THE lockdown ends next week and hopefully our area will be in Tier 1 or 2 and life for food producers can return to something like normal although we must keep on with the safety measures, no one wants Covid gift wrapped in a sneeze for Christmas.

Kendal Farmers Market is on as usual this week and our Christmas market will be the Friday before Christmas, the 18th December, and as it appears we may be able to have three families joining together food will be in demand so please order your food and essentials early. Our Christmas beef will be off to the abattoir this week to allow it to mature for the festive week and lambs will go in a fortnight. I had an order last year for four oxtails on the 19th December, sadly one order I couldn’t deliver.

This whole Covid situation does bring the best out of some things. Orton Village Hall and toilets were closed to the Farmers Market in November and with only 10 days notice we followed up a customer’s suggestion to move to Shap Village Hall and car park. They bent over backwards to accommodate us and although their hall was shut and only essential stalls could attend we had a very busy day. Our usual craft and charity stalls were not allowed but surprisingly the soap stall was not deemed essential, strange when my hands have never been so clean.

I must thank Shap Parish Council for helping us out at such short notice and for their help with advertising the event with posters and roadside reminders and for ensuring the car park was empty for us. We had a police presence for most of the day and a visit from our local Environmental Health officer and they commended us on how well the market was run with a one way system, hand washing points and our own Covid Marshall. We have been invited back for the Christmas Market on December 12 and so long as there are no more restrictions I hope we will be there.