Well, I go to several, depending on my needs. I primarily go to farmers' markets under the LFM Association banner as they're organic and have better quality foods than most other markets(and are usually cheaper). They have a website which has a markets map and each market has directions on its own homepage showing you where to go(most of the bigger, more useful markets are held Saturdays and Sundays), with the more minor markets operating on Wednesdays. The biggest LFM farmer's market in London is the one at Marylebone every Sunday at 10am-2pm(actually in a car-park c.5 mins walk from Baker Street Station). Some stalls only turn up every 2 weeks,not every week, while other farms only appear during certain seasons)(Oh, and all LFM markets appear every week except around Easter and Christmas/New Year) - :-
http://www.lfm.org.uk/
http://www.lfm.org.uk/markets.asp
Marylebone farmers' market, the biggest one, only has one stall selling wild hare right now(on the left, the one near the fishmonger's) - it's not the right season, so you have to specifically make an order for it, for the next week. The fishmonger provides live lobsters if you pre-order from him. Another stall, on the right, Layer Marney(?) Farm, sells grassfed lamb and mutton(a better option than lamb), and, during the right season, not now, it sells things like wild mallard duck, goose eggs etc. Another stall sells water-buffalo meat etc. But do look around other LFM farmers' markets within your range as the farms change LFM markets every so often, and I've found some great places selling guinea-fowl and other exotic things you can't find in more conventional places. I've even seen one customer get an entire deer-carcass from one farmer at one stall in some farmers' market, due to a special order he made(God knows how the customer planned to store it, let alone cut it all up!). The key is to ask at the various stalls for a farm-leaflet containing an e-mail( or phone-number(phone-number is best re reaching them) ,and then phone to ask re availability and make an order which you can pick up at the next market at the same stall, or have delivered to your house direct.
You should also search online on Google for any grassfed beef/lamb/pig's farms in neighbouring UK counties next to London, and get them to send you a parcel of chilled meats/organ-meats direct to your address(the meats come with ice-packs and the usual delivery-charge is c.9 pounds sterling per package, irrespective of size). I get my raw suet/raw marrow delivered that way. Also, search online for things like saltmarsh-fed lamb or heather-fed lamb etc., or ask at the farmers' markets re availability.
There are also online, organic food directories for the UK such as the "Big Barn" one etc.
Also, have a look at the various ethnic markets in London. I've managed to get some tasty goatmeat from the Brixton market, for example.
(Don't bother to visit Borough market(London Bridge tube) as it's a tourist-trap and ridiculously over-priced - though, if money is no object, you can get hold of wild-boar meat, sharkmeat etc.- it's most active on the 3rd saturday of each month, but is quite active on the weekends - don't go during monday to thursday as there are far fewer stalls, there).
(usually, grassfed-meat websites don't show organ-meats, but some farmers will sell them if asked - unfortunately, due to retarded recent government measures, farmers have to pay not only a EU-sponsored vet-agency to inspect their animals prior to slaughter but they also have to pay the official UK government inspectors for doing much the same job, so they're loathe to sell organ-meats(which most people, being ignorant re health, don't want, anyway) as that would entail having to pay for extra time for the organ-meats to be inspected as well - Private Eye magazine is the only periodical raising this issue at the moment).
Here's a standard website for finding grassfed meats(many don't sell organ-meats, though, so you have to ask each one):-
http://www.seedsofhealth.co.uk/resources/meat/index.shtml
Geoff
"Every truth passes through three stages before it is recognised. In the first it is ridiculed, in the second it is opposed, and in the third it is regarded as self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer.
> London UK
>
----------------------------------------
> Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:56:02 +0100
> From: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Newbie Question - Organ Meats
> To: [log in to unmask]
>
> Geoff,
>
> Which farmers market do you go to?...
>
> You also mention local farmers raising grass-fed livestock who supply you with hearts and livers.
>
> I'm particularly interested in the 'wild-meats' you've mentioned.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dedy
> London UK
>
> From: Geoffrey Purcell To: [log in to unmask] Sent: Sunday, July 27, 2008 2:37 PM
>
>
> <
> One of my particular favourites is meats/wild-meats from wild animals. I get them from farmers' markets(NOT from expensive wild-game-butchers' shops), and they are incredibly cheap in the former. Here's an example of food-prices for wild meats in English pounds sterling(1 english pound equals 2 US dollars, approximately)(bear in mind that all prices for food in the UK tend to be much higher than in the US, at all levels):-
>
> 1 wild mallard duck (admittedly not much meat on it):- I get that for 4 UK pounds(8 US dollars). I would pay 15 to 20 pounds for a free-range duck fed on a 100% unhealthy(albeit organic) all-grain-based diet, which would have lots of unhealthy fat on it.
>
> 1 whole, wild-hare carcass(costs me anywhere from 7 to 12 pounds sterling, depending on which farmers' market I visit, usually it's 10 pounds). By contrast, I can pay up to 28 pounds for a kilo of grassfed beef(ie fillet-steak) - and the wild-hare tastes SO much better, by comparison.
>
> Farmers' markets are also ideal re getting hold of wildcaught raw seafood cheap fishmonger's. I can get things like whole, live lobster at 17 pounds, wildcaught crabs for 3 pounds per crab, extra-large oysters at 7 UK pounds for 10 of them, a huge bag of (150?/200?) live mussels) for 4 UK pounds etc.
>
> Geoff>>
>
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