A market with a heart: Battle's First Foodie Sunday

On Sunday 5th July as the sun rose over Market Square in Battle the place became alive with traders setting up for the first First Foodie Sunday market. By 10am the Square was buzzing with people buying fresh foods like Le Comte French cheeses, fresh local fish, venison, pork, hoggett, freshly baked artisan bread, coffee, loose teas, and sweet treats like fudge, gluten free cakes, continental pastries and delicious brownies. There were also locally grown flowers and plants, plus natural skincare, silver jewellery and other crafts. In the 'freely sharing' community space you could get a free hand massage from A Touch of Gentleness or swap your quality fashions for different clobber. Or learn about other local community initiatives like the seed-and-veg- swapping Battle Growing Network. Kids weren't forgotten with a vintage tractor to play on and a dedicated kids space where this month they learned about chamomile and it's uses. Each month there will be a focus on different foods and where they come from, and encouraging kids to grow their own with free takeaways.

For those that wanted to sit and relax, there were deckchairs, live acoustic music, a bar, and hot and cold food like venison burgers, Vietnamese and Ukrainian dishes and Italian pasta for Sunday lunch. People came from far and wide to take a look, and several stalls sold out quite quickly.

Some comments on our facebook page "what a fab idea", "it's great to see the square used again" "Battle is buzzing today!" "great selection of food stalls"

Martina Gavan, one of the organisers, said: "Anna Zielicka-Hardy and myself were chatting at the Burwash community market (started by Joanna Girling), saying how fantastic that was - run by volunteers, and how it had brought the local community together. We decided we would try and start a similar one in Battle Market Square, which isn't well used. A lot of staple food shops have closed down in our High Street. Markets can be a cheaper outlet for food producers/retailers, and help regenerate the town. Not that we are experts - we are just volunteers who decided to try to do something for our town. Our aims are to promote healthy eating and cooking from scratch, educate about UPFs, widen access to quality local food producers with a range of price points to serve the whole community, and foster local resilience in whatever way we can in the face of the challenges to food production from climate change. If we can bring people together to make it work, all the better!"

The market will run every month, and the next one is Sunday, 2nd August, 10am - 1pm, Market Square Battle TN33 0XA. Come along to support it, or get involved if you can as more volunteers are needed. Contact: [email protected]