The Stoke Newington Farmers' Market

The Stoke Newington Farmers' Market takes place at William Patten School, on Stoke Newington Church Street, London, 
N16.  It is open every Saturday, (except for Christmas and New Year) from 10am till 2.30pm. It runs every Saturday and 
currently provides space for 23 farmers and producers  to sell direct to the public.

All the produce at the market is organic, biodynamic or wild and is sold by the producers themselves who all come from within 100 miles of Hackney. There is a wide range of produce on sale as well as hot food and organic Fair Trade coffee.

We are always interested in helping people get into sustainable food production: if you are interested in having a stall at the Stoke
Newington Farmers' market please download the Farmers' Market rules. If your product meets the criteria, please contact us, telling us what you are interested in selling.

At present, we are not looking for any more cake stalls, but if you are a cake-maker, please contact us to go on a waiting list.

Our recent trip to Stocks Farm, one of the Farmers at the Market, for Apple Day.

New artisan baker at Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market

From Saturday 7th November we will have a new baker at the market: Syd Aston who has been baking organic bread for over 25 years – has set up a new artisan bakers: Nature’s Bakehouse.   Syd’s baking skills have been widely recognised and he is included in Rick Stein’s list of Food Heroes.  Syd says that good bread takes a long time to make, and that there is no way to get around that.  The fermentation for the rye sourdough, one of their bestsellers, is 21 hours.  Syd and his wife Olga will be selling their organic breads at the market every Saturday.

Locally made organic chocolates at the market

We now have a new organic chocolates stall at the market. Niko B chocolates is run by chocolatier Anthony Ferguson, a local Hackney resident who has relocated here from San Francisco, where he previously ran an artisan chocolate business.  In a bit of a reversal of the historical trend, (where people go off to California to seek their fortunes) Anthony and his wife and young son, have made Hackney their home – and the launch place for his incredibly delicious chocolates which feature exotic flavours and spices such as cumin, raspberry and mint. Niko B chocolates will be at the market every week from September 5th. 

Market Chef at the Farmers' Market

After the success of the first Market Chef, we'll be running the event on a regular basis at the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market. The next will be Saturday 7th November when the Marketchef is Lucie Galland.  She will be cooking  Sweet and Spicy Pumpkin soup with garlic and cheese croutons.  Lucie is an artist living in Stamford Hill who traces her interest in local food and cooking back to baking with her mum, who is Norwegian and growing up in France. We are looking for local people to demonstrate their favourite seasonal recipes at the market using ingredients from the market.  All food will be cooked in an outside kitchen.  As well as watching the demonstrations, visitors to the market will be able to taste the final dishes – and give their verdict. This is a great way for local people to impress their friends, show off their favourite recipes for seasonal food and give everyone a chance to learn more about how to make delicious meals from the fresh, organic food on sale from the farmers. Although we can’t promise you your own TV series – we want to make Marketchef a regular feature at the market –we’d also like it to be a launchpad for some new Hackney-based organic food businesses – who could sell at the market. If you would like to take part in the Marketchef project please contact Growing Communities on 0207 502 7588 or growcomm@growingcommunities.org

Say It With Herbs

Say It With Herbs is the name of our new organic herb producer at the market. Sheila Pool, the owner and grower, is based in Harpenden in Hertforshire. She grows a wide range of organic herbs in pots suitable for gardens, balconies and kitchen window sills. Sheila has always wanted to be a grower and started up her own company which is run from 4 polytunnels on an organic farm two years ago.  Sheila also grows chillies and peppers as well as some of the more unusual herbs such as lovage and coriander.  Sheila and her herbs will be at the market every week - and she is happy to give advice on looking after your herbs as well as advice about which herbs are best for growing in a particular situation.

Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market launches pioneering scheme to help families on low-incomes.

From Saturday June 13th farmers at the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market, run by Hackney-based group Growing Communities, will accept Healthy Start vouchers for fresh vegetables, fruit and milk.  It will be the first farmers’ market in London to do this.  Stoke Newington Farmers’ market is the only all-organic weekly farmers’ market in the UK.  Under the Healthy Start scheme, low income families are offered vouchers to exchange for milk, fresh fruit and vegetables.  

Growing Communities’ Director Julie Brown said “We know that that lots of people on low incomes would like to buy organic fruit and vegetables – especially produce that has come from local farms.  We can’t change the fact that organic food costs more to produce and we want the small family farmers we work with to get a fair price for their produce but by accepting Healthy Start vouchers we hope to enable more people to buy locally produced sustainable food - which has got to be good for them and good for the environment.”

More about the market

The Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market was set up by Growing Communities in May 2003 – it was the first farmers’ market in the UK to have only organic and biodynamic producers. The market was set up to enable local people to buy locally produced food, produced in a way that benefits the environment. The Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market is certified by the National Association of Farmers’ Markets as a genuine Farmers’ Market where all the producers come from within 100 miles of Hackney and the produce on sale is being sold by the people who grew, reared or produced it.

The organic produce on sale every week includes:

Chris and Iain Learmonth’s organic lamb, chicken, eggs and pork from Stocks Farm in Essex. Chris and Iain also sell apples from their organic orchards between mid-August and April.

Organic, sustainable fish from Channel Fish who have a part share in a small fishing boat, Our Betty, which fishes off the Sussex coast.
Organic rare breed pork and lamb from Muck and Magic.

Organic vegetables and salads from Ripple Farm in Kent.

Bio-dynamic vegetables from Perrycourt Farm, Kent.

Essex-grown organic oyster mushrooms from William and Matthew Rooney at Gourmet Mushrooms.

Organic greenhouse produce including salad leaves and aubergines and peppers in season from Adrian Izzard in Cambridgeshire.

Organic seasonal veg from Sarah Green from Tillingham, Essex on the 1st and 3rd Saturday of the month.

Organic breads, pasties etc from Nature's Bakehouse.

Colga Parker's Global Fusion stall is at the market every Saturday selling spicy creole fishcakes, traditional creole vegan soda breads, vegan cakes, vegetarian patties and more.

Organic juices and wines from Sedlescombe Vineyard.

Buffalo cheeses, yoghurts and meat as well as organic cows' milk from High Alham Farm in Somerset.

Fat Cat Catering sell cakes, cupcakes and biscuits every week. They take whole cake commisions for birthdays etc.

Pakoras, spicy soup and tortillas from Rafe Jaffrey every fortnight from 17th October 09 onwards.

Hatice Trugrul lives locally and sells her traditional Turkish pancakes, borek, at the market.  Hatice makes her borek at the market using organic flour from Shipton Mill, spinach and onions from Ripple Farm and mushrooms from Gourmet Mushrooms. 

In the summer, organic vegan ice-cream from The Vegan Ice Cream Company.

Delicious organic fair-trade chocolate from Niko B.

Organic Herbs and plants from Say It With Herbs.

As the season progresses we will have organic soft fruit starting in June followed by plums and damsons as well as jams and juices from Essex farmers Marina O’Connell and Alison Bond.

We also have regular visits from Stour Valley Organic lavender products from Essex, organic handmade soap from the Natural Organic Soap Company and on the first Saturday of each month, Pitfield Beers will be selling their award-winning organic beers, fruit wine, liqeurs, and cider.

Shopping at the Stoke Newington Farmers’ Market allows you to buy organic, locally produced food direct from the producers. We also have occasional community stalls, Dr Bike, Safer Neighbourhoods, RSPB and more.

We are always interested in helping people get into sustainable food production: if you are interested in having a stall at the Stoke Newington Farmers' market please download the Farmers' Market rules. If your product meets the criteria, please contact us, telling us what you are interested in selling.

Why buy direct?

Because all the produce at the market has been grown, reared or produced by the people who are selling it you can find out everything you want to know about the food here by asking the producers directly.
When you buy direct from the producers – the money you spend goes to the people who actually do the work to produce the food you’re eating, rather than to supermarkets and wholesalers – you’re helping small family farms to survive. Small and medium sized farms in the UK are disappearing fast: between 1993 and 2002 over 100,000 farmers and farm workers left farming. While the average age of British farmers is 59, Britain’s high land prices mean it’s getting more and more difficult for young people to get into farming. All the farmers here come from small farms, and most are younger farmers trying to get started. So by shopping at the market you’re helping to ensure that small farmers and producers in the UK have a future!

Why organic?

Unlike most farmers’ markets, Growing Communities only allows local producers selling organic, biodynamic or wild produce to trade. We believe that organic food production is better for wildlife, livestock, people and the environment. We want to encourage more farmers around London to move into producing food organically and to increase the amount of land that is organically farmed. We know that this market is helping to make that happen. Chris and Iain of Stocks Farm in Essex, who sell their apples, lamb, chicken and pork products at the market have now been able to buy more land which they are converting to organic orchards planted with traditional varieties of apple.


Martin and Andrew harvest carrots at Ripple Farm

Why buy locally produced food?

All the produce at this market has been grown, reared or produced within 129 miles of Stoke Newington. By contrast, most produce on sale in the supermarket including the organic produce, has travelled hundreds or even thousands of miles to your shopping bag. Even if it has been grown in the UK it will have been trucked up and down the motorway from farm to distribution and packing centres and back to the supermarket. The food on sale here has come directly from the producers to you. By buying organic food that has been produced locally you are saving thousands of Food Miles. Food Miles is the term given to the environmental and social effects of long-distance food transport. These effects include increased emissions of carbon dioxide which contribute to climate change, increased amounts of environmental pollutants which effect air quality, increased packaging and waste, and the loss of interesting, tasty varieties of fruit and vegetables as growers concentrate on varieties which can survive long-distance transportation rather than on flavour.


Chris picking Spartans at his farm in Essex

Apart from helping the environment, buying local also means that you can stay in touch with the seasons. So there won’t be apples at this market in May BUT when apples are in season, from mid August to March, the farmers will bring in apples direct from their orchards. There will be strawberries and raspberries in July and plums and blackberries in August.

It also means that all produce will have been harvested within the last few days and will be some of the freshest you can buy. The farmers who come to our market have worked really hard to make sure that they can supply fresh produce all year round. They use greenhouses and polytunnels in addition to their fields to produce green vegetables and salad crops even in winter.

William Patten School is hosting the market as part of their Healthy School initiative and to reinforce and increase the school’s existing links with the local community.