15th Birthday celebration at Reading Farmers' Market

Oct. 1, 2014 - PRLog -- It was back in August 1999 that Reading Farmers' Market first brought local food to the local community , when it was run by the Council in a car park in Napier Road opposite Tesco. By October that year it had moved to an undercover market at the Cattle Market in Great Knolly's Street, under the care of The Thames Valley Farmers' Market, where it still runs from today.

Nine producers who started at the market 15 years ago are still trading there today, including Jane Bowler from Dews Meadow Farm, who says: "Reading Farmers' Market has been hugely popular from the start and we have some wonderful, loyal stallholders and customers. So we decided  to celebrate in style and have lots of fun, with a feast of local produce for everyone to taste and enjoy, free of charge of course!"

Tommy the Tractor will be putting in an appearance for the children and there will be a free, fun tombola with bags of more delicious treat for customers.

Stallholders at the market on Saturday will be selling a wide choice of locally grown, reared, bottled and produced food including pies, pastries & artisan bread, eggs, seasonal fruit & veg, pork, lamb, chicken & fresh trout, preserves and sauces, fruit yogurt, apple juice, super food watercress, & vegetarian specialities.

Farmers' Markets enable farmers and other local producers to sell their produce direct to the public, providing food traceability to customers as well as reducing the impact on the environment with a reduction in food miles and packaging. Jane Bowler explains: "Unlike in supermarkets, local food is rarely sold in impossible-to-open moulded plastic packaging and you can buy as much or as little produce as you need, so there's less food waste.

"Farmers' Markets are  a great way to introduce and encourage children to healthy, fresh food, and with an estimated 65% of adults* in the UK being classed overweight or obese, buying and eating fresh food has to be a good thing."

The criteria for a Farmers' Market is that produce is 'locally' produced, which is defined either as a county boundary or a radius of 30 -50 miles from the market and stallholders must be directly involved in the production process . Primary produce must be grown, reared or caught by the stallholder within the defined local area.  Secondary produce must be brewed, pickled, baked, smoked or processed  using ingredients from the defined local area.

Reading Farmers' Markets are held on the first and third Saturday of each month from 8.30am to 12.00pm.

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*Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-25576400

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Interviews can be organised with stallholders who are still trading at Reading Farmers' Market since it started 15 years ago:

         Bloomfield Hatch (eggs)

         Anila's Sauces (curry sauces, pickles & dips)

         D & B Cox, Ixhill Farm (chicken, duck & lamb)

         Crosslanes Fruit Farm (hard fruit)

         Bensons fruit juice

         APS plants

         Dews Meadow (pork, pork products & bacon)

         Eadles (pork)

         Brookleas (Fresh trout, oak smoked trout, smoked trout pate,

         locally caught crayfish)

For further information please contact: Louise Esplin, Esplin PR, Tel: 01235 850115 Mob: 07775 678237 email: esplinpr@gmail.com