Why I love the Sunday Food Market, By Chiswick Resident Michael Wale.

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I’ve been shopping at the market for over 20 years. It’s local and there is a good choice of farm produced food, as well as artisan bread and cakes. It is not just Sunday shopping, though, it’s an experience. Here it is possible to have a conversation with the people who actually produce your food. I look forward to an exchange of views about farming with Michael Belcher about his meat that comes from pasture fed livestock. It’s the red tape the farmers hate, more than the ever changing weather pattern. I get my fruit from the Dench family, Lesley and her son Paul. I help run an allotment association and I am always in search of advice about my plum trees and raspberries.

It should be said that the various stallholders enjoy the occasion as much as we their customers. Often their work is lonely and therefore this is a moment when they can meet their weekly friends, often knowing us by our first names.

I frequently bump into friends and neighbours, sometimes never knowing before that we both came here regularly, because we all come at different times between opening and closing. And you can have a coffee and a chat. The outdoor tables, that not many markets have, are a bonus in fine weather and there is always the indoors of the Bowls Club if it is not so pleasant outdoors.

It is fitting that the market is held in what was the farmyard of Grove Park farmhouse and with allotments right behind it, recalls how the countryside was once right here.

As well as fresh stuff the market has a good range of ready to eat food; Salt Beef, Moroccan and Lebanese food, and olives and garlic from the deli stall. As an allotmenteer I also mention the wonderful nursery stall, which sells plants as well as flowers.

Dukes Meadows park, with its playgrounds, orchard and riverside space is lovely and I like the fact that the market helps in maintaining and improving it. We often combine a visit to the market with a walk down to the riverside through the park and see how it has improved over the years.

Shopping in supermarkets has become an impersonal experience , so I really enjoy meeting and being able to talk with those who actually produce our food, every Sunday.

Beside the deli, my favourite stalls are Michael Belcher’s home produced meat stall reflecting his farm life, the fruit stall with Lesley and Paul, and the plant nursery lady, who is so patient as I change my mind, and also ready with advice. It is a weekly experience I have not missed in over 20 years.

The Food Market Chiswick is organised by community charity Dukes Meadows Trust, all proceeds from running it are used to improve and maintain the park. The Market is open 10am to 2pm every Sunday except Easter Sunday and the Sunday between Christmas and New Year. More information on the website www.thefoodmarketchiswick.com.

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March 15, 2023