Sophie Bramley
Arriving Early, With a Rough Plan
Most farmers' markets across Guildford and the wider county open between 9am and 10am, and the stalls are usually fully dressed half an hour before that. Arriving in the first hour gets you the pick of the produce, a space in the car park and a clear run at the traders before the queues build. Town-centre parking fills quickly on market mornings, so a park and ride, a bus or a brisk walk in is often the least stressful option.
Come with a loose idea of what you need — a chicken for Sunday, vegetables for the week, a wedge of something interesting for the weekend — but leave room for the things you had not planned on. That is half the pleasure. A rough budget helps too, because it is remarkably easy to spend forty pounds before you have reached the second row of stalls.
Do a Lap Before You Buy Anything
Resist the urge to grab the first punnet of strawberries you see. Walk the whole market once, noting which stalls look busy, which have the deepest displays and which are selling produce that clearly came out of the ground that morning rather than last Tuesday. Prices vary more than you might expect between stalls, and so does quality.
On the second lap, buy. You will shop more sensibly, compare properly and avoid doubling up on courgettes because you forgot what you already had in the bag.
This is also the moment to get a feel for what is genuinely in season. In Surrey that means asparagus and rhubarb in late spring, strawberries, cherries and broad beans in early summer, apples, pears, squash and cobnuts through the autumn, and kale, leeks, parsnips and purple sprouting broccoli in the colder months. If a stall is piled high with something that does not belong to the season, ask where it has travelled from.
Choosing the Freshest Items
- Salad and leafy greens: look at the cut base. It should be pale and clean, not brown or slimy. Roots still attached are a good sign.
- Asparagus and soft-stemmed vegetables: rub two spears together. A faint squeak means they are fresh; bendy, wrinkled stems mean they are not.
- Root vegetables: heavier than they look, firm all over, no soft patches. Carrots with a little soil on them keep far longer than scrubbed ones.
- Apples and pears: weighty for their size, firm, no bruising around the stalk. A sweet, clean smell at the top is a good indicator.
- Bread: press the base gently. It should spring back. Squeeze the crust and listen for a crackle. Buy what you will eat in a day or two and freeze the rest, sliced.
- Cheese: ask to taste it. Anything shouting of ammonia has been wrapped too long.
- Meat and fish: firm, dry and glossy rather than wet and pale. Ask when it was butchered or landed — traders are almost always happy to tell you.
Eat Something While You Are There
Half the point of a local market is the hour you spend standing about with a coffee. Bacon rolls, sausage baps, pasties, cake and proper coffee are standard, and the seating — often a few trestle tables and folding chairs — is where the community side of the market actually happens. You will bump into neighbours, overhear a conversation about a school fete and pick up a flyer for a choir or a repair café.
Sample politely. Most producers offer a taste of cheese, charcuterie or preserves, and accepting is a friendly way to start a conversation. It is not a free lunch, so buy something if you have enjoyed it. Ask open questions — "what came in this morning?" or "how would you cook this?" — and you will learn more in two minutes than in an hour of reading.
Paying, and Shopping Efficiently
Take both cash and card. Larger stalls usually have card readers, but smaller producers, especially those selling eggs, honey or preserves, often prefer cash, and mobile signal in a crowded town square can be patchy. Small notes and a handful of coins make everything faster for everyone.
- Bring two or three strong reusable bags, plus a cool bag on warm days.
- Keep a running total in your head, or on your phone, so the last stall does not break you.
- Buy fragile items — eggs, soft fruit, tomatoes — last.
- Return crates, boxes and jars where a stall offers a deposit scheme.
- Queue properly, and do not rummage through a display; ask the trader to pick for you.
Getting It All Home in One Piece
A rucksack beats a single heavy carrier bag every time, though in a crowd you will want to keep it in front of you rather than swinging behind. For a bigger shop, a small wheeled trolley is a genuinely sensible investment. Pack by weight, with the heaviest items at the bottom, and keep eggs, berries and bread at the top.
In summer, put meat, fish and cheese straight into a cool bag with a freezer block, and do not leave the shopping in a hot car while you run other errands. Once home, unwrap and store everything properly within the hour, wash the salad, and freeze any bread you will not eat that day. Do that, and a Saturday morning at the market will quietly reshape the way you eat for the rest of the week.
