COMBER FARMERS MARKET.
Comber is important to me, OK... I'm only a blow in, but now it's my home town, I can't claim ancestry going back to the year dot,.. now it's MY community and I want it to succeed

Many other enterprises are almost irrelevant when considering the needs of any local community. Mr Phil Buckley came up with the idea of a Farmers Market which needs "Community Help" (mutual back scratching) we should rally round and support it. The market started on Thursday the 19th June 2008 and will be held thereafter at 9 am to about 3 pm.
Anyone wishing to set up a stall or just simply trade should contact:- Mr Phil Buckley, by telephone on 07835 605 216
or alternatively by writing to 31 Pascali Drive, Newtownards, Co Down BT23 4BE.
In the meantime why not visit the web page at:-   The Farmers Market   ....But not untill you have read this.
A community or Farmers Market is based upon the inter exchange of locally produced food and other basic commodities of living. The Farmers Market is one such enterprise that meets local needs. As we go into an uncertain future with the prospect of higher fuel costs and ever increasing costs of basic essentials such as our daily bread and the food on our tables. Phil and his idea forms part of the basic structure of the very existence of a community.
I honestly believe St Mary's can give that much needed impetus in making Comber a real community with a heart situated in the "Farmers Market" of St Mary's Comber. Incidentally a market is known in these parts as a merkat if you still use the old Ulster-Scot tongue.

Please read these words of a doddering o'l ful' .
Adrian

                In this day and age with soaring fuel costs and the environmental damage caused by shifting produce over a long distance could be classed as carbon profligate. The closer we can get to environmental sustainability the better for all within the local area. The reduction of transport costs and it's associated pollution, not forgetting the great reduction in unnecessary packaging which just goes to waste, can only be a good thing.

We are not re-inventing the past St. Mary's, which has for 800 years been at the heart of the Comber, but simply establishing a necessary method of supplying local food and other essentials to local people. Farmers have bought, sold and bartered goods since time immemorial so why should Comber be any different.? In such a market the farmers can chat to one another and end some of the isolation of working alone on remote farms.

This community needs to adopt a radical new way to buy and sell our food. Comber had a very successful market years ago but because of big combines ( Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda ) moving into the high streets the market gradually fell into disuse.
One thing which galls me is looking at fruit and vegetables on supermarket shelves, every fruit conforms to a uniform shape, size and colour, all equally without flavour. Nothing appears on a big supermarket shelf unless its perfect ... just think ,what happens to the food which does not comply with the prettiness test, its dumped.

We are not re-inventing the past but simply establishing a necessary method of supplying local food and other essentials to local people. Once people are aware this market exists there is no doubt that it will prosper and bring benefit to Comber. These things take time by word of mouth and recommendation but with the advent of the Internet things should happen faster than in the past.

Long established markets reap the benefits of local farmers bringing their produce and selling it directly to the local people. Comber is a distinct region and famous for the quality and variety of its farm and agricultural produce. There are several small producers of organic food and when they come aboard they will add to the variety of local goods on offer. There is nothing to beat the flavour of fresh vegetables and their crispness having been pulled from the soil that morning. It can also be argued that fresh and organic produce has health benefits. We all know organic production using no herbicide or pesticides which improves the bio-diversity of wildlife. The spin off being that such food must be better for those eating the finished uncontaminated product. Already we have honey and other products made from local bees. There is a superb fish stall with for a wide variety of fish all of which is in tip top condition.

Small producers can sell their products from their car boots and a portable table there is no need to get a special covered stall to start off. In reality it is the very small independent producer that should prosper the most from a thriving local market. Every producer regardless of how small or specialised can find an outlet in a local market. The greater the variety the greater the synergy which is essential for the development of a thriving market. This is an instance of Comber putting the "Green" back into food production.

Fancy stalls can come later once they find that joining Comber Farmers Market has been advantageous to them, as it will certainly be. Fresh seasonal produce and freshly baked bread, pots of jam (preserves) always attracts the hungry and canny shopper. The home baker with her fresh scones and lemon drizzle cake can find a useful bit of extra income. Bacon and ham from rare breeds of pig, fresh hen and duck eggs would be a welcome addition.

The farmers market is the place for both consumer and producer to get to know each other, most probably already do but its nice for them to meet face to face. There is no need to worry about local shops suffering from the competition they will almost certainly benefit especially if they take the option of a stall. There is no doubt as the reputation of the market grows and more people learn of the excellent quality of produce and reasonable prices the numbers will increase. These markets form the heart of the community and the sooner we get established the better, as we do not yet know just how much more imported food is going to cost.

We are at the beginning of a revolution where we need to think carefully about how our food is produced and transported, the fewer miles the better. Such markets are becoming more popular within Great Britain and Ireland, therefore we should rally round and establish Combers before the big boys move in and take over. "A Comber Market for Comber people". Next time you are out driving or better still walking, just take a look at the wide range of high quality produce growing in our fields. Why should we buy them from supermarkets, they may not be from Comber but from thousands of miles away.

Once trust is established between farmer and consumer the sky is the limit. There are many skills that our local population possesses and a local Market is the best way of encouraging them to sell their speciality goods without a cut being creamed off by a "middle man." The producer will obviously get a better price for his goods and the purchaser gets what he wants at a lower cost eliminating the middle man together with the benefit of freshness and quality. Because the producer has face to face contact with the consumer the feedback is invaluable in improving the product to the benefit of both. It is best if the person selling the goods has made, cooked or grown them from the beginning.

LASTLY THE GHASTLY
One very important reason for establishing a farmers market is the possibility of a national or world-wide emergency. Such an emergency can take many forms such as war, a dangerous contagious disease, or a fuel shortage. A pandemic disease is one which occurs on a global scale by having a local food supply line in place can ameliorate many of the associated problems of transporting food over a long distance.
Approximately every 30 years an influenza pandemic outbreak occurs causing major disruption. This probably represents one of the gravest threats to the food supply chain and other business operations. During the last flu pandemic of 1968 more than a million people died world-wide. There is the distinct possibility that a disease pandemic of any sort could last for several years.

In my humble view we cannot leave the establishment of a survival system in the hands of local politicians alone. In an emergency "every man for himself" is another route to disaster. An established co-operative of locals working together over a period of time will have an efficient local system for food distribution already in place which may be the means of our very survival. There is always the possibility that a cordon sanitaire could be thrown round a community in an attempt to limit a disease and it is only through local knowledge that such a cordon could be made to work efficiently to the detriment of none.
 
Well there it is, .. I've had my say, just don't have nightmares thinking about these things. If you have any feedback then get in contact and I'll throw the discussion open.
 
  WHAT THE RECTOR SAID
The new Comber Farmers Market will begin trading in the church car park next Thursday morning 19th June. Organised by Mr Phil Buckley, well known in Ards market trading scene, it is hoped the new market will be beneficial to both Comber and the traders. Comber was well known "recently" in Co Down for its weekly market for more than two centuries. But the market died early in the last century with the with the advent of shops in the expanding town of Newtownards and the rapid development of the City of Belfast,. So it's back to the future!

With the growth of interest in good, wholesome cooking, using locally sourced ingredients from Co Down of the best possible quality, there is now a real opening for organic farmers and vegetable growers. Provided that local people with energy and expertise can gain the opportunities to promote their products, and provided the public can access keenly priced good food easily, there is a niche market.

Once again a weekly market in Comber is the chance to bring the town alive with people. Apart from the market, there are local shops all within easy reach and there are excellent places to eat in Comber Square, before you go further into the town.

Hosting a weekly market in the church's car park is no different to running the Christmas Fair in the car park, or a car boot sale! Churches traditionally are naturally very quick to use their own facilities for their fund raising. The weekly rental the Market will pay to St Mary's will enable the Select Vestry to upgrade the car park facilities sooner than had been hoped.

The church is a Cistercian foundation. Having their origin in the Benedictine Order, around the year 1200 AD the Cistercians will have sailed across the Irish Sea into Strangford Lough, probably via the Isle of Man. Quite possibly like the Vikings who gave the "strang fiord" its name, the Cistercians were caught in the flood tide and were swept through the narrows and up into the Lough. Finding a place of fertile ground at the confluence of two rivers, the Enler and the Glen, "comar" in the Irish, hence Comber, they founded their Abby dedicated, according to their custom, to the Blessed Virgin. St Mary's it was, and to this very day on the same site.

The Abbey community of monks needed food. With the same rivers beside them they had access to the fish in the lough. They needed people to till the fertile ground and grow crops. They will have grown flax. Hence some centuries later the linen industry took off in these parts. They grew barley not just for baking, but for distilling the water of life - or whiskey as we call it. Again, a plentiful supply of fresh water was essential. The whiskey was used, not just for refreshment, but almost certainly primarily as a disinfectant and sterilising agent in primitive surgery. In the same way the flax led in time to linen, so too we may trace the two Comber distilleries of the 19th century back to the Cistercians. That is where the skill will have originated.

And the Comber Market is something else we can trace back to the Cistercians of the 13th century! The religious community needed people. It attracted people and the Abbey, at the centre of the new, emerging community, will naturally have been the centre of trading in local produce. Old Comber will have been no different at the time from any similar town across the water and in Europe.

St Mary's is the church at the heart of the town. According to our heritage and tradition we must always be a church with the town at our heart. Hosting the new Comber Farmers' Market in the church car park on the 19th June and every Thursday thereafter, is simply the old tradition coming alive again in a way that to us is very new.