h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

A few years ago, Warwickshire decided that farmers markets were a Good Thing. So started promoting them. There are half a dozen or so venues, each having a market once a month.

There is a great range of food being sold - fresh fruit and veg, freshly baked bread, fresh meat of practically every variety, eggs, cakes, jams and preserves, cheeses,... All the produce is of top quality - usually fresh off the farm that morning, where possible.

There are 3 rules that must apply to a genuine farmers market - the producers have to be located within 30 miles of the market venue, stallholders can only sell their own produce, and stallholders have to be the producer, a close family member, or a direct employee of the producer.

These rules ensure that a) by buying from a farmers market, you are helping the local economy and b) you know *exactly* what you're buying. You can ask the stallholder anything you like about their produce, they'll be more than happy to explain. After all, they've produced it!

Although the prices may be higher than you'd pay in the supermarkets, the quality is far superior. The flavours are just bursting through. You can often find some of the more unusual vegetable too - swiss chard or kohl rabi for instance! Of course, without artificial preservatives it won't keep as long. But it does taste so much better!

Yes, I have to agree about the food tasting better. We have a local farmers market in Fife, Scotland on the last Saturday of the month. Its also nice to see and buy local produce thats in season - sometimes the bigger supermarkets stock a lot of "forced" veg and fruit which doesn't taste half as good. The food is worth the extra cost.