There are treats and delicacies to be found in the SWF Market

A new market venture

A weekly market has started up in the square beside the Oakland Hotel. The owners of the hotel have very kindly offered stallholders pitches at only £10 each to help get the market going and it would be really good to encourage a few more business to come. Sadly, the residents of South Woodham prefer convenience to shopping around and the market has never really established.

• Opening times: 9:00am - 3:00 pm

Obviously, South Woodham residents will vote with their feet so it would be useful to know what people actually want to see there. A quality cheese seller would be welcome, as would organic egg sellers, fresh fruit and vegetable stalls that sell by the kilo and pack in paper bags to reduce the use of plastic. It also offers a good opportunity for hobbyists such as craft makers who could sell their creations. There are plenty of people who like to make hand-made items such as jewellery, shopping bags, artificial flower arrangements and so on. They could perhaps get together to run a weekly craft stall.

Food tasting

Some of the food traders have samples of their foods to taste. Come early to make sure that it has not all gone.

A few of the current stalls on offer:

A fish stall

Fresh fish stall with a good selection of fish and seafood; salmon, cod, haddock and lots of other white fish from Billingsgate Market.

A Giggly Pig stall selling sausages, baby back ribs, burgers and other products straight fom the farm.

A farmer's market delicatessen type of stall with organic bread and all kinds of fabulous breads and home-made cakes, high quality Greek olives, huge delicious samosas, pork pies and more.

A chutney stall

Jars of chutney of various flavours that would go well with Giggly Pork sausages, a pork pie or some of the items from the delicatessen stall.

A cake stall

Selling cup cakes and slices

A sweet stall

This has a good variety of old-fashioned sweets and interesting confectionary such as slabs of liquorice toffee or coconut ice bars.

Plants for the garden stall

A good selection of shrubs and bedding plants

Avon Stall

How to buy Avon products without having to invite the seller in for a cup of tea.

Pet food stall

This stall sells all kinds of products for dogs and other pets. The 'postman's legs' seem to be a popular choice.

Various other stalls. Come down on a Thursday to see the rest and try sampling some of the food.

Monthly Farmer's Market

A farmer's market will also take place on the 4th Sunday of every month.