Weekend hippies. A sprinkling. Check
- Ex rock stars. Check (or at least they looked pretty convincing)
Queens Park is so achingly cool. Every soul seems determined and dedicated to creating a little island of Starbucks cafe culture in the patchy grime of North (said quietly) West (said loudly) London.
I bought some pressed Bramley apple and pear juice...
There were some fine looking Christmas puddings as well as a plethora of baked apple/pear/younameit tarts, pies and crumbles. There were quiches and pasties, sausage rolls (£1.60 for two. Kerching!) and bacon and sausage baguettes (£2.50 Kerching!) There were pressed apple and pear juices (£2.25 Kerching!). There were rolled lamb neck joints from Twelve Green Acres (£4.20 each, I’ll have two, please. Kerching!) There was a bloke carving delicious chunks of hot pork, beef and other meaty lovliness into plastic dishes – cheap and delicious.
Amongst all the yummy mummies there were a few tarts too.
There were veggie vendors (potatoes, beans and tenderstem broccoli, £4.60 Kerching!) and fishmongers as well as purveyors of game pies, venison (£8.50 for a lovely roasting joint, £7.00 for two partridges). My mushroom pate lady was there – she remembered me from last week and watched in consternation as I devoured her little tasters whilst telling her that I wasn’t going to be buying any pate this week.
At 11 am a bloke with a cow bell rang his cow bell and asked everyone to stand for two minutes silence. Remembrance Day. It was strange looking round the market as though everyone was frozen in time.
11am on Remembrance Day. Two minutes silence; everyone frozen to the spot as though time had forgotten its rhythm.
Another ring of the cow bell set everything back in motion and after another brief scout around just in case I’d forgotten anything, like perhaps a haunch of wild boar or some goats willies or some straw-pressed cider (there wasn’t any 
) I set off back home, my rucksack laden with lovliness… which I am now humming and hawing about how to cook. Me and choices. Not a successful combination.
Look out for an update on how I will cook my rolled lamb neck…
Here’s how to find Queens Park Farmers’ Market.
