Stroud farmers’ market news with Gerb Gerbrands: Rain or shine it’s one of best

It has been a few years since we were up for an award, mostly down to the fact we haven’t entered any for a while having won most of the awards available a few years back, BBC Food and Farming awards for best food market in 2010 and the FARMA best certified farmers’ market in 2013.

The Farm Shop and Deli awards is a growing event that now rivals the BBC Good Food Show for importance in the calendar for new food businesses to promote their products to the ever increasing Farm Shop sector.

I remember back in 1999, when Stroud farmers’ market started, that farm shops were still a bit of a novelty and really lived up to their name, they were generally a shed which had been converted to a sales counter where the farm could sell their products direct to customers who were dedicated to buying local produce. They were rare and rustic.

In these last 17 years, as farmers’ markets became a huge success story all over the country and the concept of buying direct from our excellent local farmers became a passion for so many who were fed up with the way the supermarkets treated our farmers and their produce, farm shops have become ‘local food emporiums’, with amazing new buildings, cafeterias, bake off breads, gift shops and artisan foods, they have become another huge success story, to my mind, the success of the farm shop sector is entirely down to the rise of farmers’ markets. Stroud farmers’ market is a winner every Saturday! Just ask those who sell there! The level of support from the wonderful customers for the equally wonderful stallholders is a phenomenon that almost needs no awards to prove itself.

The quantity and quality of the produce available is something to behold every week, the throng of customers, week in, week out, rain or shine, is something that cannot be explained by marketing and promotional gurus, it just is the Best Farmers’ Market, whether we win or not!