West Kirby Farmers' Market
West Kirby Farmers' Market takes palce at St Andrew's Church Hall, Graham Road, West Kirby CH48 5DN, on the fourth Saturday of every month.
It was set up in October 2012 by a group of local people, including a producer from Wirral Farmers' Market, an aspiring new producer, a local butcher, a cookery writer and Transition Town West Kirby. It remains a community organised market, managed and run by a group of local volunteers.
Since opening, the market has helped eight new food businesses and seen producers develop various spin-offs:
• 'Bread on the Table' - a CIC aiming to engage local Food Bank users in making bread - and create Bread Clubs to sell a weekly bake.
• A stall of young entrepreneurs - researching, planning, making, and selling to real customers.
• A Social Enterprise - their market profits subside community sessions where people share recipes and techniques using seasonal ingredients.
• Junior Cooks' Club sessions - young people learn a variety of skills in the kitchen and are introduced to new foods.
There a very popular monthly e-newsletter containing seasonal recipes. This promotes the market, seasonal produce, and other local and national food initiatives. (Examples: April 2015, May 2015)
In 2014 the market commissioned producer drawings (right) from local artist Jim Fleming, and during 2015 the market is developing a series of 'producer profiles'. Both of these are for producers to use freely in their own publicity, and for the market newsletter, website, Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest accounts.
The coffee shop at the market is run by a rota of local voluntary groups/charities, including Scout & Guide groups and Wirral Food Bank, encouraging the wider community to join the market and help raise funds and raise awareness of their activities in the community.
The market has huge local support and a great group of twenty local people who volunteer to help on market days.
More details from admin@westkirbyfarmersmarket.co.uk