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Catch up on the latest Made in Kent episode with Alia Pritchard
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00:15Hello and welcome to Made in Kent live on KMTV. This is the show highlighting everything about
00:22local makers and producers from all across the county. I'm Alia Pritchard and this week we are
00:28exploring the county's local markets. First, our reporter Christopher Hardz travelled to
00:34Faversham's High Street which hosts the oldest market in the county. Let's see who we meet.
00:40The Faversham Charter Market is a historic part of the city and has consistently served as a
00:46traditional marketplace for over 1,000 years. We attended to find out what it's like for
00:51storeholder and customer today. Faversham is the oldest market in Kent. It's mentioned in the
00:57doomsday book. King Henry VIII, the year before he died, gave Faversham a Royal Charter which said
01:02that a market will be held three days a week and it is and 500 years later it still is.
01:08Markets have
01:08changed quite a bit over the last 10 years and you've now got a proliferation of artisan markets
01:14and farmers markets but Faversham continues to be very much a traditional market. You know here today
01:20we've got fish, fruits, we've even got a publisher would you believe. It's an extremely eclectic mix
01:27that we get here. I used to work in fashion. I was a fashion designer and garment technologies for kids.
01:33I didn't see myself having my own business and do markets or anything like that. It just basically came,
01:41maybe it was destiny. I wanted to make something for my daughter actually and I made it for
01:48neighbours and made more and more and more and yeah and then it kind of took off from there. I
01:54do a few
01:54deliveries around the area and I do the market and it's really lovely. We asked about the new
01:59experiences and challenges they faced as storeholders. It's quite nice actually because the balance of
02:05you know having some time at home with my daughter and my family and studies it's nice. It's a nice
02:11balance, a nice work-life balance. I always love the vibe of the market. I love like especially now
02:15where I do the weekday markets because I meet a lot of customers that I see week on week. I
02:22have
02:22been coming here I think every more is every time since Haley arrived. It's lovely to see you know it's
02:28nice to see the people you know each time. It just makes the shopping a little bit nicer. You know
02:33we
02:33build a rapport and I know about their life and about them and it's just really nice. If I see
02:39challenging because I'm on my own so I'm one woman who does everything. I do the loading, the unloading,
02:47I set up, I go to places. I have to be the accountant, the photographer, the media, everything so that
02:54that's a bit like this but that's come with having a business. You need a great deal of passion to
03:00do
03:00this kind of job. At the end of the day we spend our day our life working. I always thought
03:06at least for
03:07myself I would rather do something that I love rather than to be miserable in something that I
03:12don't like. Christopher Hart for KMTV. Now moving to a market indoors the Goodshed in Canterbury which
03:21has produced and sold a variety of fresh food to the city for 20 years also hosts an addition not
03:27found in every market out there. Jay Blakesley took a look inside to find out more. I headed down to
03:33the
03:33Goodshed in Canterbury to understand how the fresh produce trade works and
03:37also to get a sense of the community around it. My business is Patreon limited which was started in
03:442005 with the aim to import products from France and Spain initially but now we have Italian products as well.
03:53So we mostly import direct or get through specialist distributors. The challenges are
03:59a lot of people. None. It's just an amazing place you get to interact with wonderful customers, chat to little
04:10children, sell fine foods and wine and cheese. It's basically undoing my hobby. It's not work if you love it.
04:17So yeah. It's quite unique. First of all the building's unique as you probably know. It's an old Victorian building.
04:24It used to belong to the station.
04:25Behind you is where the old steam engines used to come into that big door there.
04:29There's still a railway line that goes on underneath. It was completely derelict apparently and it was transformed by the
04:35Atkins family 25 years ago.
04:37They put a new roof on which won a design award and they started off as a farmers market and
04:42restaurant and it's just
04:45changed over the years and developed and improved.
04:49I'm one of the originals but many of the people here have been here some time.
04:53A unique feature about this market is that it has its own restaurant. We spoke to the head chef to
04:59hear more about it.
05:00We work from the market so the market very much drives what we do and every day the menu changes
05:06based
05:07on the availability of the market and we chalk it up on the on the board and we're very very
05:15dynamic in
05:15the way that we construct the menu. It's based solely on what's available downstairs. Yeah it's quite unique.
05:22We get a real melting pot of people coming through. Certainly in the summer there's a whole slew of
05:30people who come from the train station but you know this time of year we're maintained by a lot of
05:36regulars and locals. We know our products. People can ask questions. We're specialists in what we do
05:43but we get on very well as well so that helps. We help each other. Jay Blakeslee for KMTV.
05:52Now let's take a moment to delve into the health benefits of fresh produce, Kent's unique climate
05:58and geography for farming and the popularity of the county's market scene for this week's Deep Dive.
06:10Today I'm joined by Lottie Mason on the sofa with me today. So Lottie what is the significance of buying
06:16local? Okay so as we know food imported from abroad carries a significantly higher carbon footprint so
06:23actually the environment sorry the environmental impact we can have by shopping locally can't really
06:29be ignored. Figures from Kent County Council report that in 2019 there were over 2400 food and drink
06:36production enterprises throughout Kent and this grew even post Covid by 3.7 percent over the following years.
06:44And what has our county in particular got to offer? Well you'll be interested to know that Henry VIII
06:50actually helmed Kent as the garden of England even way back in the 16th century due to Kent's
06:56agricultural fertility abundance of orchards and of course hop gardens. According to the Kent Farmers
07:02Market Association we also host 26 percent of all land growing vines for wine in the UK. Well this leads
07:10to a gem of a drinks industry with a growing presence of distilleries, wineries and of course microbreweries.
07:17Of course environmental factors such as the geography and climate of Kent is very similar to France.
07:22So vineyards can capitalise on their locations offering tours, experiences, opening shops and food venues
07:29eventually as well. In terms of actual markets 900 are run every year and they can attract a whopping 180
07:39,000
07:39plus visitors. Additionally 400 plus local food and drink producers attend these markets as well as 150 craft makers.
07:49So you spoke about craft sellers there, what do you think attracts people to markets that sell
07:54not only fresh produce but handmade creations too? Well I think it's an element of uniqueness to be
08:01completely honest that high street chains just don't have. Whether it be a piece of art, a print,
08:08sculpture or clothing, market sellers are usually independent. This feels like it could be a better
08:15value for money in the long run if you meet an artist or a supplier in person rather than just
08:20picking something off a shelf in a supermarket or just a high street shop. And lastly artisan markets
08:26feel special and more of an occasion and a day out as some of them are only like even there
08:31on
08:31selective days of the week or month. Brilliant, thank you so much Lottie.
08:43Well speaking of craft markets, let's head down to Whitstable Harbour Market with our reporter Joel Fletcher.
08:50Tucked along Kent's coastline you can find Whitstable's Harbour Market that is home to an array of craft, food and
08:56trinket stools.
08:57I headed down to the Whitstable market today to get some insight from the stall owners themselves.
09:03I've been down here for about four years on and off. Markets in general about 30 years. I'm doing
09:09the hobby for over 45 so I do carved belts, carved seats, bags, wallets, pouches, key rings all sorts.
09:20I sell and make aprons, makeup bags, cards, tea towels everything is cut out and embroidered by me
09:28and then I sew everything up down here. I've been here I think 19 years and I had a shop
09:36in town
09:3835 years. Well the shop is kites and things so a large part of my sales are kites and of
09:47course the
09:47are half of things. I invite people to come and ask if they don't see anything in particular
09:53that they would want to come and ask me because I always do personalised items
09:59and I get ideas from that. I taught textiles for 28 years and I decided to give that up and
10:08turn my
10:08hand to do something that I enjoyed and to sell what I make. Things I make myself are some of
10:15the
10:16leather bracelets, cotton bracelets, belts and I assemble a lot of the coconut tortoises and get
10:25their heads nodding nicely. I enjoy very much being here talking to people and selling things.
10:32After talking to some of the sellers I wanted to know the challenges that they may face running a
10:36market stall outdoors compared to a traditional high street shop. It's managing the crowds, managing
10:41expectations, making sure that everyone's covered and also while making sure everyone's okay despite
10:47the weather. The weather. I'm almost completely weather dependent. If it's a lovely day there's
10:56people and I take money. If it's horrible weather who wants to be in Whistable harbour when he's chucking
11:03it down with rain in Greenbury. The weather. Currently we've had quite a lot of rain and that does
11:11tend to put people off but when it's dry people will come out and have a wander around which will
11:15come and find us which is great. Joel Fletcher for KMTV. Well that's all we have time for on Made
11:23in Kent
11:23live here on KMTV. There's more nude made just for Kent here on KMTV throughout the rest of the evening
11:29and don't forget you can always keep up to date with the latest news across your county by logging
11:33on to kmtv.co.uk. Well thank you and we'll see you next week for Made in Kent.
12:01You
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