The promised rain thankfully stayed away on Saturday for the Abingdon Local Excellence Market held in the Market Place. It was extremely well attended, with many of the usual stalls from the regular Farmers Market and a few new faces. The smell of cooking bacon from the Dews Meadow Farm stall brought in a good queue and it was a real treat to find purple sprouting broccoli in October! The Carbon Cutters were making apple juice from windfalls brought in to them and the Bakery from Steventon was doing a roaring trade.
Sadly the Craft Fair that was held at the same time had quite a pricey entrance fee at £3.85 which turned several people away, as there was no hint as to what was inside the tents. However, I have since heard that there was a wonderful display of local crafts and products.
Some of the smaller restaurants in Abingdon seemed fuller than usual for a Saturday lunchtime, so hopefully this market will continue. A weekly local food market would make a viable alternative to Tescos/Waitrose/Somerfields. Good though the monthly one is, we do need to buy food for the other 3 weeks of the month!
