A bit of local flavour that's around at the moment is a lovely little set of stall that have set up…read morein Piccadilly Gardens, creating a mini little market. There are only a handful of stalls, but each is worth a visit. They include: 1. A Jamaican Food Stall selling jerk chicken and goat stew with soup for four quid! 2. A sweets stall selling amazing candy of all sorts of flavours 3. A cheese stall which smells amazing and has a great range of fresh cheeses. Some of the cheeses are worth seeing for the sheer size of them! 4. A pie stall selling large pies for £3.50 or small ones for £2. All look incredible and are in puffy pastry in pretty star shapes. 5. A fresh meat stall 6. A stall selling rubbish stuff. Check it out!

What better on a beautiful day than to wander around a Farmers Market smelling freshly cooked…read morebread, roasted hog, hot dogs, cakes, exotic African cooked meats, Chinese and Jamaican street food, curries and Paella. It's the culinary world on an al fresco plate in the heart of the city. A quick delicious imaginative fix for the urban gastronome

Undoubtedly the best farm shop in Widnes, nay, Cheshire and not just cause I used to work there for…read moreabout 5 years! Dennis and Rena, and their son Johnny have been running this place for about 20 years or something, and I think everybody in the surrounding area knows about it. I spent many a happy afternoon bagging potatoes, riding motorcross bikes, feeding the pig bananas, learning to ride horses, and generally having a good time. In fact, thus far, it's probably been my best ever job. Anyway, come here for all your fruit and veg at rock bottom prices, way cheaper than the supermarkets, and better quality. With a smile. Unless you park in the wrong place !

This must be under new ownership. Went there today to find they were closing at 4:30 and was told…read moreto F*** off I am sure they used to be open until 5 Their loss Grumpy Bloke just moaned about being up at 3am . If they want customers they need to open at times convenient to other than the pensioners who gather there for a gossip and hold up customers on limited lunch hours certainly won't be bothering again after my treatment today. I see their good reviews are written by their own staff what does that tell you

On a blustery winter day a visit to the market was the perfect escape. Plenty of food vendors and…read morestalls or pop into one of the nearby restaurants and wine bars on the row. Will be back!

TL;DR - Great venue but a victim of its own success…read more Alty market set the tone for most of the food halls which you can now find across Manchester, and it remains one the biggest and best. The venue itself is gorgeous, with a craft market taking up half the building and a food hall in the other half. All the options at the food hall are great - you won't be disappointed. But the biggest issue we've always faced here is that it's so popular you can't always find a table. There's plenty of seating, it's just that the place is so popular it's always full which is frustrating if you've taken the trip to visit.

There are a couple of greengrocers on Green Lane, Ennerdale's happened to be closest to Taylors of…read moreSale butchers (http://www.yelp.co.uk/biz/taylors-of-sale-sale) so I popped in here to check it out. As well as a big display of fruit outside the front, the majority of the produce can be found inside. The range is pretty impressive, the watermelons were the size of beachballs and strawberries super sweet. The whole place just felt like you're in a well used farmer's market and everything's as fresh as can be. It's not a sleek and glossy outfit mind you, but it fulfils what you need from a greengrocer's - plenty of choice, great quality and at prices more competitive than at the supermarket. It's a popular place to boot. Shop local!

I love this place, they don't try to do anything too fancy, and they're not the place to go to for…read morehighly specialised ingredients. What they do, and do excellently, is quality produce at superb prices. Every time I walk out with aching arms due to how much I've bought I'm amazed by how much cheaper than a supermarket they are. If you go towards the end of a day keep an eye out for them offering the "last in the box" at fantastic prices.

The great thing about the Manchester Street Markets is a) they take place in my neighbourhood…read more(they're all South Manchester suburb-based), and b) you can always get something a little different at each of them. After checking out Northenden's offering I was delighted to see the familiar faces of The Butterfly Cupcakery and I recognised the awesome Mint & Garlic who I'd met previously at one of the Farmers Markets at Piccadilly Gardens. So what else to do at such a gorgeous market but shop? There were tasty-smelling fresh soups, a butcher and a fishmonger, preserves and cheeses as well as cakes, and as well as this you can get some bags, gifts and suchlike. Bex and I treated ourselves to a choccy brownie and a slab of carrot cake respectively from Butterfly, then I did a wee bit of shopping from Mint & Garlic next door. My swag included three large, delightfully turquoise duck eggs (I've never had duck eggs before and am looking forward to making them into a quiche this week!), a punnet of strawberries that smelled incredible and tasted even better, a sweet potato whereby I was advised that you should always go for the long, thin ones as they harbour the most sweetness, and a vine of plum tomatoes whose rich depth of flavour made for brilliant roasting. There's a really lovely vibe to Copson Street so early on a Saturday morning, and a great eclectic mix of student types, young professionals and locals. I'm definitely going to be coming back here for some more grocery shopping, I was muchly impressed.

In the pecking order of Manchester street markets, I would rank Withington's market on the second…read moreSaturday of each month below Chorlton, Castlefield Artisan and the twice-monthly Real Food Market in Piccadilly. However, all the stall are proper artisan, local flavour stuff, which puts this little capsule market ahead of some of the grosser and commercialised elements of the Christmas Markets, for example. It's OK, but there aren't really enough stalls at this one to make it worth a special trip. So more of a market for the Withington locals, unless you have become hooked on the goods from one of the stalls and need your weekly fix. And there are definitely worse things addicted to than Dough-It-Yourself artisan pizza bases, Traditionally Cheesy artisan cheeses (with vegetarian cheeses clearly marked), Trove Foods baked goods and jams and a few others. Plus at least one Withington community organisation stall, which I think I would find pleasantly mumsy if I was a student living in the area! :-) But if you only make one visit in the month to the south Manchester street market circuit, then Chorlton on the third Saturday is your best bet. Disclaimer: Be aware that street markets and street food are undergoing something of a revival, and that an obvious next step for Manchester markets would be for more of the stallholders who show at the Chorlton and other markets to roll up to Withington for one day in the month. So - keep an eye on things, and also 'Be the change you want to see in the world' and all that, if you are a market fan!

Jan 2024. First visit today, but I am now going to be a regular. the fresh veg is amazing and so…read moremany things you cannot find in a supermarket, prices are reasonable. easy to find just 5 minutes from the motorway. what a great find

The toogood farm shop is a special place offering a wide range of fresh and organic produce. The…read moreshop is in the wrightington area of Lancashire just a short drive from Standish and Wigan. There is ample parking as you would expect. The meat is local sourced and of an outstanding quality, I can't believe I used to waste my hard earned money on cheap supermarket meat, the difference in taste is all too obvious. The veg is also local sourced and surprisingly cheap, the veg will stay fresh for much longer than supermarket bought produce. The shop also sells local bread, orangic squash, chilli jam, chilli sauce, eggs, preserves and other organic produce. The Staff are cheerful and are always happy to help.

Held twice a month in Manchester city centre, Real Food Market sees the North West's farmers…read moredismount their tractors to give Manchester's pasty-faced masses a taste of real nutrition as Mother Nature intended. (I've uploaded over 30 photos, so do have a look!) There are about thirty market stalls in all - hot takeway foods for you to eat on a bench in Piccadilly Gardens, plus apple tarts, fudge, cupcakes, cheeses, preserves and crafts to take home. (As a vegetarian, I didn't pay too much attention to additional non-vegetarian food, but there are stalls in this category which can boast having been featured several times on local television.) I paid £2.50 for a container of Carrot & Coriander Soup the size of a small bucket, mopped up with a Caribbean style vegetarian patty, £1.50. The soup was great, the patty OK. From the Caribbean stall I would be more likely to skip the patty next time and try the Caribbean vegetable curry on rice & beans. Or try something else from the soup stall. Plus, check out Trove Foods, which sells homemade jams and marmalades in recycled jars. http://www.trovefoods.co.uk/home I took home jars of Seville Marmalade and Carrot & Almond Jam - delicious stuff, and a lovely young couple run this business together. Here's a summary of the rest of the stalls and again, do check out my photos as that will give you a good idea: * Hot foods: fresh soups (Carrot & Coriander, Smoked Sausage & Butterbean, Roasted Red Pepper & Tomato, Leek & Potato), BBQ chicken, burgers and big piles of juicy fried onions. Caribbean patties (including vegetarian) plus curried goat, jerk chicken or vegetarian curry with rice & beans. Samosas, spicy chickpea wraps, seekh kebabs. * Sweet foods: patisserie (apple or apricot tarts), homemade sweets and fudges, home baking, cupcakes by Cupcake Palace, retro macaroons. * For your kitchen pantry: Trove Foods homemade marmalade, jams, and spicy sauces and pickles; Mrs. Kirkham's artisan cheeses. * Crafts: bags, African crafts and jewellery, enamelled tableware. I am still quite a Manchester Markets newbie, but I would say the Real Food Market is neck-and-neck with the Arndale Market Food Court and definitely worth timing a visit to town on the second or fourth weekend in the month to catch it. It's all good retro, low carbon, tasty fun - Real Food Market FTW!

I love food, and I love local produce even more, so I was really pleased to hear about this…read morebi-monthly market held in Piccadilly Gardens. People are looking more and more to their local producer, knowing they're getting eco-friendly quality straight from the source, and I'm all for it. You can pretty much get anything here, great fresh breads, conserves, meats, dairy, speciality cheeses, pies, pickles, ales, puddings. It's an epicurian's paradise and always puts a smile on my face. It runs Friday and Saturday on the 2nd and 4th weekend of the month between 10-6pm.

Amazed by this place…read more I haven't seen anywhere like it since my travels to Portland. It has a real community atmosphere. Everyone involved, from the growers to the staff to the people shopping, care and it really shows. It's honest. It's exactly where you want to buy your vegetables. There's soil on the fresh produce. Actual soil. No cellophane, no unnecessary packaging, no nonsense - just tasty, local food. The shelves are clearly labelled and well stocked with interesting offerings. They have your staples - potatoes, all the usual veg, cereals, spices, fruits as well as some more unusual choices when/if it's in season. Prices are reasonable and when you pay you feel like you're contributing - something you never experience in a chain supermarket. There's a play area for kids and free apples to keep them occupied - with a little compost bin for the cores. A big green thumbs up.

Unicorn is quite simply the best place ever and the eco-jewel in the crown of the noble and good…read morekingdom of Chorlton, that land of the yoga bunny, the eco-warrior and community campaign group Keep Chorlton Interesting http://keepchorltoninteresting.org/ Walking around the unusually-wide aisles of this wholefoods supermarket, it is easy to feel inspired that the times are *not* a' changing. Because they've changed. And here we find ourselves in a land flowing with everlasting organic milk and honey, and we no longer have to constantly check the label because it's all good stuff! Unicorn is a fully-fledged supermarket with the small and large trolleys to prove it, but the relaxed atmosphere and experience of the five senses being bathed in everything that is good is tangible. Starting outside the door, the Big Issue vendor deftly helped me free a trolley that was jammed, and I could feel his genuine wish to help and for my Unicorn shopping experience to be a good one. Inside. Organic seeds. Garden tools made in Wigan by a company called Bulldog. (I bought a hand fork and a 3-pronged hand cultivator, which I think will prove useful for weeding close to plants without damaging their roots.) Organic fruit and veg which is all labelled and sourced as locally as possible (e.g. Broad Beans from Gielty of Ormskirk). And plenty of choice of fruit and veg - how come supermarkets never manage to have more than a few lines of organic produce? A lovely blackboard telling what's in season and how things have been going for the farmers out in the field. Sometimes, I've seen another small blackboard outside showing how Unicorn is cheaper than Sainsbury or Tesco for the same items. This doesn't surprise me, as a good co-op is a very strong business model, without the big salaries and pressure for huge shareholder dividends of all chain supermarkets. I've not tried much from the chilled display, so I'll leave that to others to review. The dried goods are handily displayed on tiered shelves with small, medium and large sizes of each item. In the back corner, there is a lovely little play area, including a compost bin for the little eco-warriors to put their apple cores in! Every time I've visited, the play area has been very much in use, with lots of fun being had. The kids are nice to each other! The bakery and hot food takeaway is all good stuff from the best organic bakeries in the area, supplemented by some goodies baked instore. I've had great soups from here, eaten with a buttered roll or pastie, very wholesome-tasting - sweet potato or roasted red pepper, mmm! On the shelves in the middle are a many speciality ingredients which are hard to find elsewhere. From my till receipt, for example - Toasted Sesame Oil (organic), Pomegranate Syrup, Puffed Wheat (organic), Puffed Millet (organic), Polenta (organic). Even if you're not an enthusiastic cook, I would personally much rather have a breakfast cereal of Puffed Wheat with a dash of maple syrup and whatever else I fancy rather than trust the Honey Monster! Waiting at the checkout, the lady in front offered me half a organic loaf in a brown paper bag - thank you very much, madam! I always find the checkout staff and all the others very pleasant and on-the-ball - there is a maturity about this place. Unicorn is not a side-show in Chorlton it's the dominant retail model (shh - you know what I mean!) with a turnover of millions of pounds. One last thing - at the checkout, those branded plastic things that supermarkets provide to separate your shopping on the belt from the customers in front and behind are replaced by...pieces of wood! Pass on the well-worn, wooden baton and the good word about Unicorn. :-)