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Incpen director Jane Bickerstaffe regularly shops at farmers' markets. But in this Soap Box Blog, she questions her own motives and whether these markets live up to the dream of supplying organic, fresh and local produce.

Busy open air street markets were commonplace in the West Indies where I grew up, and my mental picture is of stalls piled high with local mangoes, guavas, pawpaws, portugals and coconuts.

Those memories are at least part of the reason why I go to farmers' markets in the UK where, like many other people, my rose-coloured perception is of buying cheese made at a nearby dairy, from milk produced by contented local cows fed on flower-strewn meadows. Or hand-made bread using wheat which was grown and harvested by farmers close by.

That's romantic nonsense, of course - farming is a hard life in which advertisers' images of rural life rarely coincide with reality.

The reality of farmers' markets is rather different from both my memories and my fantasies. While some larger markets in big towns offer an array of high quality, genuinely local produce being sold by the producers themselves, with an intimate knowledge of their goods, many smaller markets are disappointing.

In the 12 years since the first UK farmers' market in Bath, the phenomenon of (mostly) monthly markets has become widespread. There's a professional certification body - the national Farmers' and Retail Markets Association (Farma) which was originally the Farm Shop and Pick Your Own Association.  And it is hard to pick up a food-related magazine which does not extol the virtues of the farmers' market.

Maybe I have been unlucky but my recent experiences at farmers' markets have been of foods brought considerably more than the 30 to 50 miles recommended by Farma as being ‘local', with produce that is less than top quality, and seriously overpriced.  

For example, I am not sure that £2.20 was a reasonable price for a small and, it turned out, not very fresh seed-topped loaf made more than 50 miles away and for all I know touted round farmers' markets at other locations before the day I bought it. The loaf was unwrapped and unlabelled of course so I had no way of knowing how old it was - as well as having to trust that every person handling it had clean hands.

At another market on another day the venison sausages were genuinely local, pricey but very good - although I would have preferred it if they had not sat open and unwrapped on a windy stall, exposed to any coughs and sneezes from other shoppers.

And, in common with many other people whose working lives spill over into what used to be leisure time, I find the convenience of shopping for all my household needs in one store is a major time saver. Buying a few items at a farmers' market increases the total amount of time I have to spend on shopping, and on wet, cold days getting drenched just to buy a cauliflower and some local cheese is asking too much.

In a sunny market square, on holiday with time to spare, wandering round a market is a much more enticing prospect. 

And yet I still visit farmers' markets, especially when away from home. Am I paying too high a price for nostalgia?

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