Why Shop at Your Local Farmers Market? 8 Benefits (and What We Cooked With Our Market Bag)

Shopping at a farmers market means your money goes directly to the people who grow and make your food, and more of it stays in the local economy. You also get fresher, seasonal food, less packaging and fewer food miles, and the chance to ask the producer how it was grown and how to cook it. Markets are where Cultura Live Food started, and where we still chat to customers to refine what we do.

8 benefits of shopping at your local farmers market

•      The money goes to the maker: At a market stall, the person you pay is the person who grew it, reared it, caught it, baked it or fermented it. No middlemen taking a cut along the way.

•      It stays in your local economy: A New Economics Foundation study right here in Cornwall found that £10 spent with a local food producer was worth £25 to the local economy, because the money kept circulating locally — compared with £14 when spent at a supermarket. Your market shop pays local wages, and those wages get spent in local shops.

•      It’s fresher and tastes better: Market veg is often picked a day or two before it reaches the table, not weeks. You can taste it in leaves, apples and roots especially.

•      You eat with the seasons: A market only sells what’s growing now. In a Cornish autumn that means squash, beetroot, kale, apples, leeks and cabbage — the best-value, best-tasting food of the year.

•      Less packaging, fewer food miles: Loose veg, paper bags, your own shopping bag, and food that’s travelled a few miles instead of a few hundred.

•      You can ask the grower: How was it grown? What’s best this week? How would you cook it? That conversation is how you learn about food, and you can’t have it with a supermarket shelf.

•      It keeps small producers going: Markets are where small businesses start, test new products and meet their customers. Cultura Live Food started exactly this way.

•      It brings the town to life: Markets bring people into the town centre, support the shops and cafés around them and make Saturday morning feel like an occasion.

What the research says about shopping local

One of the best-known studies of local food spending was carried out in Cornwall. The New Economics Foundation tracked money spent with a local organic box scheme and found that £10 spent there was worth £25 to the local economy, because it kept being re-spent locally — on wages, suppliers and other local businesses. The same £10 spent in a supermarket was worth £14. The study is from 2002, but the principle hasn’t changed: buying direct from local producers keeps more money circulating in the community.

Why markets matter to small producers like us

Cultura started as a side hustle, with fermentation learnt from a library book. Markets gave us somewhere to meet customers, let people taste before they bought, and hear straight away what they thought. That kind of feedback is impossible to get from a shelf. The cabbages and beetroot in our ferments come from Cornish farmers and market gardeners, so when you shop at a market you’re supporting a whole chain of small businesses, not just one stall.

How to support your local market

•      Go regularly, even if it’s just for one thing — steady footfall keeps traders coming back.

•      Bring a bag and some cash for the smaller stalls.

•      Share and tag traders on social media; it costs nothing and reaches new customers.

•      Leave reviews for the producers you love.

•      When you can’t get to a market, buy direct from local producers online.

The market-bag salad: roast squash, Sauerbeet & Cornish Ele cheese

Everything in this salad can come from one market bag, and it cooks on one tray. Cultura Sauerbeet — fermented beetroot and red cabbage with fennel seed — brings the sour, earthy depth, and its brine makes the dressing. Add it cold, straight from the fridge, so the live cultures survive. Sauerkraut or Kimchi work too!

Ingredients — serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side

•      1 small squash, about 800g (Crown Prince, butternut, carnival or onion squash)

•      2 thick slices sourdough

•      150g Cultura Sauerbeet, plus 2 tbsp of its brine

•      2 big handfuls kale or cavolo nero

•      1 crisp apple, thinly sliced

•      100g fresh or crumbly cheese (we used Cornish Ele from Padstow Cheese Company but Feta works)

•      Handful of pumpkin seeds, toasted

•      1 tbsp raw honey · 1 tsp wholegrain mustard · 4 tbsp olive oil · pinch of chilli flakes · salt & pepper

Method

1.  Oven to 200°C fan. Cut the squash into wedges (skin on), toss with 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper and chilli. Roast 30 minutes, turning once, until the edges catch.

2.  Tear the sourdough into rough chunks, toss in 1 tbsp oil and add to the tray for the last 8 minutes.

3.  Whisk the honey, Sauerbeet brine, mustard and 2 tbsp olive oil with a pinch of salt.

4.  Strip the kale, tear it small and massage with a third of the dressing for a minute until it softens and darkens.

5.  Let the squash sit for 5 minutes. Pile kale, squash, sliced apple and croutons onto a platter.

6.  Spoon over the Sauerbeet straight from the fridge — off the heat keeps the live cultures alive. Crumble over the cheese, scatter the seeds, finish with the rest of the dressing.

Tips and variations

•      No squash? Roast beetroot, carrots or parsnips the same way.

•      Make it vegan: swap the cheese for toasted hazelnuts and the honey for maple syrup.

•      Make it ahead: roast the squash and croutons in advance; build and add the Sauerbeet just before serving.

More recipes

Find more ways to cook with Cultura Sauerbeet, Sauerkraut and Kimchi in our recipe collection at culturafood.co.uk/blogs/recipes.