This weekend was mixed as I left work on Friday evening with a migraine and it didn’t leave me until Saturday evening so I spent most of Saturday curled up in bed. However it was such lovely warm weather that I was feeling hot and stuffy indoors so I took my eye mask and lots of pillows and laid outdoors with the cats and chickens for company and it the warmth began to soothe my head.
On Sunday we went to visit my sister in Winchester and to also visit the farmers market. It is the largest in Hampshire and it takes place twice a month and we were eager to sample all of the culinary delights. Brooke was working, but we were able to take her for some rather yummy lunch at Cadogan and James which is a lovely deli that we have eaten at before.
Before we took Brooke and her boyfriend Jamie out for lunch Nathan and I went to the farmers market and it certainly did not disappoint. I was so enthralled in everything that I forgot to snap some photos, hopefully I will remember next time. There were so many stalls laden with delicious bounty such as fruits, vegetables, honey, meats, game, fish, seafood, baked goods, preserves, flowers, garlic, wool, sheepskins, fresh hog roast, buffalo burgers and roasted mushroom sandwiches. It was a veritable feast for our eyes and noses, let alone our tummies! We sampled cheese, jam, ketchup, and cider and all were truly scrumptious. As I am in the process of setting up a tiny cottage industry of my homemade cakes, confectionery, jams and chutneys it was wonderful to see all of these other business thriving in the current economy and to also see what the competition are doing and how to differentiate my products.
Something I was particularly excited to see were all of the beautiful pumpkins. I was so thrilled that I had to buy the biggest one there and take it in to White Stuff where Brooke works so that she could see it!
These are all of the delicious treats that we bought:
Local set honey
Beeswax candles
Organic houmous
New forest blue cheese
Organic heirloom tomatoes
Hot chillies including birds eye and scotch bonnet
Organic onions
Organic beetroots
Organic pumpkin
Isle of Wight garlic for growing – Provence Wight, Chesnok Wight and Elephant
Ornamental gourds
Russet apple cider
We received a very cute little pumpkin in our organic vegetable box this week and you can see just how tiny it is compared to the one from the farmers market! You can see Florence investigating the vegetable garden in the background of the photo.
Tonight’s dinner will be griddled king prawns spiced up with a birds eye chilli, garlic and basil marinade served with tasty heirloom tomato salad and crushed garlic potatoes, gosh I can hardly wait! Sunday was one of those days that you never want to end, after lunch in Winchester we came home and relaxed in the garden with a glass of wine and watched our contented cats and chickens making the most of the September sunshine. I hope next weekend is just as perfect…Happy Monday everyone xo
Sounds likea wonderful weekend! Your blog is so beautiful too…thanks for bringing sunshine! I love pumpkins as well, they are just the most autumny of veg aren't they? I love your shopping list, it makes my mouth water! xx
Thanks Rachel, everything tasted so yummy 🙂 Looking forward to all of the goodies in two weeks xx