Women who know their onions

IT’S THE way shopping should be – busy, cheerful, friendly, with plenty of choice and cheap and easy too. The ladies on the fruit and veg stall in Northallerton market know many of their customers, who are regulars, but have a smile and a word for everyone.

When I visit, people are exchanging greetings, catching up on news, asking advice and leaving or collecting their bags of produce. And all the time the ladies on the stall are briskly weighing, packing, tidying up and adding up the bills in their heads or in great long fearsome sums that stretch the length of a notebook – no computers here. No slackers either.

Of course they can do four things at once. They’re women.

It’s a huge team effort. But while it’s the men who do most of the going back and forth to the van, stocking and re-stocking the displays as fast as they’re emptied – which is very fast – and clearing away the rubbish, it’s the women who are the mostly the face of the stall, dealing with the customers.

They are on their feet all day, in all weathers, and looked horrified when you suggest they might like to work somewhere nice and warm and indoors.

It helps, maybe, that it’s a surprisingly pleasant late November day.

The sun is shining and it’s almost warm. Staff might be wrapped up in fleeces, but, for now at least, the fingerless gloves and the woolly hats are stuffed somewhere under the stall.

There is a forecast of snow in a day or so but they are genuinely unbothered.

“Wind’s a pain and I don’t like it when it’s wet,” says Evelyn Hebdon, “But we’ve always turned up. Never missed a market.”

THAT’S a proud boast because the business, Hambleton Fresh Produce, is owned and run by Evelyn’s son Philip and his wife Angela – the fifth generation of his family to be a stallholder. When his great great grandfather first set out his stall in Northallerton, it was on the cobbles, right on the roadside and he brought his produce in a horse and cart.

As well as the markets in Thirsk and Northallerton, they also have a big wholesale business. Three times a week Philip’s day starts at 2.30am.

Times have changed, even since Evelyn started as a Saturday girl, aged 14. “We used to have a much smaller range, very seasonal and not the great variety we have now. People want a much bigger range of fruit and vegetables now,” she says sorting out butternut squash and artichokes.

As she does so she explains, in passing, the difference between globe and Jerusalem artichokes and says the latter are brilliant in soup or roasted, “a nice old-fashioned vegetable”.

Someone’s asking about plums, someone else about tomatoes and avocados.

These ladies have all the answers.

“They’re brilliant,” says Philip. “They really know what they’re selling and that’s great for the customers too.”

Nearly every customer wants to stop and sing their praises. “They’re smashing lasses. Always cheerful, whatever the weather. Make sure you get that in,” says one customer, showing me the most amazing parsnips that she’s just selected. “You don’t get those in Tesco either,” she adds.

Someone else recommends the beetroot and the carrots. Someone tips a load of huge baking potatoes straight into their carrier bag.

They’ve cost £1. Another lady has piled oranges into her bag with everything else on top. “I think I’ve got six, but if I’ve got more I’ll let you know next week. I wouldn’t want to rob you,” she says.

It’s that sort of stall.

Surprisingly, nearly all the vegetables and most of the summer fruit are grown locally. New varieties, new techniques means the growing seasons stretch much further round the year.

Some things don’t change though.

The stall is actually a collection of small stalls so people can walk around and choose what they want before taking it to be weighed and paid for. The stalls are a work of art – boxes full of beautiful looking fruit and veg arranged enticingly against the green background.

It has to have eye appeal and takes nearly three hours to set up. Becky Warnock gets up in Thirsk at 3.30 in the morning, the sort of time when some of her contemporaries will still be staggering home. By 4.30 she and one of the men are setting up most of the stalls and then setting out the fruit and veg.

“When we get here there’s just one basic stall set up, so there’s lots to do.

But I love it,” says Becky, who by midday and after eating her lunch in the van – the closest they have to a staff canteen – is still full of energy.

“I go to bed at 9pm so, yes, I suppose I miss going out, but I love it here. I love working on the market. It’s the customers who make it, they’re all so friendly and you have a chat. You never get bored.”

Evelyn has done her share of 4am starts in her time. Even now she’s often in the warehouse at 5am. It certainly keeps her young.

Pam Turner has worked for the Hebdons on and off for more than 25 years. “A lovely place to work, I feel like part of the family,” she says.

She did try working in a nice warm shop for a while, but was soon back again. “You can’t beat it. Out in the fresh air and all the people to talk to.”

At Thirsk she’s building up the flower side of the business, but in Northallerton her favourite bit is the end of the day. Not because it’s time to go home. “No, I love selling the stuff off, all the extra chat and the laughing with the customers.”

Then, of course, there’s all the packing up to do. No just locking up and walking away.

More people are shopping at market stalls than ever these days. Partly it’s the cost – they usually work out a lot cheaper than supermarkets – partly it’s because a much higher proportion of the produce is local and stallholders know exactly where stuff has come from, as well as how to keep it and cook it.

But I bet a lot of it is because in a world where we increasingly deal with computers and machines instead of real people, it is just so much nicer to deal with a smashing bunch of women who know their onions – literally – can add up in their heads, know which apples you like, will look after your shopping and always have time for a smile and a bit of banter.

Even when they’ve been up since 3.30am.

Branch out and bake a cake

IF you’re looking for an inspirational alternative to Christmas cake, top chefs including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Raymond Blanc, Antony Worrall Thompson and Prue Leith have devised delicious cake recipes in support of Tree Aid.

The recipes feature a wide range of ingredients from trees such as chocolate, black cherries, cinnamon, dates, almonds, pine nuts and pecans.

They have been devised to encourage people to think about the wealth of food that trees provide, from fruit and nuts to spices, syrups and honey.

The recipes are part of Tree Aid’s Christmas Cake Bake fundraising initiative and are available from treeaidcakebake.org To help celebrate its 21st anniversary, the charity is encouraging people to bake tree-inspired cakes and serve them at festive gatherings to raise funds for Tree Aid, by asking friends, family or colleagues to make a donation for the cake they eat.

Alternatively, you can simply make a donation when you download the celebrity recipe booklet. The money will help Tree Aid’s work with some of the world’s poorest people in Africa to help them fight poverty and malnutrition through trees.

Tree Aid enables people in Africa’s drylands - in Mali, Ethiopia, Ghana and Burkino Faso - to grow and look after the trees that they need for their survival. In these countries, trees provide vital food, fuel and medicine as well as shelter, building materials and cattle feed. Local fruits, seeds, nuts, leaves and even sap from trees are an essential part of daily diets and a lifeline during drought when other crops fail.

Tree Aid was established in 1987 by a group of foresters in response to the famine in Africa. They wanted to provide a long-term solution once the emergency relief efforts ended. They believed that trees could significantly reduce the vulnerability of communities in rural Africa’s drylands to drought and famine in the future. The charity fosters self-reliance by helping villagers to get the most out of their trees and use them sustainably, fighting poverty while improving the environment.

Tree Aid has raised over 6.7 million seedlings and has protected nearly 35,000 hectares of natural woodland and open savannah. Its work has benefited nearly 450,000 people in more than 1,000 villages.

Creative Christmas market

SHOPPERS will have the chance to buy work of the North-East’s best creative talent at special Christmas market in Middlesbrough.

At the Designers Marketplace, to be held at the Town Hall Crypt on Thursday, December 11 from 4.30pm to 9pm, shoppers will be able to browse the mostly bespoke, handcrafted pieces of art, jewellery, ceramics, glass and clothing made by the stallholders themselves.

The market is tied in with Middlesbrough Council’s Alive After Five campaign to bring more people into the town centre on Thursday evenings, so shoppers will have the chance to visit the town’s shops at the same time, as well as sampling some of the many places to eat and drink.

■ Artist and designers are also featured on the Designers Marketplace website with links to their own sites. Log on to designersmarketplace.org.uk for more information.

Many happy returns

TRAVELLING safely home after socialising and parties isn't just vital for our personal safety, it's also highly beneficial to the wellbeing of those who wait.

Now double Olympic gold medallist for rowing James Cracknell is putting his weight behind a campaign to help ease that stress, by encouraging people to follow a Get Home Safe strategy this Christmas.

He says: "While most people spend ages planning where they're going to go for the evening, they often don't give a thought to how they're going to get back.

"Before going out – and before you've started drinking – it's worth taking a few minutes to check out the times of the last train or bus, get the number of a taxi company, or make sure you've got enough cash for the return journey."

The full safety tips for the campaign, sponsored by Stella Artois, can be found at gethomesafe.org.uk

Cool clothes, hot prices

OFF to the slopes this winter? Ski holidays can be notoriously expensive, what with accommodation, passes and equipment hire, but kitting out your family in ski clothing doesn’t have to be.

Matalan’s skiwear range, Glacier Point, has some fabulous styles in trendy colours and prints for as little as £25 for jackets for adults and £15 for jackets in the children’s range. Designed for performance with breathable, waterproof fabrics and taped seams, the range is not only super stylish but also fully functional whether you are a novice or a professional.

■ Darlington Matalan, Neasham Road, Darlington, 01325-740690, matalan.co.uk