Market manager Kardien Gerbrands talks about Swindon farmers' markets

WE are delighted to announce that we have a new stall starting this Sunday at the Designer Outlet Farmers’ Market.

Poultry with Pride, from Potterne, is a smallholding producing free range chicken and posies made from homegrown cut flowers in season.

The birds are raised on the farm from chicks, right through to slaughter on farm. Slow growing, they are outdoor reared in small batches where they are free to indulge their natural habits of sunbathing, dust washing, scratching around for bugs and forming social groups. The houses are freshly strawed daily. The birds are shut away at night from predators but free to graze on mixed herbal leys during the day. Throughout their lives the welfare standards are of the highest quality, with no antibiotics or growth hormone given.

The meat is hung to improve texture and flavour, so the resulting bird tastes like ‘old fashioned’ poultry. Large birds (2kg to 3.5 kg) are available all year. With no water injected into the flesh (a common practice for supermarket meat) there is enough fat in the skin to melt into the meat to add to the flavour. What you put in the oven is what you get out, whereas cheap chicken is just that; poorly raised in appalling conditions. The supermarkets squeeze prices down so hard that farmers can only earn money on a numbers game, furthering the cruelty by which bulk meat is produced. So come on down this Sunday from 10am to 4pm and discover what healthy, happy chicken tastes like.

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.
  •  Corsham, third Saturday, 9am to 1pm, High Street SN13 0HB.
  •  Devizes, first Saturday, 9am to 1pm, Market Place l 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 Drive, SN2 2DY.
  •  Havelock Square Farmers’ Market, Swindon, every Thursday, 9am to 2.30pm.
  •  Trowbridge, second and fourth Friday, 9am to 1pm, Fore Street, BA14 8HX.
  •  Wanborough, third Saturday, 9am to midday, Wanborough Village Hall.
  •  Warminster, first and third Fridays, 9am to 1pm, central car park, BA 12 9BT