Vegan market gets thumbs up from this carnivore

I wandered down to the first Vegan Farmers’ Market held in Walton-On-Thames on Saturday with low expectations of finding anything to buy or I wanted to eat and high expectations of boredom and finding #nutribollocks examples everywhere.

But the sun was shining, shining with all its might and I thought, I’ll go and have a look, it’s a two-minute stroll. Perhaps the gen pop of Walton is not as mentally lumpen as I think and there may be people going to this market. After all, Aldi has just been replaced by an M&S Food Hall. That must mean something.

Perhaps it was the sunshine, a Bill Withers Lovely Day, but my expectations were completely reversed.

Let’s start with the food stalls. I’m dairy intolerant in a major way and cereals mostly make me feel like I’ve swallowed a live Moray eel. Not just any old eel, mind you. So it was a rare treat to wander about thinking I could eat just about anything here.

And it looked good. Vegan burgers, vegan kebabs, scoffable cakes and I don’t believe I saw anybody chowing down on micro-sprouts.

There were varied and healthy-looking organic vegetables, cheeses and bread, alcohol and toiletries.

The ladies running the stall of vegan make-up, skin-care and toiletries for Tropic deserve a special mention, not just because their glowing skin and glossy hair was testament to the products they sell (I was already a fan of a few of them, good taste ladies), but because of the careful curation of their offer – not a massive amount of stuff, but all carefully chosen, all excellent with no harmful additives, to allow the natural ingredients to work their magic.

Stallholders tried to avoid any waste and have linked up with charities to take products unsold which cannot be stored. This should be loudly applauded because markets can leave an aftermath of mess and waste which is not re-used. Perhaps the standard farmers and other markets could learn from this example.

I was pleasantly shocked by how many people were milling about, eating and buying things. This was most un-Walton-like and no Morrissey-lookalikes in sight either.

That was a great turnout for a first market and I’m delighted that they’ll be back on a regular basis.

How very encouraging.

#vegan #surrey #greengrill #aprilstable #eatsurrey #ethical #eco #green #cosmetics #crueltyfree #heartshopping #waltononthames #LA21Woking #beautybank #wasteless

Vegans, omnivores and anybody interested in connecting more with the food they eat, growing their own in tiny spaces and guerilla wild space gardening, Woking’s branch of Incredible Edibles needs you and is giving a talk on April 19th, link below.

Incredible Edibles talk 19th April – join in and connect with the food you eat

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