Country pub wins new customers with farmers markets

A rural pub is winning new customers by hosting regular farmers' markets in its beer garden.

Hundreds of local people and tourists turned out to the first event at the Three Crowns in Ullingswick, Herefordshire in July. Licensee Brent Castle is now hosting a second market for Hereford Farmers' Market Group on September 30.

The new market will feature more than 20 stalls, including cheesemakers, chocolate makers, organic brewers, honey, hand made scotch eggs, cider and perry, butchers, fresh produce and plants.

Brent will run his own bread stall, featuring handmade breads he usually sells at the pub and distributes throughout the village.

The licensee, whose wife Rachel is an ex-farmer, said reaction to the first event has been "remarkable".

"It's just good business sense as it promoted the pub to a wider audience than we would normally reach," he said. "A lot of tourists came and it's very difficult to walk into a pub garden, see all this food and not stop for a bite to eat."

The new event is being promoted via road signs, in the local press and at the nearby Ludlow Festival which ran this weekend (September 8-10).

Brent believes there is enough interest in the market for it to become a regular event, running two or three times a year.

The pub is a keen supporter of the Fair Food Foundation's What's on Your Plate? campaign, which is aimed at getting pubs and restaurants to use local produce and provide customers with information on the origins of their food.

Foundation chairman Mark Austen said: "Brent shows how the simple idea of cultivating local suppliers and providing fresh food properly cooked translates into superior commercial success."