To Market, to Market, to buy a fat pig… and um, some organic free trade coffee!

I love markets. In Trinidad the markets are a riot of smells (hot roasted peanuts, spices, hemp etc, coconut oil, incense) and colours (red gold and green) and haggling: “How much?”

“T’ree hunnerd and seventy-five dallah.”

“WHAT? So much for a shoes? Nah man!”

“OH LOOORD, sister, ah sorry ah t’ought you was American! For you, one twenty five. Hand made.”

“I have a hundred. They are beautiful.”

“Alright man. Look, these ones better quality. You playin‘ mas this year?”

But it seems to me, wherever I go, that the Market is the same. It’s special. Boscombe’s Market Days are Thursday and Saturday, and you can find things there that you wouldn’t get in the supermarket:

Local honey, delicious! And local jams, jellies and preserves. The last time I went to market I didn’t see the honey guy, I hope he comes back soon.

The Butcher, who entertains the crowd with descriptions of WHY his meat is better than everyone else’s meat. I have bought lamb and stuffed pork from him, and they were cheaper than elsewhere and delicious.

Wonderful hats are everywhere. Must! Resist! The hats!

The vegetables and fruit are reasonably priced, and if you go near the end of the day, they are marked down substantially.

Flowers! Only getting them home without bruising, while carrying your meat, veggies and wonderful hats, can be a challenge. One of the ladies selling flowers had a VERY loud voice, and could compete at any market in the world.

Second-hand book tables, ooooh, I love it. (Don’t get me started on the Borders Closedown. I am weeping.)

The cheese! Last week I bought goat’s feta which is VERY strong and salty, but I am addicted to it. Crumble this in salads and omelettes and on top of casseroles. I used some in a sauce, but should have used less. I also bought some scrumptious brie and Cranberry Wensleydale. Cheese makes life better.

Another thing I love about Boscombe Market Square is Café Boscanova! Sean and I were drawn there by their great menu; wooed by their yummy food (with numerous vegetarian options for this wannabe vegetarian), friendly staff and exciting interior design; and then their coffee made us both swoon with delight.

In Trinidad, we spend plenty of time in the mountain rainforest with some great friends who live there. Brasso Seco Village is stunningly beautiful. Our friend Carl is a knowledgeable rainforest guide, and researchers and enthusiasts pass through and stay regularly. They also grow, roast and hand-grind their own coffee, awesome after a long day‘s rainforest hiking. You can’t get REAL coffee like that anywhere else (or so we thought), and the couple of kilos that we brought to England in our suitcases have been long since drunk. We had been making do with whatever we could get at the supermarket here: nice, but not like home. And then we visited Boscanova Café, drank their coffee, and the heavens opened and angels sang.

I missed Market Day in Boscombe this week, and instead went into Bournemouth Square where there is a sort of permanent Christmas Market. I have been looking for some new Christmas Stockings for my kids, and I found some: cheaper than I had been willing to pay at around £10, three different, wacky, perfect-sized stockings with appliqué and jingly bells. There are stalls filled with decorations, much nicer than you'd get in the "Shops". I wish I could say that they are locally made, but I think not. There aren’t many craftspeople who can make it in this competitive world, and they would certainly be charging more than £10. How many of us are willing to pay more for locally handmade crafts, even when we’re getting a great market deal on lamb chops on the same day?

Going to Market gives us an opportunity to support local business, wherever in the world we are. So we are saving money, doing a good deed and helping the environment while we have fun; staggering home laden, with a bag of Boscanova's good-memory coffee tucked between our meat, veg and cheese and our poor bedraggled flowers.