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Restaurant and dining guide

You know you’re getting old when you get more excited about going to a farmers’ market than going out to a club. Ashton Farmers’ Market is on the last Sunday of every month and is marked in my diary with a big star.

For this is the cream of the crop when it comes to food markets in Manchester. The indoor market has been recently rebuilt after a fire in 2004, and there are weekly specialist outdoor markets, including of course my beloved farmers and producers’ market.

There has been a King’s Charter to hold a market here since 1284, so this is clearly a historic site and has seen some bartering and trading in its time.

Now once a month, the outdoor stalls are full of produce from all over the north, including English apples, fresh lamb, homemade pork sausages, pies and tarts, and other goodies such as cakes, Indian snacks, and even fruit wines. There are more than 70 stalls, making it one of the biggest food producers events in the area. It has also been recognised at the Best in the North West by the National Farmers‘ Union as well as voted Best Farmers' Market in the North West by readers of the Observer Food Magazine.

My last visit was more restrained than the first visit which entailed two trips to the cash point. I came home with a magnificent leg of lamb for my evening dinner guests, a bag of new potatoes that had been picked that morning, a bag of fresh salad goods and a bottle of elderflower wine for dessert.

The owners of That Café in Levenshulme have a regular stall there and sell produce made from their smallholding up past Burnley. The small meat tarts are mouth-wateringly delicious and the queue was getting so long I had to stand there and watch them all getting snapped up.

There’s a huge selection of meat, game and poultry from various different farmers, as well as a good variety of fruit stalls and everything is fairly reasonable for the high quality that you get.

The market is the last Sunday of every month and the next one (November 29) is themed Lancashire Fayre, and the next after that is December 20, which will give people Christmas tips.

www.tameside.gov.uk/ashton/market