Rode hall farmers market

Saturday started like all good Saturdays should- at the farmers market. Rode Hall farmers market is on the first Saturday of each month, and if you're in the area, it is not to be missed.

Two big halls selling food, drink and other local bits and pieces including pottery, another smaller hall selling crafts, as well as lots of outside stands selling more food and drink, plants, and flowers.

Needless to say its the food and drink halls that interest me the most...

 

Closely followed by the plants. they have two stands which have the most extensive herb selection I've seen anywhere (though sadly they won't be showing again this year now due to the changing seasons). They literally have hundreds of herbs, with multiple varieties of each herb, think, pineapple mint, grapefruit mint, chocolate mint, apple mint, lime mint, ginger mint and orange mint. When I went in July they also had one of the most extensive selections of tomato plants that I'd seen, at least 2- different ones, all potted up ready to be taken own and passed off as ones I'd grown from seed.

 

 

 

 

Once you've meandered through the food and craft halls, you can potter outside looking at the plants, try desperately to resist the bread from this vintage little van, and buy some of the flowers from their walled garden.

 

 

 

If you are so inclined you can sit on a bale of hay and listen to the live music, or go to a reading, or if you're like me, wander down the path and explore the hall, a beautiful Georgian country house, as well as its gardens.

 

 

You walk past the main hall and can either veer right to go to the tea shop or small gift shop, or turn left to explore the gardens. It's £7 to go the hall or £4 to go into the gardens. If you don't fancy paying there's still plenty to wander round and see, so on this occasion I didn't, mainly because I was armed with bags of food that I wanted to get home as soon as I could.

You can buy some flowers from the gift shop.

Plus there's lots of little nooks and crannies to peer into.

 

The best thing about going round the gardens for me, is the walled kitchen garden. These pictures are from the time I was there before. A beautiful sprawling garden with rows upon rows of vegetables, fruit bushes, herbs and huge borders of flowers which they cut and sell bunches of at the market. At the centre of the garden is the gardeners cottage where the head gardener lives. When you visit in summer the cottage is covered in roses and honeysuckle and is perhaps the most Instagram worthy cottage you ever will see.

The market is on the first Saturday of each month from 9.30-12.30. It costs £1 to park and is well well worth a visit.

I however, headed home with my huge haul and popped the mushrooms into a beautiful creamy mushroom zoodle bake which I'll share soon, and set about planting my herbs- lovely!