I got a bit carried away and scooped up large quantities of goodies.

Including this hoooge cauli

Which handily has a radiator in the background to allow you to assess the scale of its hoooge-ness

For the record I also bought:

12 rashers of smokey bacon

3 types of sausage (4 of each)

2 pork chops

2 pieces of ribeye

2 lamb chops

1 lamb breast

1 lamb neck fillet

1 piece of pork belly

1 fillet smoked haddock

the hoooge cauli

beetroot

kohlrabi

potatoes

rainbow chard

a squash

pippin apples

raspberries

apple and ginger juice

3 quiches

1 slice of poppyseed cake

dozen eggs

ticklemore cheese

berkswell cheese

single gloucester cheese

cumin gouda

Then I staggered home….

This is one.

When I first lived in Wanstead I thought it was nice as in the adjective, rather than Nice as in the place in France

Either way their croissants are flippin nice.

The one above is a cheese and ham…done properly with bechamel mmmm.

Find them here:

Nice Croissant, 119A High Street, Wanstead, E11 2RL

Don’t be put off by its lack of shiny newness its the real deal.

Wanstead Park happens to be down the road from me and it has lovely bluebell woods.

Its also pretty clear on the bluebell code to protect the species.

Which I think is a good thing.

A little haven between the roar of the North Circular and the A102M.

So I went for a walk round near where I live.

I always forget what a leafy part of London it is.

En route I passed the two parish churches.

The one on the left is St Mary’s built in 1787 to a classical design by Thomas Hardwick. It is grade 1 listed an has a virtually unaltered interior it is close to the site of the medieval parish church which was demolished.

The one on the right is Christ Church built after Wanstead became popular in the mid Victorian era with the building of what is now the Epping branch of the central line. The church was designed by George Gilbert Scott in the gothic style. It was built and expanded over the period 1860-1889.

I love church architecture, but I have yet to go inside either of these lovely buildings.

It’s once a month and been going for just over a year. I go pretty much every month.

Today one of the things I got was some eggs.

They were called mis-shapes. So they were only £1.40 a dozen.

The man said its mostly because they are not brown and most people want brown eggs that they are cheap.

I mean they don’t look very mis-shapen to me. The shells are rougher and some have marks on but hey I’m not eating the shells.

Nearly as much of a bargain as when Ocado sent me 24 eggs I’d not ordered and weren’t on the bill.

• A European road route that runs from Antwerp to Beaune, via a whole bunch of places including Arras and Reims
• A British pop band, originally called East 17
• A version of the window stacking software Englightenment
• A postcode in the E area of London (E = east)
• A Japanese visual sci-fi novel called Ever17
• A type of Edison screw on light bulbs witha diameter of 17mm
• And a British submarine of WW1

Well I never and I just thought it was the postal district adjacent to mine famous for its dog track (now defunct), being the birth place of William Morris (pioneer of the Arts & Crafts movement) and well all sorts of other unlikely people passing through like Ian Dury and Florence Nightingale’s dad!

But today I journeyed their not to find evidence of famous past residents but to sample its farmers market and shops. There’s a farmers market right in my own lovely high street that has now been going for a year and I love it, but its only once a month so that leaves a lot of weekends when something better than the supermarket should be the source of my food. Walthamstow farmers market is every week and despite it being a mere 2 miles from me and having been there since 2007 I’d not managed to go until today. That’s London for you, you’ll traipse to the other side of town for something you’ve heard is great but you’ll forget to check out what’s almost on your doorstep if the journey is in any way convoluted and believe me going a short distance in London is often harder than you might imagine. But spurred on by the possibility that Dallaways specialist cherry grower from the Kent/Sussex border was likely to be there off I headed, via a convoluted route of course.

First stop was to go and meet up with Lynne of A Greedy Piglet, who is Chingford way, then in her car we went back down to Walthamstow and explored the market…and the shops…and we found loads of great stuff…

On the farmers market itself we explored all the stalls…..and bought goodies from the Giggly Pig (trotters, faggots, sossies), Ted’s veg stall (radishes, patty pans, broad beans), one of the two bread stalls (100% rye loaf), Muck & Magic (Tamworth breed crackling, Red Poll mince beef, Norfolk Horn lamb mince), the herb plant stall (horseradish, french tarragon) and Alham Wood (cheeses and milk) and of course the cherries we had come for.

Then we headed for a stroll along the shops dipping in the fish shop (amazing selection of fish all looking super fresh, live crabs, salt fish) and the halal butcher (boiling chickens, cows feet, goat, mutton) to check out the produce for another day. And on into the various (green)grocery/minimarts. Walthamstow being the culturally diverse place that it is these were a mix of Turkish, Caribbean and Indian influenced shops. In all of them the staff were super helpful and rather amused at two somewhat past their first flush of youth English women exploring their shops wide-eyed like kids having a Charlie and Chocolate factory moment. After much ooo-ing and ahhh-ing we invested in dhal, pomegranate seeds, mixed aubergines, sweet peppers, puri shells, flat breads, daktyli bread, flat peaches, apricots…and I think that was it….

We struggled back to the car with out heavy bags sampling the warm flatbread as we went….then home and to work out how to fit it all in the fridge.

Please note that the items listed were our joint haul of food I did NOT buy all of this myself, though I may have bought somewhat more than half (cough)!

Wanstead Park has several artificial lakes and ponds from the days when it was the gardens of a large and imposing Palladian house. The house if long gone, demolished to pay off the creditors amassed by the errant husband of the final owner in 1822.

As we walked around the Ornamental Water with its twists, turns and islands we turned a corner to find a hawthorn standing on its own at the lake edge in full blossom.

Wanstead Park is managed by the City of London as part of Epping Forest. It’s a lovely place to stroll or picnic and you can find out more here:

http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/Corporation/LGNL_Services/Environment_and_plan…

and

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanstead_Park

It seemed like a good idea.

After all I live out that direction.