London’t first slow food Sunday market features produce from 30 vendors and artisans selected for exceptional quality.
It is the only dedicated slow food market in London and is located on High Holborn Street.
Slow food refers to regionally produced, fresh, clean produce, which has been thoughtfully harvested using responsible practices.
The aim of the market is to foster connections, and a sense of community between small scale rural producers, and urban London dwellers.
There is amazing chocolate and lots of it!
The items for sale here are not mass produced. The food takes time and care to produce.
Obviously, it is much better for you, and tastes entirely better then the produce created by large scale agri-businesses so prevalent in the USA.
Fresh tomatoes burst with flavor like tomatoes should, and bread is prepared from scratch and tastes divine.
There are wonderful local artists with displays as well. All in all it makes for a most enjoyable, and tasty, Sunday stroll!
Cheers to you from London’s Slow Food Market~
For more about Slow Food in the USA, check out: https://www.slowfoodusa.org/about-us
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Great idea! I hope we get a slow food market here!
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I want one too!
yuumy!
It really is!
Luv this!! We have many, many slow food markets popping up allover the city during the summer and fall. Most are regular during season. Toronto has a love on for local produce & producers.
Yes, Canada has this down to a fine art. Besides making shopping much more enjoyable, everything tastes so much better and is so much better for you and for the animals. It’s an easy win win for everyone. The closest I’ve seen to this is the US is the Amish and Mennonite communites, who grow everything and make it the old fashioned way. So much better in every way~
Hopefully these local markets will abound everywhere in the USA shortly.
I believe they are a necessary health/community/local wealth reality.
I agree with you.
I love those wooden stands!
Yes, it was a perfect presentation!
My mom says, “Stop!” you’re killing her with the scrumptious photos! She found out she is diabetic and all that yummy bread is making her hungry. We too are doing our part and are getting chickens to not buy eggs in the store any more and also to make a compost for the other garden plants. She won’t let me get a snake though.
Good for you with the chickens and the compost. I wonder when you will move on to goats? Goats are fun. Snakes, well, I had a rosie boa as a kid that I loved, but I can understand your mom’s point of view too. They do tend to get lost in the house which can make mom’s kinda cranky……
I remember my mom in a not happy voice calling, “Cynthia, where is your snake?????”
I had neglected to tell her that he had errrrrrr…….gone on a vacation. I was hoping he would return before she noticed. So I do get why you want a snake, and why your mom may not be so keen on it! 😉 😉 😉
Looks scrumptious, Cindy. Wish I was there.
Leslie
That artisan chocolate and the cheese! I wish I was there now too! 😉
Chocolate and cheese! Yum.
Leslie
It even sounds right together! 😉
Looks heavenly. I never knew it was called slow food. The stall with the gluten free signs jumped right out to me since my husband is gluten intolerant. The construction of the stalls is reminiscent of a Renaissance Fair. 🙂
It is isn’t it! It was quite charming. Your hubby would have found a lot of gluten free goodies to choose from!
Oh, I could really go for some of that bread! Looks amazing.
I know, fun to buy every Sunday and bring home!
Wouldn’t it be great to have many of these shows in our cities and rural areas? Not only for the great food, but also the crafts and the chance for the “city folk” the meet up with the rural dwellers and their close touch with the land.
Yes it would be incredible! I wouldn’t know about the incredible Amish food, markets, handicrafts, if my husband hadn’t grown up in Iowa. I go there anticipating the home cooked food in the restaurants, bakeries, and the produce in the fruit and vegetable stands. It is such a SLOW and special way of life, and we are robbed shopping in grocery stores buying Smithfied hams, with no exposure to really good produced food.
This is hard to believe, but we just found a wonderful farmers market/craft show in downtown Fresno of all places! At the very old Manchester Mall every friday, they have a farmers market from 8 -4. There was an incredibly wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies there, all full of color and texture like you’d never see in any grocery store. had to be at least 60 stalls there.
We’re going back in two weeks. I’ll also be an exhibitor.
I love that idea. Good to see the slow food movement gaining popularity. Quality over quantity
That is the key isn’t it. We sacrifice too much to shop in chain grocery stores for ALL of our food.
Here in Maine there’s a lot of that going on….local produce, artisan bakeries, etc. Personally I would go for a “slower” life in general: in food, eating, meeting, greeting, working, walking, pondering. Then maybe we would learn to “attend” and not need drugs, etc. for our rampant ADHD in both children and adults.
It would be interesting to take kids out of cities, dare I say schools?, put them in nature, farms, the mountains. They would be exhausted from exploring all day and sleep well at night. After all my years as a psychotherapist, I never realized how bad civilization and it’s discontents are for our mental health. Consider the 40+ hour work week and it’s impact on our mental health, think of all the people who work in florescent lighted cubicles. Some people may enjoy the regimentation which is fine, but it makes most people sick. These artificial environments are so un-natural for us. Our environments, lifestyles, work situations are making us ill and crazy. My stress went down 100% when I retired and moved to the country. If I was still doing seminars, it would be on this topic.
Tune Out & Get Healthy!
Amen to that. When I was teaching high school students I once designed my fantasy curriculum for them which involved taking them right out of school, and not only putting them on a farm, (maybe even on an island) with a certain amount of supervision, but somehow causing them to have to learn social, economic, and survival skills by trial and error….fun to fantasize 🙂
I wish you were my teacher in high school. I ditched a lot! 😉
Oh how I loved living in London. Meeting the local farmers meant food delivered to the landlady’s door and she’d put it away for me. The same was true for milk, eggs and whatever else was in season. Fresh bread arrived every other day. I had the same in France, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany. Other places I didn’t stay long enough to have such arrangements or had to keep a lower profile.
The important comment you made in your remarks is the market was juried and that’s the most important element. You have the knowledge going in that you aren’t going to see offerings that are sub-standard and therefore will not waste your time. Tom and I both refuse to go to craft fairs that are not juried. While we may miss out on some fantastic art, we also save ourselves from tons of trinkets from China and other markets.
I believe in paying in advance for specific foods from local farmers. That way they have partial monies for seeds that haven’t been altered and other working capital and we know where our food is coming from. Our variety isn’t as wide as I would like for it to be but it’s getting better. We pay 2/3 up front and then by the bushel basket as it’s delivered. Having grown up on a working ranch I know how important it is to have cash infusion during the time you otherwise wouldn’t have much to give ‘to the family.’ During the summer months all the money goes to keeping the operation going.
Nearly 50 million Americans will get food poisoning this year. That’s 1 in 6 people who will get sick from something they ate. More than one hundred thousand will go to the hospital; three thousand will die. I don’t like those numbers! They are from the CDC.
We live such a crazy life style in the US, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it is making many of us crazy, and physically sick too. When you consider open vat mass agri-farms like Smithfield, raising pigs in revolting conditions, that we then eat, can we be surprised that we are sick? Consider what this does to whole tracks of land in North Carolina for instance. Going to Europe a lot is eye opening. The first thing you notice is that food in places like France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Germany TASTES so much better! It is life changing. Cheese, bread, fruit, vegetables taste they are supposed too. The next thing you notice is all the local vendors, and people buying their produce locally every day so it is fresh.
The next big eye opener for me is passing by a chicken farm everyday at The Holler. This is the type of chicken you pay more for in the US. “Cage Free” chicken. What a total joke. The operation is the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. The chickens are rammed into their cage free pens so tightly they cannot move. You don’t want to hear about when they pack them up. If people saw this, they would be afraid of eating chicken. How can it not be horrible for our health?
We are so out of touch with the natural world that we are making ourselves mentally and physically sick.
Anything you can do to disengage from this in any way posible is better for you.. Spending time in nature, eating more home cooked meals and home grown food is good. I am afraid we are not going to wake up, and we and this planet will just get sicker and sicker.
You are so right. Growing up, if it didn’t come from the ranch – well, we didn’t eat it. Mother had her own vegetable garden and fruit trees. We had our own cows and Dad raised all the meat. Our oats, corn and wheat were milled – and if mother ever had a cake mix or anything like that – I’m sure her cupboard would have fallen off the wall.
It’s impossible for inspectors to reach every site each year. They don’t make it to some sites ever and have no idea what’s going on. As we used to say in DC, our government runs the last great plantation!
I like this sort of market. They have amazing things to see and taste.
Yes, what a fun way to spen your Sunday!
I love markets like this, Cindy. Lovely photos.
Merci beaucoup mon ami~
I can see you are enjoying your visit to London, way to go Cindy. 🙂
It was wonderful Ranu. Thank you! <3
A beautiful market Cindy, local fresh foods are a delight to savour.
The Cheese looks tantalizingly tasty, a market like this needs time to appreciate the goods and their process of harvesting and growth.
I agree with you, why rush through life? It will be over too soon anyway!
Great post. I loved the pictures and the content. Wish we had something like this in Mumbai.
My daughter fell in love with Mumbai, thought your food was magnificent, but I wish we had a market like this near my home too!
Bravo
Awwww, thank you!
Oh, she’s here in Mumbai? Or she was here on a short trip? I do have few posts dedicated about the street food of Mumbai.
She was in Mumbai in graduate school, visiting TB hospitals.
Really a nice market Cindy, which you captured great here 😀
We need to do so much as possible not to use prepared food, but do more in our own kitchens 😉
Plus for me cooking is a lot of fun and good for the family too physically and emotionally…..
I agree Cindy and make most of the food as I can 🙂
I love the concept of slow food as opposed to fast food. Everything looks delicious in your gorgeous pictures!
And of course I post this while trying to lose three pounds…….
I saw mostly vegetables, right? The other foods I just admired for color 🙂
Well there was cheese, bread, chocolate, all sorts of sinful stuff. I always notice this unfortunately! 😉
Looks lovely, I am stunned at the wonderful layouts of some of those stalls. Would be great hanging around such an inviting environment.
Yes, the visual presentation was as lovely as the food!
Wonderful, Cindy, you’r phtot’s have captured the essence of this London market 🙂
So happy you think so Polly & have a wonderful weekend!
Very beautiful market! ☺ .
Merci beaucoup!
What an amazing concept the “slow food market” and lucky you for having the chance to experience it! 🙂
My challenge now is to find one near The Holler!
I hope your search proves successful! 😉
I’ll let you know if it does~
Thanks for those wonderful photos of my beloved London!
I hope you accept this: https://hsampson.wordpress.com/2015/07/17/the-sunshine-award/
How very kind of you! I am most honored. Thank you very much and cheers to you~
Looks fabulous Cindy. Reminds me a little of Vancouver’s Granville Island Market which has hi-end vendors of master-crafted delicacies scattered throughout.
Alison
I know we went to Granville but I don’t remember the market and I would, if I had seen it. Perhaps we’ll have to go again! We are planning a 2016 trip to see the grizzlies so it is doable……
Yes, you must include Vancouver, and a trip to Granville Island.
This looks absolutely great! Super food! Definitely need to go there!
Hope you do and share your impressions!
Will do so, thanks Alison~
Interesting place to visit…
It was and tasty too! 😉
Looks superb, and that bread, very tempting!
Isn’t it gorgeous! I bake bread but it doesn’t look like that!
Mmmm, chocolate!!! And I see that the slow food market introduces a lot of color to London as well! As someone who shops at local farmers’ markets whenever there’s an opportunity, I agree with the comments here… Ok, I have to stop scrolling up and looking at the food now. It’s making me hungry! Hope you enjoyed a lot of the yummy food there Cindy! <3 ~Lynn
Of course I am on a diet, but I do like looking at food even when I can’t eat it! 😉
Wow! Just look at those decadent breads in the first picture. Looking delicious😋
Aren’t they gorgeous and they taste as good as they look!
I love the aroma of freshly baked breads
Nothing makes a house more inviting!
Fabulous living 😀
Good food makes for a good day! <3
Unfortunately, huge grocery stores ruined street markets. By the time of my childhood I remember my parents every single Saturday morning visited local street market for shopping. It was fun to be there with them.
Yes, I imagine those are positive memories. Our local farmer’s market doesn’t hold a candle to the slow food ones unfortunately.
Your London posts are showing us a really different side to the city. Foxes and slow markets – what next!?
Well, back to The Holler I’m afraid! Although I do have another London post for another day……
I wouldn’t want to shop anywhere else. In a grocery store, I can’t wait to get my food and get out. At our local farmers’ market, I know a bunch of the vendors by name and I always allot extra time because there is a lot of stopping to chat. Farmers’ markets sustain more than our bellies. Having a SLOW market would be even more amazing.
Yes, I agree with everything you are saying. There are slow food markets in the US, but I bet none any where near Hollerdom!
I’d have thought I’d died and gone to heaven at that bread table!
I know. I would be there every Sunday like clockwork!
This place looks like a paradise to me. It seems that the bread is crispy (my favourite), and the cheese look amazing !!
I so wish we had this market near me!
Now that is a wonderful place and I would delve to go there. We go to Pikes Place Market every time we go tot Seattle but it is nothing like this.
Yes I have been to Pikes, it is amazing, but different, you’re right!
Cool!!
Any yummy~
Cindy, I can almost smell the fresh bread and taste the juicy tomatoes! That table full of chocolate looks amazing, too. Thanks for introducing us to what surely will become a popular event in London!
Threre were a least three tables full of handmade artisan chocolate! I couldn’t photograph all of it.
What a beautiful market! Makes me hungry just looking at your great photos! Thanks for sharing.
Me too, unfortunately! 😉
Sounds like fun.. What a nice vacation! What’s next?
Well, we are home at The Holler now resting! We head to Yellowstone and Waterton National Parks in September, and in November back to Germany and Eastern Europe on an incredible last minute deal Jim found while I was at the grocery store. This is more than normal for us, but the deal was so sweet he couldn’t resist it.
Wow! Life is good! Eastern Europe.. Like Poland? Romania? Take a colorful pic of those multi colored hot spring pools.. You’d do great with those…
We are going to Slovakia and Hungary. I really would like to go to Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, my family is from these regions.
I love going to local/farmers markets! This one is particularly beautiful. We went to a couple in Vancouver while we were on vacation the past 2 weeks and got some great handmade stuff there (berries, salmon, soaps, chocolates).
I’ve been hearing about the Canadian farmer’s markets, maybe I do need to go back to Vancouver……
When was the last time you were in Vancouver? It keeps changing rapidly. We spot changes going back every year. Some changes for the better, some not. :}
Incredible. Looks like a movie set, too. (Our local ones don’t seem to have the same flare…or maybe it’s the heat here …we all meltingggggg)
Yes, heat and cheese are not good friends unfortunately!
Looks great!
Wish we had one!
The break looks amazing. Yum!
Would love some of that bread and cheese right now!
Sounds great – and always a refreshing feeling just to go there.
Yes, makes for a most diverting outing!
I go to farmer’s markets all the time, yet this slow food aspect is new to me — I really like it. Excellent photos, too, Cindy.
It is a wonderful, old fashioned concept, that has become in fashion again!
I am wholly in favour.
Yes, it is a lifestyle I prefer~