Speciality-Food-July/August 2025

The appetite for local food has changed a lot since the inaugural market. “Back then, people didn’t knowwhat a farmers market was,” Sandra explains, “so we had to do a lot of education around what they are and the benefit they have for producers and consumers.” Fast forward to 2025, when the term ‘farmers market’ is often used to represent something far from its conventional definition – a number of local farmers brought together to sell their produce – and Sandra’s role is more important than ever. “We have always run our markets to an accredited standard, supported by the FarmRetail Association,” she says. In fact, the FRA are currently running theMore Than Food campaign to encourage consumers to shop locally at farm retailers. After over two decades of running farmersmarkets, the physical exertion is starting to take its toll. “We’re still as passionate about farmers markets as we always have been, but our bodies are letting us down and we can no longer run threemarkets in three days like we used to,” says Sandra. The pair still run fivemarkets amonth, to the delight of the local food industry and food-loving shoppers alike. A considered approach While running farmers markets is a huge job in itself, for 17 years the business has had an additional arm. “We realised in around 2008 that we needed to have a base at themarkets so – as a trained chef –my husband suggested that we could start our own brand of jams, marmalades and chutneys, whichwemake at home.” This first-hand experience of living behind the scenes of a food production business has proven to be invaluable when it comes to running themarkets. “We have experienced the environmental health inspection, and we knowhow it feels on the day of the market when people don’t turn up or engage with your hard work.” Sandra and Brian having lived both sides of the farmers market experience – both as an organiser and a stallholder – has proven to be useful to other producers, too. “We have had businesses asking for our advice before they join themarket,” says Sandra, “and we have been with themon the day of inspection to support them.” This hands-on approach to building relationships with their stallholders has reaped rewards for Sandra and the visitors to her market, making it more likely that the businesses she has supported will take up a space at one of her markets – providing a wider range of products for customers to discover and enjoy. “We feel that by treating micro businesses as supportively and as fairly as we can, we are able to get them into themarket – and as much as when a business is really small you can’t be sure what you’re going to get, including in terms of how reliable they are going to be, but some of the producers we have started out with in this way have gone on to open their own shops so with those we really were a valuable foundation.” Sandra and Brian have even been invited to the weddings of stallholders of markets, an example of the strength of the relationships they’ve built. What’s on offer A great quality range of core farmers market fare is what to expect from Sandra’smarkets – “We have different stallholders at all of our markets, but generally we have fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, bread, cheese, cakes and honey – all of the things you would expect to see at amarket.” The range at each of themarkets is carefully curated, and Sandra goes to great lengths to avoid competition between stallholders but is passionate about keeping its produce true to the farmers market ethos. “A lot of organisers of farmers markets fill themwith craft stalls when they can’t find the right producers, and while there’s nothing wrong with craft makers, it can be disappointing for customers when they travel to themarket for great food but most of the space is taken up with craft instead.” With one of Sandra’s markets filled with just 17 stallholders, and her largest 45-50, this can be a difficult balance to juggle. Managing customer expectations can be too. “Visitors once complained IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FARM SHOP FOCUS specialityfoodmagazine.com 22 Supporting local food businesses is at the heart of this passionately-run establishment LENHAM COUNTRY MARKET Our shoppers now come to our markets whatever the weather conditions, such is their appetite for what our authentic farmers markets represent that a cheese stall at one of the markets wasn’t selling the cheeses that they wanted, but you can’t always control the cheeses that are available at any given time,” Sandra explains. “We’ve also had people requesting a fish stall, but if themarket is located miles away fromwhere businesses are able to fish, this gets tricky.” It’s not possible to curate the perfect farmers market where consumers are able to get the very best example of everything they’re looking for, she continues. “We put a lot of effort intomaking everything as local as possible, whichmeans we’re at themercy at what’s available in the local area. Different areas have different resources, so we can’t tick everyone’s boxes everywhere.” A challenging position Additional obstacles are posed by local authorities. “Onemarket runs on a Sunday and the local authority imposed parking restrictions on a Sunday, making it less likely for customers to attend. Other authorities have raised the prices of road closure orders and the cost of being on-site. For these reasons, Sandra says, “the past sixmonths have been the hardest we’ve ever experienced in over 20 years,” but a petition started by customers to save one of the markets received two and a half thousand signatures – testament to the value of themarket to the local community. Despite the sticking points, Sandra remains passionate about supporting her local food economy. The Covid- 19 pandemic was a particularly difficult time, but she supported her stallholders in brand newways to help them survive – planning routes so they could offer home deliveries to consumers and promoting their businesses on themarkets’ social media platforms. Passionately authentic and supportive to Kent’s outstanding food producers, Sandra and Brian have worked tirelessly to connect consumers with the best local produce for over two decades – to the grateful delight of all. O v er 20 years of running farmers markets in Kent has demonstrated to Sandra Woodfall just how important the roll of true farm-to-consumer connection is, but the business didn’t have a conventional beginning. “I worked for a local authority, and a consultation brought up the topic of the local food sector,” she begins. “I joked that my husband, Brian, wanted to go to a farmers market but that there weren’t any in the local area, which led tome signing up to run a one-off farmers market to promote local businesses.” The event proved so popular that the one-off turned into a six-month trial run, where Sandra worked as a volunteer. After leaving her role at the local authority, some of the stallholders asked her to set up another farmers market – proving that the demand was certainly there from the food producers’ perspective – and so Sandra and Brian set up a business to do just that.