Happy New Year to all our fantastic stallholders and customers. We are taking a break now until January 6th when we will be back with exciting new venues, new markets, new opportunities and a whole New Year!
The first market of 2021 will be at Lavenham on Sunday 24th January, followed by Sudbury Farmers Market on Friday 29th January. We look forward to seeing you soon!
We are really excited to be holding three more fantastic farmers markets at Trinity Park in 2021.
We will be in the Cattle Sheds on April 17th, October 16th and December 11th 2021 and we are now open for bookings! Just download, complete and return the Booking Form from our Event Market page and once we have looked through your application we will be in touch.
Please remember that all the products sold at our markets must be produced by the person who is selling and we work hard to ensure that all producers are from within a 50-mile radius of Ipswich. This event is open to food/drink and non-food producers. This is essentially an inside event however all stallholders do need to provide a 3m x 3m gazebo.
Two years ago Jo decided to hang up her hat as a Social Worker in Child Protection, a decision that was shortly followed by the arrival of seven pigs in April 2017. By September of that year her seven pigs had become seventeen, in October, twenty three! She now has a herd of around fifty, some of which are small black pigs with prick ears & snub noses, similar to the Suffolk Small Black (now extinct).
As the herd grew, Jo decided to work full time at growing the business, with a little help from a PPI pay out and Andrew, her partner. She learnt how to butcher a pig and took on-line courses in catering and in March 2018 was given a 5 * rating for butchery.
Jo started trading in June 2018 and you can now find her at three Farmers Markets across Suffolk in Bury St Edmunds, Sudbury & Ipswich and, starting this week, you can meet Jo at Hadleigh Market when she has a stall on the FIRST Friday of every month.
Jo is a real traditionalist at heart and she has developed her butchery to reflect this. When the pig is butchered, half goes fresh to the market & the other half is either cured or made into sausages & faggots.
Her stall is always really busy at all the farmers markets she attends and we are absolutely delighted that she will be joining us at Hadleigh Market, on the first Friday of every month with her traditional cuts of pork. Please make sure you come along and meet Jo and learn about her pigs; it is an inspiring story and the people of Hadleigh are very lucky that Jo is going to be a part of their weekly market.
You can find Jo and her traditional pork at Bury St Edmund’s farmers’ market on the second Sunday of the month, at Sudbury farmers’ market on the last Friday of the month and at the brilliant new farmers’ market in Ipswich on the First Sunday of every month as well as at Hadleigh Market.
We are absolutely thrilled to have been awarded the Clarissa Dickson Wright Award at the 2019 Countryside Alliance Awards held at the Houses of Parliament in June.
In awarding the prize Baroness Mallalieu, chair of the Judging panel and close friend of Clarissa Dickson Wright stated:
“This year’s winner is chosen from an outstanding pool of rural businessmen and women…At the very core of this enterprise is a personal story of belief, determination, and good old fashioned hard work. Justine’s passion for local food and supporting local producers has reconnected people with their local communities.”
Suffolk Market Events was selected for this national award by a special panel of judges and chosen from over 18,000 nominations from across the UK to earn this iconic recognition and we are incredibly proud of what Suffolk Market Events has achieved and continues to achieve in bringing top-quality local producers and local communities together.
Not only working in rural communities in our countryside but also bringing new farmers markets to towns like Ipswich and Colchester where access to good local food is just as important. We love what we do and we work with a fabulous group of producers and partners to make these markets and events successful. This award and recognition of our achievements will just spur us on to do more to ensure we continue to connect local food to local communities and we would like to thank everyone for all their support over the last eleven years.
An Ipswich community care farm which provides skills and opportunities for people with learning difficulties has signed up to be part of the new monthly farmers market on the Cornhill.
Poppies Care Farm, established in 2014 by Liz Marley and husband Lee Smith are going to be using the market to sell their seasonal products which they hope will bring in extra revenue to invest in their community farm.
“Look out for Poppies Care Farm who are bringing fresh fruit and veg from the farm, eggs, honey plus farm-made preserves and other goodies! – it is incredibly exciting.”
says Liz Marley
Justine Paul, founder of Suffolk Market Events who are running the market stated:
“It is such a perfect story and such a perfect fit for our market in Ipswich – great locally produced food which is literally grown a couple of miles away and with such a fantastic culture of care and compassion at the farm – we are so pleased to be partnering with Poppies Care Farm.”
The Farmers’ Market will launch on the Cornhill on Sunday 7th April 2019 and run every first Sunday in the month from 10am – 2pm
I received an email from Tessa Allingham recently, who is a Food Writer and author of ‘Suffolk Feast, One County, Twenty Chefs.’ She lives near Bury St Edmund’s and it was a real compliment when she said, “It’s funny when something so new so quickly becomes part of the fabric of a place. To me, that’s what’s happened with the Bury St Edmund’s Farmers’ Market. I can’t imagine my home town without it now; it’s something I look forward to every month, and without fail every time I walk round it, not only do I buy some of the best food to be had locally with which to feed my family, but I talk to the producers, I learn, I become more aware and knowledgeable, more connected with the place I live in.’
I believe this is one of the most important aspects of all our markets; customers build up a rapport with the producers, they become familiar with the food and more confident in trying new ingredients and cooking different dishes. There is a preconception that farmers’ markets are expensive but these ingredients don’t need to be fussy; they don’t need to be expensive, they are just good quality, local and fresh so that the simplest meals can taste amazing because the ingredients used are real.
We love it when new customers come along to the markets and they want to know more about the food they are eating and stallholder’s favourite market days are when people ask questions and want to taste different products.
In today’s world of online shopping, where clicking is buying, I still believe there is a vital place for well organised, top quality markets because, even in today’s Cyber World, we like to have a positive experience connected to our food shopping. We love to smell, to taste, to pick up and to hear the story behind the food we eat. I am not saying we have the luxury of time to do this all the time but sometimes, when time and life allows, we spend a little longer buying what we eat. This is what a market provides and, no matter how fast our lives become, I truly believe we will always be able to find some time to shop at a market.
With autumn knocking on our doors, we have lots of amazing products at all our markets including fresh, local pheasant, rabbit, partridge and venison as well as locally grown pumpkins and squashes and apples and pears. So, if you are near one of our markets soon, why don’t you come along and see which ingredients, and which stallholders, inspire you to cook some new dishes this autumn.
It’s a new year and that means new traders and we are really excited to be welcoming a number of fantastic new stallholders to all the markets, both regular traders and guest producers.
At Lavenham in January you can meet Peta Wilson, the maker behind the incredible Bury St Biscuits who will also be joining us in Bury St Edmund’s farmers markets in February, March and April.
Simon’s Cider will be joining us at Lavenham and Bury St Edmunds in January; we love the concept behind this small business which makes traditional East Anglian Real Cider and untreated real Perry using dessert and culinary fruit from local gardens and orchards with fruit that would otherwise go to waste. Come along and meet the man behind the bottles at Lavenham farmers’ market on Sunday January 28th and at Bury St Edmund’s on February 11th.
Lisa’s delicious Chinese Dumplings are new to all the farmers markets and really are worth the trip! She makes a range of pork, beef and veggie dumplings that are cooked and just need to be pan fried at home.
As you know, we have a small selection of non food stalls at the markets and this month you’ll find local artist, Lyndsay Maynard at both Lavenham and Sudbury. Lyndsay uses watercolours to paint ducks and chickens on coasters and cheeseboards and they really are stunning! Finally we are chuffed that Sarah Chatterton will be coming to Lavenham on Sunday January 26th with her gorgeous selection of homemade hessian baskets, wooden planters and bird and bug houses!
What a fantastic selection of new faces to bring in the new year of markets at Suffolk Market Events!
Suffolk Market Events are proud to introduce a new trader at their farmers’ markets, Victoria Lea, founder of The Lamb Charcuterie Company.
Victoria started her business in February 2017 having developed a love of Herdwick sheep during school trips to the Lake District. Having completed a degree in Equine Science at Writtle College, she bought a small herd of this hardy hill sheep breed dating back to the 12th century – they’re a dual purpose breed whose meat is highly sought after and high in omega 3 oils.
On the continent Charcuterie is made with lots of different meats, however Victoria’s company is unique in England as it only uses Herdwick meat. Currently the charcuterie is made by another company to Victoria’s recipes, although her aim is to make it at home herself. She still works full time for the NHS whilst also tending the sheep and her fledgling business with occasional help from family.
Victoria says “the sheep are quite good and I do try to train them to a feed bucket, however as the flock is expanding and Herdwicks do tend to be a feisty breed, I am looking into getting a sheep dog to help!”
Her company is doing really well in such a short period of time and Victoria plans to grow the business by attending more market and food-related events, doing more wholesale to local farm shops, delis and restaurants and developing her website – www.thelambcharcuteriecompany.co.uk
You can find Victoria at our regular Sudbury Farmers’ Markets on the last Friday of the month in St Peter’s Church from 9.30am – 2pm and we hope she will attend more events in the New Year.
We wish her, and her feisty Herdwicks, the best of luck!
The first forage of this Autumn took place last Sunday and what a day it was! Twenty enthusiastic fungi fans joined Matthew Rooney and Carl Shillingford of Foragers Feast, to spend the day in search of nature’s autumn treasures.
We were blessed with gorgeous weather and as the morning sun shone through dappled leaves we sipped on Matthew’s specially brewed tea and made the most of Carl’s homebaked bread with sticky damson and hawthorn jams before setting out on three hours of fascinating foraging.
The group was made up of a lovely mix of people, some had come with friends or family members, others were on their own; all were interested in the same thing – enjoying the outdoors, keen to know more about Nature’s Larder and excited to sample the delights of a really good cook who can throw simple ingredients together, in the most unpretentious surroundings, to produce a feast.
The morning was spent in a range of different habitats starting off on a stony track, winding down into deep bracken that then meandered along the river surrounded by ancient woodlands before opening up onto heathlands and grassland. Calls of ‘Matthew, I found something’ and ‘Carl, can you eat this?’ caused small flurries of excitement as we waited to hear what we had found – Rosy Bonnet, Pale Brittlestem, Poison Pie, Ugly Milkcap and King Alfred’s Cakes were just a few!
On a single foraging walk, you could expect to see about 50 or 60 species in this type of habitat however this year has been an exceptional year for fungi with mushrooms popping out since the end of July and on Sunday we collected 79 species of mushrooms and 3 slime moulds. Of those, 18 species have not been recorded at this site before. After a full morning of foraging, we all decamped to the nearby White Horse pub in Edwardstone where Carl sparked up the gas burners and cracked on turning the foraged finds into simply delicious tasters.
We dug into fried Beefsteak Mushroom kebabs with horseradish and mustard served on creamy mash with an onion and thyme gravy.The second course was a pan full of creamy Deceivers in a buttery sauce followed by Chestnut Bolete with wild garlic, hogweed and alexander seeds and butter beans served in a warming green curry sauce. And the cherry on the cake….deep fried Tempura Puffballs!
Who else would think of this! Spending the day with Carl and Matthew is a chance to soak up information and knowledge from two experts whose interests lie in different areas and together, it works so well. Matthew is a plantsman and Carl the cook – together they really do create a Foragers Feast.
So, if you are, in any small way, interested in the food that drips off our hedgerows and grows right under our feet, then spending the day with these two will inspire you. It’s fun, it’s unique, it’s really quite simple and it’s a truly fantastic way to spend a Sunday.
“I am absolutely delighted that Babergh have extended the contract with Suffolk Market Events enabling us to continue our work in the town. Over the last twelve months significant improvements have been achieved at the town’s weekly market and I am really looking forward to working hard to continue to improve it further. The market now has a consistent number of top quality stalls serving the people of Hadleigh with a brilliant range of products but there is more than can be done and over the next two years, with the continued support of Babergh, we will strive to achieve even better things for the market.”