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This month we visit the most westerly Farmers’ Market in Oxfordshire – a charming village overlooked by the Vale’s famous White Horse.Μύ Shrivenham is right on the Oxfordshire / Wiltshire border and its Farmers’ Market is a relatively new addition to the local shopping calendar, celebrating its 3rd birthday in November last year.

It’s unusual in that it runs in the afternoon from 3-6pm on the first Friday of the month, at Shrivenham Memorial Hall.Μύ "Small, but perfectly formed," is how Market Manager Suzanne Crafer describes the market. "It’s finding what works for the local community – and that doesn’t happen overnight!"

Wantage MP Ed Vaizey at the market

"The Farmer’s Market offers all the basics – a selection of all the meats, vegetables, bread and pastries, jams and preserves, herbs and plants, and also speciality food. There’s a local chocolatier, a selection of English cheeses brought along by a local deli, and local wine and beer is available every three months. All our producers are very local; the majority travel no more than 5 miles and the furthest just 17 miles to attend the market."

Catch some of Suzanne's recipes below...

Onion Pie

Depending on how good you are at pastry making, you can either make some shortcrust pastry or even a pizza dough base, or buy a packet of ready-made pastry.

750 g Onions
Peel, cut in half and then slice
250 g smoked bacon
(Bacon offcuts are best for this - preferably from Jane at Dews Meadow!) If you need to, cut the pieces / slices into about 1cm cubes and fry for about 3 minutes
50g butter
Add this to the bacon, allow it to melt and then add the onions and fry them gently until they are clear.Μύ Remove from the pan and allow to cool
32 cm cake tin
Grease and line with the pastry
3 eggs
Lightly beat in a bowl
ΒΌ litre of sour cream
Add to the beaten egg mixture
Salt
Add salt to taste
1 teaspoon Caraway Seed
Again this is to taste – you could add more if you like, perhaps the first time you make it just add 1 teaspoon and see how you like it before adding any more.
Pour the beaten egg, cream and caraway mixture over the onion and bacon mixture and stir well.Μύ Then pour into the cake tin.
Bake
Place on the middle shelf of a pre-heated oven and bake at 220Β°C (180Β°C if you have a fan oven) for approximately 40 minutes.

You can either eat this hot or cold, personally, I prefer to let it cool and then refrigerate overnight and have with some green salad or coleslaw.

Ginger & Rhubarb Puddings

100g Rhubarb, trimmed and cut into 3cm pieces
1 stem ginger ball and 4tbsp of its syrup
100g butter
100g caster sugar
100g self-raising flour
ΒΌ tsp baking powder
Β½ tbsp ground ginger
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 medium orange – grated zest & juice

4 x 150 ml dariole moulds / ramekins / individual pudding basins

1. Butter / grease the moulds and pour 1 tbsp of the stem ginger syrup into each mould, topping with the rhubarb pieces.
2. Cream together the butter and sugar.Μύ Add the eggs, beating in gently.Μύ Sift in the flour, baking powder and ground ginger and fold in with the grated zest and juice of the orange until you have a smooth thick batter. Weigh all the other ingredients into a food processor and mix to a thick batter.
3. Divide into the batter into the moulds, cover them with foil and steam over a medium heat for 40 mins.
4. Remove and allow to stand for 2 minutes before turning out.
5. Serve with vanilla custard or crème frâiche.