MARKETS CELEBRATE ENGLISH APPLES

Portobello Road, famous for its fashion, antiques and atmosphere, is set to celebrate English apples at a special cooking demonstration on Friday 18 October.

Guest chef Oliver Rowe, from BBC’s Urban Chef series, will join forces with food entrepreneur Clippy McKenna to create a selection of mouth-watering dishes using seasonal traditional English apples - including some from the Brogdale Collections in Kent - which will be on sale at nearby stalls.

This is the fifth year that the Portobello and Golborne Road Markets have promoted English apples. It is part of an ongoing campaign to promote the markets’ fruit and vegetable stalls. This includes a Road Food demonstration on the third Friday of each month and Saturday sample tastings at select stalls.

While English apples are flavour of the month during October, November will have a very definite Middle Eastern and North African theme to coincide with the Royal Borough’s Nour festival of the arts and culture.

Cllr Tim Ahern, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “There is a great variety of fruit and vegetables available at Portobello and Golborne Markets and the Road Food demonstrations are an innovative way to promote seasonal food such as English apples. I want to encourage local residents to visit the markets often for food shopping and for inspiration. The value for money, freshness and quality of ingredients on offer is excellent.”

Road Food demonstrations take place on the third Friday of each month at a stall beside the Office shoe shop, 217 Portobello Road. If you have a suggestion for a theme email the Royal Borough’s Markets Office, street.trading@rbkc.gov.uk.

Saturday sample tastings are prepared by volunteer teams from local community organisations and catering colleges. The Markets Office is looking for groups interested in handing out recipe sheets and creating tasty sample dishes from ingredients grown in nearby community kitchen gardens and supplemented by fruit and vegetables bought from the markets and local shops. 

CAN YOU CREATE THIS AUTUMN’S FASHION LOOK?

Anyone with an interest in photography or fashion and who wants to create their own particular take on what could be fashionable for the coming autumn/winter season should get to Portobello and Golborne markets and start snapping.

The Portobello & Golborne Look Photo Challenge is now accepting entries from Londoners, locals and visitors alike who will use the markets as their catwalk and trawl the stalls and shops for inspiration to create a unique look for autumn/winter 2013.

The competition aims to celebrate the markets’ diverse and fun fashion tradition.

Cllr Tim Ahern, Cabinet Member for the Environment, said: “The markets have long been a source of fashion inspiration and the competition draws on this tradition. We want entrants to use the markets, visitors, stalls and shops and to come up with a unique look for the coming season.”

To enter to competition you can design your look from markets’ sourced materials or find a suitable fashionable muse and photograph him or her and submit it to the ‘Autumn/Winter Look 2013’ Flickr group by midnight on Sunday 25 August. Email street.markets@rbkc.gov.uk for more details.

The shortlisted photos will be displayed at flash fashion event on Saturday

7 September. Members of the public will be able to vote for their favourite entry between 10am and 2.30pm before the winner and runners-up are announced at 3pm.

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LOVE YOUR LOCAL MARKET 2013- THE BIGGEST MARKET EVENT EVER

Well the sun did not shine at the launch of LYLM 2013, but in every other respect the day was an outstanding success. 662 markets registered to take part, with around 3,500 market events spread over the fortnight of the campaign. This is the biggest nationwide celebration of markets that has taken place and the markets industry should be proud of its achievement.Prior to the launch on the 15th May we had a high profile Parliamentary Reception on the 30th April which gave us the opportunity to bring markets to Westminster. Despite the disappointment of Parliament having risen, prior to the Queen’s Speech, there was still a good attendance of MPs and representatives of all sectors of the markets industry. The Reception was hosted by Ann Coffey MP, Chairman of the All Party Parliamentary Markets Group, and addressed by DCLG Minister Mark Prisk, Councillor Geraldine Carter, Nabma President and Steve Pickering of Warrington Market. Nabma is indebted to one of our sponsors, Zapp Canopies, for creating a real markets atmosphere with a market stall which showcased a fantastic cake of Westminster with a market operating within its precincts. Alison Roberts from Warrington, who created the cake, received many plaudits for her work.Mark Prisk was also in attendance at Portobello and Golborne Road Market at the launch of LYLM 2013. Kensington and Chelsea had certainly worked hard to provide a great send off for this year’s campaign and they are hoping to attract 300 new traders during the fortnight of the campaign. Councillor Paget-Browns of Kensington and Chelsea welcomed everyone to the launch event and Mark Prisk congratulated the markets industry on providing opportunities for new entrepreneurs and building on the success of last year’s campaign. Award presentations were made to young traders and it great to see local schools and colleges in attendance and trying market trading for the first time.Nabma is very grateful for government support for LYLM 2013 and it is clear that officials at DCLG have caught the markets “bug” because they have plans to hold a market at Eland House, DCLG Headquarters, on the 23rd May. This promises to be one of the highlights of the fortnight.Last year we had around 400 markets taking part in LYLM 2012, so you can see that we have really worked hard to get more markets involved. According to a recent survey we have undertaken, around 30% of the markets joining have done so because of their engagement through social media.There is clearly a lesson here for the future and Nabma intends to place social media at the heart of its communications in future.During LYLM 2013 there will be lots of new ideas and initiatives introduced, but one of the most exciting projects that Nabma is looking to launch is a UK Markets Footfall Index. Last year we were able to report that LYLM made a significant difference to footfall in towns where LYLM was celebrated. In these towns footfall was up on an average of 10%. With the help of PFM and ROI we will be introducing a UK Markets Footfall Index. Initially it will operate on a trial basis for six months, but Nabma is hoping that it will be come a permanent feature of the markets industry.Nabma will also be evaluating the success of LYLM 2013. It is important we consider whether we have learnt the lessons from last year. It is hoped that the evaluation report will be available for our Annual Conference in September.It is too soon to make an announcement about 2014, but we are hopeful that we will be holding LYLM again. With this in mind Nabma is looking to appoint a LYLM Manager on a permanent basis to ensure continuance of the social media engagement and provide ongoing contact with the markets we have attracted to the current campaign.Nabma is indebted to the support of Ann Coffey MP, who has led the All Party Parliamentary Markets Group with great enthusiasm for a number of years, and to mark the beginning of LYLM 2013 Ann put down an Early Day Motion inviting members to congratulate the markets industry on its achievements and also urging MPs to visit their local markets. Nabma would ask all readers of MTN to urge their MPs to support this EDM.Next month more news from LYLM 2013 and also information about Nabma’s forthcoming Annual Conference.Graham Wilson OBEChief ExecutiveNabma

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Email: nabma@nabma.com