STILL one week to go until Easter, admittedly a late one this year, and this Saturday will feature a magnificent display of Tulips at Julian Harvard’s stall.

In the last few weeks he has had copious quantities of daffodils and last week saw a lot of tulips, flowering for the first time this year. I have received word that this Saturday will be phenomenal for tulips. Julian is concerned the weather may bring the whole crop into bloom all at once and was expressing concern that by Easter it might be all over. However, we won’t worry about that. Instead let us look forward to seeing them on Saturday.

On the vegetables front there were tomatoes from Haven’s Nursery on the Styan’s stall last week to signal the beginning of the early tomato crop and Styan’s also said the Asparagus was showing tips just coming through the ground and, weather permitting, should be with us in the next few weeks. Usually at this time of year we would be enjoying the extra early asparagus from the Isle of Wight Garlic stall but apparently they dug up their field of asparagus at the end of last season to concentrate on the core garlic business. The Garlic Farm are at the market every week this month.

Every second, fourth and fifth Saturdays of the month we are lucky to have White Lake Cheeses at the market. Opened in 2005 White Lake Cheese ltd quickly established it’s self as a leading brand in the artisan cheese industry, taking the unusual step of producing Goat, Sheep and Cow cheeses all at once.