News 13 March 2009

Hasn’t it been a busy time in North Canterbury lately? There’s been lots to do, from wine festivals through to rock concerts, not to mention the various A & P shows and even flower shows! Our market has been going well every Saturday morning with stall numbers varying from 12 – 25. While numbers may vary, you can always count on the regulars. There’s always a huge range of vegetables and fruit, bread, meat, dressings, oils and even plants.

Melons are in season now, and you can get both rock melons and scrumptious water melons at our market. There’s been a great crop of tomatoes and cucumbers this year, and a number of stallholders are running specials on tomatoes now. If you were considering making your own tomato sauces or soups, now is the time!

The market wouldn’t be the same without Urs Fricker and his beautiful bread. Urs hasn’t missed a market yet, and will be there again this Saturday. He’s the front runner for the “Stallholder of the Year” award. If you haven’t tried his pin wheels, I suggest you do, although you have to get in early as they normally sell out.

Stone Circle Organics have been there every week with their fantastic stall selling a huge range of organic produce. As well as fresh herbs, you can also get aubergines, courgettes and spinach – in fact the list is too long to repeat here.

Strawberries are still going well, and Liz has the sweetest berries at her stall. For the last of the summer salads, there’s quite a selection of special dressings available at either Bernadette’s stall or Sandy Mac’s.

Local olive oil is available from both the Athena Olives stall as well as Bellbird or Terrace Downs. Terrace Downs also have their wine available for tasting and purchasing.

There’s a wide selection of meat products available. Sarah Rodie (Murray Downs) with her Texcel Lamb are a popular stall, especially located down by the coffee truck. Harris Meats have been selling out of their famous pies early so do get in quickly if you are after these special pies. Also, please note Harris Meats won’t be at next weekend’s market – Bryan is off to the Meat Retailers Conference! Rockford County Pork have been coming to the market regularly in the last few weeks, and fire up their BBQ to provide shoppers with brunch. Melany also provides an alternative for brunch with her bacon butties and waffles.

The market won’t be the same without two of our most popular stallholders this weekend – Louise Oskram and her Hurunui Preserves isn’t able to come and neither will Shari and Don with their coffee. We have, however, managed to find someone else willing to do coffees for the day for those of us who need our caffeine fix.

We believe our market is very special because of our musicians who play the most beautiful music. Please support them by leaving some coins in their busking baskets.

The season for the Waipara Valley Farmers Market is drawing to a close. We are planning on having our last market on Easter Saturday and are hoping to finish on a really high note. We’ve also in planning some special events at our market before Easter, including a cooking demonstration with market produce.

We’re also conducting a survey as to what we can do to make the market even better next year. Any constructive feedback that you can provide us would be much appreciated. If you take the time to give us your feedback, you will go in the draw to win a hamper of farmers' market produce. Please send this to jane.thompson@actrix.co.nz

If you would like to receive regular updates on market news, please contact me to go on our email list.
Jane
(jane.thompson@actrix.co.nz) 021 100 2503