Families flock to inaugural Arran farmers’ market

The Arran Farmers’ Market held at Bellevue Farm last Sunday was a knockout success and exceeded all expectations with hundreds of visitors flocking to the event.

The indoor market proved so popular that many stallholders eventually sold out of produce owing to the overwhelming demand.

The inaugural market was a joint initiative between a number of food, drink and farm organisations, including the Blackwaterfoot farm hosts, Arran’s Food Journey, Arran Eco Savvy and Scottish Food and Drink.

Visitors were treated to a full farm experience from farm tours and meeting the various animals to having a look at the tractors on display and sampling the products from various island producers and farmers.

In a large shed, where long queues formed throughout the day, visitors were able to meet more than 20 Arran producers and purchase their products.

These included a number of large well-known organisations as well as some smaller lesser-known names that offered specialty products.

After browsing the stalls visitors could purchase food from the French Fox van which was incredibly popular with families who enjoyed their food outside on benches and grassy patches.

On offer too was an opportunity to visit the Kilpatrick Community Garden which is part of the Arran Pioneer project which turns unused land into productive gardens where volunteers grow fruit and vegetables.

The land was made available by Donald and Ailsa Currie of Bellevue Farm and despite only starting earlier this year, it is already producing a harvest for volunteers and those wanting farm-fresh fruit and vegetables.

Visitors who went to have a look at the community garden were able to dig up their own potatoes and to take home some free vegetables, fruit and berries from that garden, as well as from the various other

community farms around Arran.

Ailsa Currie of Bellevue Farm said: ‘What an amazing day we had at the Farmers Market.

‘A massive thank you to everyone who helped organise the event, all the volunteers who helped on the day, the wonderful stall holders and to everyone who came along and made the day such a success.

‘We can’t wait till the next one!’

01_B37Farm08 Right: Ealána Boyle and Kitty Poynter-Dalton from Crofters Larder.

01_B37Farm06 Steven and Katharine Sparshott of Seagate Brewery.

01_B37Farm04 Calum Chaplin and Alison McKie of the Arran Cheese Shop.

01_B37Farm10 Michelle Te Ohaere, Hannah Dobson and Kirsty McQueen of Arran Milk/Ice Cream.

01_B37Farm09 Above: Attracting a huge amount of interest was Lynn’s Art on Arran which uses natural wool from Arran’s farms.

01_B37Farm05 Andy and Leslie Walker of Arran Bee Products.

01_B37Farm07 01_B37Farm03 01_B37Farm12 Left: Veronica Michaluk and Chris Bowen from the Arran Brewery. Sofia Pantazidou and Alix Hitching from the Arran Coffee Company. Left: Amy Tattersfield of mange du gateau sold a number of sweet treats and tempting cakes.

01_B37Farm14 and 01_B37Farm13 (inset) Above: Ailsa Currie of Bellevue Farm with the baby alpaca and its mother Granada.

01_B37Farm01 Long queues of people wait their turn to visit the farmers’ market.

01_B37Farm11 Cameron Bruce of Arran’s Food Journey helped to organise the event and secured funding from Scottish Food and Drink.

01_B37Farm02 Left: Simon Ross Gill and Pauline and Bill Robinson took visitors on a tour of the Kilpatrick Community Garden.

01_B37Farm15 Above: Hard at work directing traffic, and assisting wherever they could, was Donald and Donald Currie Jnr of Bellevue Farm.