Everything but the buns in Bath

I've recently returned from my first trip to Bath - a beautiful city with a strong food and drink culture to match.

One of the highlights was the farmers' market at Green Park station. It was the first indoor farmers' market I've been to for a while, and being under cover seems like a definite advantage on cold February days.

Reflections on London life

The turn of the year always prompts reflections. It's been my first Christmas in London and the new year will be the first I have spent as a resident of this great capital.

(Christmas dinner, incidentally, was roasted pheasant with port gravy, stuffed portobello mushroom as the vegetarian option, plus home-made stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips, and of course Brussels sprouts. The pheasants actually came from Norwich market, because I happened to be on a trip back there. Although they were cheaper than at the butcher in Balham I was slightly annoyed to find them cheaper still at Oval farmers market the next day! The parsnips and sprouts came from the farmers market, as did my alternative to Stilton, Bath Blue, a lovely creamy blue cheese from the Bath Soft Cheese Co.)

I have settled into a sort of rhythm of London life.
Good things (food-related): endless choice of restaurants, good choice of farmers' markets, plus street markets and convenience stores which mean I don't need to buy much in supermarkets; good value fruit and veg at markets (especially the Inverness Street market in Camden, which is small but conveniently located for my office).
Less good things: increased strain on wallet and waistline due to temptations offered by afore-mentioned restaurants; our local greengrocer is not as good as I would like; produce at farmers' markets is often stretching the definition of local. And I haven't been able to find the equivalent of the great stall on Norwich market which does all kinds of loose groceries, including pulses, grains and herbs and spices. (And a good line in sardonic banter - my request for a kilo of rye and a kilo of barley flakes last week was met with an inquiry about whether I would be shaping it into a particularly disgusting alternative to turkey.) So my home-made muesli has shot up in price now I have to buy these kinds of things in packets from the health food shop.

I've been reminded that human beings are creatures of habit. I could probably explore more shops than I have done, but once you have found somewhere acceptable the default option is simply to return there. Perhaps my new year's resolution is to be more original.

Richmond farmers’ market – small but perfectly formed

It took us a few minutes to find this farmers market , tucked away in Heron Square, just near the bridge over the river.

Once there, we found a stall with a good sprinkling of stalls, probably about 10 or 12 in all. There was a wet fish stall, a stall selling game such as partridges and pheasants, and a bread and other baked good stall. There was Kezi's Veggie Kitchen, specialising in vegetarian treats such as savoury tartlets and soups, as well as sweet things like flapjacks. And a fair-sized fruit and vegetable stall, where the walnuts in their shells and the interesting squashes caught my eye. I also saw Wild Country Organics, a Cambridgeshire-based farm who seem to do most of the farmers’ markets around London. They have some lovely unusual salad leaves, including sorrel and land cress.

One of the more unusual stalls was Isle of Wight Produce. As well as an array of tomatoes there was also garlic, eggs and three Isle of Wight cheeses www.isleofwightcheese.co.uk – a hard cheddar-style cheese, a softer Camembert-type cheese, and a blue. We bought the latter, imaginatively called Isle of Wight Blue. When we bought it, it was a creamy cheese with just a hint of blue, rather like a blue brie. But a week later (it has been in the fridge) it has become a lot more forceful.

I was slightly surprised that there weren’t more cheeses – most farmers’ markets seem to have a dedicated cheese stall, though the three Isle of Wight cheeses at least cover a good spectrum, and it makes sense for them to travel with the Isle of Wight tomato company.

Next time I’ll be buying a gourmet lunch, with some of those vegetarian tartlets, and maybe a chocolate brownie or two to finish!


When and where: 10am-3pm Saturdays, Heron Square, Richmond

Number of stalls: 10-12
Range of produce: 8
Value for money: 7
Marks out of 10:7

Candy floss flavoured grapes?

There has been some discussion of the fact that Sainsbury's have started to sell so-called "candy floss flavoured grapes".

All of the coverage I have seen seems to have overlooked the fact that candy floss doesn't really taste of anything except sugar. Its ingredients are usually sugar and food colouring. Most of the distinctive quality of candyfloss comes from the texture - which I am pretty sure these lack. So why not call them sugar-flavoured grapes? Or very sweet grapes? They could have called them marshmallow-flavoured grapes and it would have been about as informative.

I haven't tried the grapes, but if they really do taste of nothing but sugar it doesn't sound very appealing. I enjoy grapes for their fragrance and fruit flavour, not sweetness alone. 

Picture by I like

The grapes were developed at International Fruit Genetics in California and grown by Grapery for Mack Grapes, whose parent company Mack Multiples imports them into the UK. The new variety is actually called Cotton Candy (American for candy floss). Fair enough, new plant varieties always need new names and just calling them "Sugar" might have been a bit less poetic. But I think Sainsbury's may be overdoing it a bit when their press release boats that the grapes have "a distinctive but extremely sweet flavour and surprising taste of candy floss." They are echoing Mack Multiples, whose commercial director describes the grapes' "distinctive candy floss flavour". A triumph of marketing over substance perhaps?