Market Newsletter 4th November 2010

Welcome to this week's newsletter on a blustery but very mild November afternoon. Well, now that the clocks have gone back, we cant really fool ourselves that it is still Autumn, can we? Nothing for it but to make the most of the winter days, getting out whenever it is bright/not raining and cosying up by the fire when we have to! And going for good comfort food and warming red wines to cheer ourselves up...

Events

Talking of wine brings us to the first event we want to tell you about. This is our pre-Christmas Wine Tasting, which takes place on the 4th of December at 4pm after the market. We'll have lots of wines for you to taste,  ranging from very affordable party wines to those special wines for Christmas Day dinner.

Priced at €20 per person, we'll also feature in-season cheeses for you to taste. More information between now and then, but as we expect a lot of interest in this event, please let us know if you want us to reserve your places!

Just a quick reminder about our Christmas Food and Craft Fair on the following Saturday (11th of December). We have only 1 available stall left for any local artisan craft/art producer, so if you were thinking of taking part, get in touch. We will do a full listing of participants in the next couple of weeks and include it in the newsletter.

Our Bring a Friend Hamper competition is running from now until the 11th of December, and quite a few people brought a friend along last Saturday, so ring or email that friend/sister/brother you've been telling about the market and bring them along this month! The lucky winner of the hamper will have lots of market goodies to savour!

Stallholder news for this weekend:

All stallholders are due to be at the market on Saturday; check on the website www.honest2goodness.ie for any last minute updates.

At the Spud Man's stall, we are now stocking a range of herbs in pots - looked after properly, they should last you til Christmas and beyond! He is also stocking a couple of new seasonal vegetables - Jerusalem Artichokes and Banana Shallots. This is a lovely recipe for those Artichokes if you havent cooked them before.  It goes really well with a hearty roast Beef or Lamb dish.

Dominic from Gleann Gabhar Goats milk & cheese products is planning on returning to the market on Saturday.

Pascale from Phoenix Delites sent us this description of her chocolates - they all sound great!

Clare from Puddleduck tells me that 'we will have a fresh batch of lemon curd and pink lemonade this week along with some sugar free jam'. Clare really enjoyed her first day with us last weekend and is looking forward to meeting even more market customers this weekend.

Wines of the week this week will be two Italian Wines - the white one is  an organic wine from Montalto and is made from the Cattaratto grape - tastes of tropical fruit, orange peel and aniseed (yes, all of those flavours -you dont have to take our word for it - taste it for yourself on Saturday!).

The red is a new import for us, called Il Nespolino, and is an IGT Rubiciano, made from the Sangiovese and Merlot grape - lots of dark cherry fruit and spiciness! Another new wine that we are excited about!

At the cafe, we'll be serving Carrot and Cumin soup, and Italian Meatballs with brown rice. We'll have more of the Tunisian Orange Cake, and we're also planning on having some Carrot Cake (yes, lots of Vitamin C to ward off any incipient colds!) topped with Moonshine Farm's fabulous cream cheese and lemon.

At the Pantry, we're planning our new deli counter at the moment, so if there is anything that you really wish that we would stock, then please let us know and we'll factor that into our plans.