Market manager Kardien Gerbrands talks about Swindon’s farmers’ markets

The last weekend of October; the clocks go back, temperatures are dropping and the wind is blowing the leaves all over the place.

Autumn cometh and the market is full of squash, especially pumpkins, this weekend.

It will be Halloween next week so why not come along to the market and get a nice local pumpkin?

It’s my first year without any kids at school and I feel so liberated that I am having pumpkin pie and pumpkin soup a whole week before Halloween and I won’t have to carve the shell into a Jack o Lantern!

This makes the task of salvaging the sumptuous orange flesh from this most exciting of squashes a lot easier and I will set about the task of creating this annual feast with relish.

It is delightful how the pumpkin can work both as a savoury and a sweet dish. My pumpkin pie is made with free range eggs from Beechwood Farm and pumpkin from Styan’s Family Produce, while the soup is literally just pumpkin with onion and stock. A large pumpkin will give enough flesh for both soup and pie and will serve six with both.

Pumpkins will be available at farmers markets around Wiltshire and in Swindon on Thursdays at Havelock Square and on Sunday at the designer outlet.

Markets

  • Bradford on Avon, third Thursday, 9am to 1pm at Westbury Gardens, BA15 1DE
  •  Bradford on Avon, last Sunday, 10.30am to 2.30pm at Lamb Yard, BA15 1FG
  •  Calne, second Saturday, 9am to 1pm, near the library, SN11 0JU
  • l Corsham, third Saturday, 9am to 1pm, High Street, SN13 0HB
  •  Devizes, first Saturday, 9am to 1pm, Market Place
  •  Malmesbury, second and fourth Saturdays, 9am to 1pm, Market Cross
  •  Royal Wootton Bassett, fourth Saturday, 9am to 1pm, High Street
  •  Salisbury, weekly on Wednesdays, 9am to 2pm, Poultry Cross
  •  Swindon Farmers Market, every Sunday, 10am to 4pm, Swindon Designer Outlet, Kemble Road, SN2 2DY
  •  Havelock Square Farmers’ Market, Swindon, every Thursday from 9am until 2.30pm. 
  •  Trowbridge, second and fourth Friday, 9am to 1pm, Fore Street, BA14 8HX
  •  Wanborough, third Saturday of the month, 9am to midday, Wanborough Village Hall
  •  Warminster, first and third Fridays, 9am to 1pm, Central car park, BA12 9BT