And now for local food...

Sausage & egg rolls, yummo. See how in the far right of the above photo two people are eating them. Good choice.

Saturday found me wandering up north. I was heading to Abney Park cemetery (chock full of blackberries at the moment), but I hadn't eaten lunch. Wandering down Stoke Newington Church Street I happened into the weekly farmer's market. Voila lunch problem solved. Stocks Farm has a small stall selling your basic baps. I had a very tasty egg & sausage (3.5 quid), which is large and generous. Prices start at 3 quid for just one ingredient, bacon, sausage, etc. She'll cook your egg runny or hard, whichever you want.

While I'm sure I could get cheaper in Kentish Town, they use Stocks Farm ingredients, which makes this an organic, local bap and it's still less than you'll pay if you go into one of the local cafes. I really was over the moon with my bap that morning, something about the hp sauce, tomato sauce, egg, sausage patty and fluffy white roll was exactly what I wanted. There are tables set up or you can grab a seat in the shade along one of the benches surrounding the school yard where the farmer's market is held.

Service was a bit slow, considering there was only one person ahead of me and she was already cooking his order. But she's friendly, even offering to grind pepper onto your egg while it's cooking.

By the by, the Stoke Newington Farmer's Market is all local (within 100 miles of Hackney) and organic (I saw one stall selling bags of flour, they're in amongst the veggies). It's not a huge market, but people were definitely just hanging out there enjoying themselves, which is quite nice. It's a great place to go shopping or eating with your kids too, because there's a play area with things to climb.

And cheers to Healthserviceglasses who did remember to bring a camera when going to eat baps at the farmer's market.

Get thee to the berries

Your local London berry bushes are currently bursting with fruit for your enjoyment. According to a friendly Irishman wandering past while I was picking, he never thinks about berry picking until August. But I've been twice in the past couple of weeks and my local bushes look to be at their peak at the moment, so don't delay.

I pick blackberries, since that's what seems to be round these east-end parts. I've found some bushes poking out from someone's untended garden and some along the canal. The friendly Irishman reckoned that for *real* picking, you should head out to your favorite country-walk to get kilos of berries. I usually come home with about a punnet. And since I always forget my camera, the photo is courtesy of markhillary on Flickr. If you search for "blackberry London" on Flickr, the photos often list their locations, so it might give you some ideas for places to search for your local berries.

I'm storing them in the freezer until I get enough for a cobbler or to make jam with. I've just finished the damson jam I made last year, so it's about time for some more jam making. I really enjoyed the damson jam, so I think I might make more of that rather than blackberry jam. And my last peach pie was so delish, I might even try to make a blackberry pie.