LATEST Farmers' Market news by Gerb Gerbands. 

MARKET birthday this week, and a particularly bumper one too!

We won’t be doing anything special until next year when it will be 25 years but it’s always nice to make a note of these moments.

On the subject of moments, I am delighted to be able to announce that our Cherry Moment, a month of purple deliciousness, will be starting from next Saturday, July 8.

I rarely make such pre-emptive announcements in this column as nature has a way of biting agricultural planning in the leg, but save any major hailstorms, the crop is good and nearly ready!

People of Stroud salute your good fortune that we still have this annual experience to look forward to cherry farmers like Court Farm are very thin on the ground!

The unique skill sets required to manage so many of the businesses at the market means ‘thin on the ground’ applies to quite a few.

The Lavender Garden, a unique collection of lavenders and home of the buddleia collection, Julian Harvard flower grower, who will be so happy that this week’s cloud cover will preserve the sweet peas for another bumper display this Saturday, Besley’s Strawberries carefully managed cycles of strawberry varieties to give us fruit throughout the summer, Days Cottage and their total knowledge of top fruit.

These people have knowledge that runs deeper than anything you could ever learn on a course and in this age of modernisation, these hands on skills need to be valued and passed on for future generations.