Ramsbottom farmers market, is a monthly occasion with a variety of stalls with fresh ( still with…read moremoist mud ) fruit and veg , fresh meat and fish on ice A few of the stalls sell fresh fruit tarts and meat pies and quiches There are also a variety of stalls that ready made hot meals . The stalls are centred around the wine jug at the top of the road. All in all the stalls are there and sell your basics of a farmers market. There is additionally a bit now in the civic centre slightly further up the hill but this is mainly focused on arts and craft types with the odd food stall thrown in for good measure It stretches the legs on a Sunday morning . But parking can be an issue

Found this farm shop and cafe by pure chance and it has quickly become one of my favourite places…read moreto eat a small snack or meal at. The farm shop is quite small but they sell their own beef (mince, steaks etc), lamb (chops etc), eggs, veg, pies (beef and cheese and onion), sausages as well as local preserves and chutney. Their main business is their cafe, which has a fantastic selection of small snacks (sandwiches, tea cakes, homemade soup, cream scones etc) to larger meals including salads, all day breakfasts, homemade beef and lamb burgers and daily specials. The food is all either from their own produce and meat at the farm or locally grown and sourced when possible. You can taste the difference and all the food is fresh and tasty. Their selection of cakes is fantastic, all home made and yummy. Last time I went they had crumbles, fruit pies, chocolate biscuit cake, sticky toffee pudding and many more I can't remember. But the one thing that I adore the most about this place is their own homemade ice cream! It is the best ice cream I have ever come across, it's not overly sweet and the flavours are great quality. The choice is huge and changes nearly every week but they can include: cherry and yogurt, strawberry cheesecake, sticky toffee pudding, hot cross bun, double chocolate chip, chocolate mint chip, strawberry, toffee fudge, sherry trifle, grandma's special (sweets perfect for kids), farmhouse vanilla, cookies and cream, liquorice... the list goes one. They also do sobets. As well as this huge selection you can buy cakes to take home, anything that's in the cake counter as well as homemade scones and cookies. It has a large outdoor area for kids to play with lots of toys and slides while adults can sit nearby in the sunshine watching the nearby cows and sheep in a field. The whole place just has a wonderful, friendly feel. Only caution I would suggest is if like me you don't have kids and like a bit of peace and quiet, either go early (before 12pm) on weekends and avoid on bank holiday Mondays as it gets very busy with families.

Went to the Northern Quarter Markets for a mooch around this afternoon and really enjoyed it. The…read moremarket is monthly and is run by the people behind the excellent Levenshulme market. The Northen Quarter market is on Stevenson Square and is quite small but all the stalls are selling good quality stuff and it's well worth a visit especially if you're a foodie or into vintage. There was an excellent handmade chocolate stall, a stall selling gourmet marshmallows, a place selling macaroons as well as cheese, vintage clothing, handmade jewellery and furniture stalls. The Soup Kitchen were also there with a Jamaican BBQ and there was a street food place selling wraps and sandwiches. A great way to spend a lazy Sunday.

The Northern Quarter market is great for a bit of browsing on a lazy Sunday. In the past I've…read morebought handmade single origin chocolate, crazy over-the-top cakes, and amazing pop-up gift cards.

Every second Sunday of the month, Mossley is bustling. The Farmers Market comes to town…read more Full of fresh meat from local places, this is a great way to stock up your fridge on the cheap and it is good quality meat. I will now tell you a secret. For what you pay here and what you get is fantastic. This is a great idea as well as a great find. Make sure you are early though as it does get really busy and take lots of bags to fill! Because you will fill them all!

Born from the genius and success of The Biospheric Project, 78 Steps is just around the corner…read more(well, 78 steps away) from the urban farming project which has taken Salford and Manchester by storm. The idea behind the shop is local food on a micro-scale, bringing the community in the area locally grown, ethically sourced and high quality produce. Stocking fresh fruit, veg & eggs from local farms, bread from the Barbakan deli in Chortlon and eco-friendly cupboard fillers from companies like Suma and Ecover, 78 Steps has a great range of British products, championing fresh local items and seasonal produce. As well at the shop itself, 78 Steps offer a Wholebox service, delivering fresh food to local people on a regular basis. Boxes start at as little as £5 and contain at least eight varieties of fruit and vegetables, making healthy eating cheap and accessible. Some of the fruits and vegetables have been grown at the Biospheric Project itself - just 78 steps away - making this a truly carbon efficient enterprise.

Like Ange,i'm going to also give the market 3 stars,but only because the number of stalls has…read moredrastically decreased as the months have gone on (Not the markets fault) and not because what is on offer isn't good,because it is. Last sunday we came home with some flavoured loose leaf tea,2 really nice malteaser chocolate cakes,a vanilla slice,a smoked cheese and onion pie and a really,really nice feta and spinach calzone (Had it last night and it really was lovely!!). And to our delight the hog roast was back! There is nothing like a pork and stuffing butty at half ten on a sunday morning! Really,there isn't.. Hopefully when winter is out of the way the stalls that have gone elsewhere may return and any updates I do will also see the number of stars increas too..

The first Sunday of every month brings a touch of glee to our lives as we look forward to a…read morehangover cure of juicy, succulent pig from the hog roast stall at Royton's food fayre followed by tastings galore of yummy delights and the purchase of pies, cakes, bread and anything else that grabs our fancy...that is, when we actually remember it's on! This weekend we remembered and lured by the chance to worship the sweet, sweet piggy meat and to stock up the fridge, we set off bright and early. Imagine our horror then as we arrived to find not only the lack of roast porcine in a bun, but a serious lack of stalls! Undaunted we wandered through the throngs (well maybe throngs is an exaggeration) of shoppers, stopping at every stall to oooh and aaah at the epicurean offerings. Amongst others we sampled cakes, chutneys and beer and made purchases of hummous (delicious and spiked generously with garlic and lemon), vanilla slices (heaven in an iced puff pastry shell), cherry strudel (Mr Z said yum!), prawn spring rolls (yet to be tried), bacon, leek and potato pie (tea tonight) and some haloumi ('slight' addiction to this) We could have bought more, believe me I would have purchased the whole cheese stall if we had the fridge room, and we could have tasted more, but we came away satisfied. I will recommend the black peas and ham though,(it's a Lancashire thing!) doused with vinegar and black pepper they warmed the cockles of my eternally hungry belly and kept me from mourning the lack of pork crackling on a unseasonally sunny Sunday.

Never before have i felt so conned by a company ever. I was…read moremade aware of this petting farm from my mum who had seen a deal on Groupon. I looked at the website and was met by a very professional website showing a world full of stuff to do................how wrong was i ? We didn't travel far, Oldham to Blackburn but still with todays petrol prices, wasted journeys like this end up very costly. We arrived on a cold tuesday half term afternoon and was met by a biggish farm with a couple of building. Our 1st problem was a lack of signage to find out where to pay to gain entrance. We spent a few mins walking through the farm and could have easily not bothered paying at all but like good honest citizen tried to find out to pay our way. We entered the Café and i asked sheeply "is this where i pay to get in" ? Yes was the answer and so after paying for x2 adults and a 3 year old i was £14.50 lighter. Now if you look a the website http://www.visitwellybobs.co.uk it a 1st glance looks like there are loads of areas to visit. WRONG The animals are in one building & there are about 5 animals to pet. At the end of the building there a few dirty plastic seats for the young ones to sit down and hold a rabbit. Thats about it. The Café was full of sand as there is sandpit located in there next to the so called "reptile house" We stayed for 20 mins and then left. Never been so disappointed. Will never again go here !

My wife and I took our brother, sister and niece as they were over from Hull visiting. We only live…read moreten minutes away but were shocked to find that we had paid nearly £30 for entry, expecting it to be a couple of pounds each to see about 5 animals (that we paid extra to feed) and she held a rabbit. The entrance road and overall appearance of the place is scruffy and unprofessional and the cafe / play area not much better. We left after 20-30 minutes and drove to a pub for lunch instead. I do hope that they have improved things as i like to see local businesses thriving and good on them for giving it a go but a lot of work needed to get their business model up to standard as it were. Good luck...(visited 2012)

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.