A long queue formed on my birthday last Friday December 15 (a youthful 75!) but it was for Rye’s Country Market in the Community Centre on Conduit Hill.
With Christmas in the offing it was bound to be popular, but the regulars also knew the market was closing down for its winter break. It will reopen next year on March 9 at 10am as usual.
When fresh produce, including flowers, is a staple part of the market it takes a break, as does the Wednesday Farmers Market on Strand Quay, for the wintry months.
Regulars at both markets are the Ashton-Cobbs from nearby Hunts Hill Orchards who are a regular food factory churning out jams and chutneys as well as vegetables and pork from their pigs well fattened up on a diet of marrows.
My Christmas cupboards include a jar of plum and mulled wine jam (and alcohol seems to sneak into a number of recipes) as well as pear, date and walnut chutney. Needless to say the pears are homegrown.
In addition I have in another cupboard a lovely looking ginger cake with lemon icing and some home-made mince pies from the Country Market’s cake stall “mistressed” by St Mary’s church warden Anne Wood.
And last, but not least, I have lemon chicken curries for winter nights from curry king John Holbrook, pictured right, who has a wide repertoire of curry recipes – as well as taking your money at the market.
When March arrives, hopefully we will also see the return of the market’s flower stall, whose arrangements often sell out amazingly quickly – often to those believed to have gardens!
Image Credits: Rye News Library .