Notting Hill Winter Farmers Market Picker: Saturday Plan

Notting Hill has two very different markets for a winter shop. One is Portobello Road, a street market whose fruit and vegetable barrows have traded along the same curving road since the Victorian era. The other is Notting Hill Farmers' Market, a small producer market that London Farmers' Markets opened in September 1999 in a primary school playground just off Notting Hill Gate. This winter farmers market picker helps you decide which one deserves your Saturday, and where to go if the weekend gets away from you.

The simplest way to choose is to ask who you want to buy from. At the farmers' market, the person behind the table grew the potatoes, milked the cows or baked the bread, and that is the whole point of the network. At Portobello's produce end, many barrows are traders buying from wholesale, with some excellent fruit and long family histories behind them. Both are worth your time. They just answer different questions.

There is something charming about buying winter roots on painted hopscotch lines. The stalls fill the playground of Fox Primary School behind the shops at Notting Hill Gate every Saturday, rain or shine. The organisers name Hurdlebrook for unpasteurised milk and cream, Wild Country Organics, Perry Court Farm, Ted's Veg, Brambletye Farm and Chegworth Valley for produce, Grange Nursery for seasonal flowers and Bee Friendly for local honey. Cheese, fish, meat and baking fill the gaps.

The market's seasonal calendar marks game in autumn, turkeys before Christmas and root vegetables in the dark weeks after New Year. On a cold Saturday that means sacks of mixed potatoes, muddy carrots and celeriac, apples and juice from Kent, and game birds hanging on the meat stalls. Hurdlebrook's raw milk is the stall many regulars cross London for, so join that queue first and work outwards from there.

Portobello began as a country lane leading to a farm, and by the late nineteenth century the growing neighbourhood had turned it into a busy street market. The southern stretch is world famous for antiques, while the middle section has kept its fruit, vegetable and flower barrows. Generations of the same families have worked some of those pitches. In winter the barrows pile up clementines, sprouts on the stalk and bundles of holly, and the traders' banter keeps everyone warm.

Start at the farmers' market, because the producers sell through their best stock earliest and the playground is compact enough to cover quickly. Once your bag holds the meat, dairy and roots, walk north along Kensington Park Road and drop down into Portobello for fruit, flowers and a browse. The antique arcades are a fine way to warm up, and the street food further north makes an easy lunch. Finish under the Westway if you like vintage clothes.

The playground market draws local families with buggies, chefs from neighbourhood restaurants and long-time residents who know the growers by name. Portobello on a Saturday is a different beast, packed with visitors from all over the world photographing the pastel terraces. If crowds wear you down, keep the Portobello leg short and stick to the produce section, which is noticeably calmer than the antiques end.

If Saturday disappears, ride the Bakerloo line or cycle north to Queen's Park Farmers' Market, held in the grounds of Salusbury Primary School. It opened in September 2005 and has been voted best farmers' market in the UK, with more than fifty stalls and a simple motto: we grow it, we sell it. Look for Beer Fisheries for fish, Ahimsa Dairy Foundation for cheese and dairy, Brambletye for fruit and eggs, and Levain Bakery for bread and cakes.

Queen's Park asks that dogs stay outside the market, so plan for a friend or a short wait if you walk one. There are no public toilets on site. Cycling and public transport are encouraged over driving. Salusbury Road itself is lined with cafes and a good bookshop, which turns a Sunday shop into a pleasant few hours in a neighbourhood many Notting Hill locals rarely visit.

When neither weekend day works, look east or north. Marylebone's Sunday market is a short Circle line ride away and is one of the network's flagship sites. For an actual weekday, Swiss Cottage holds a Wednesday market on Eton Avenue, reachable by bus or a short tube journey. Neither is as close as the playground, but both save you from a supermarket week.

Build the week around one big Saturday purchase. A free range chicken or game bird becomes a roast, then stock, then a broth with leftover roots. Raw milk turns porridge into a treat and makes a superb rice pudding. Keep apples, potatoes and celeriac in a cool cupboard and eat leaves first. Honey from Bee Friendly keeps for months, so it is the one impulse buy that never goes to waste.

Tarmac playgrounds hold the cold, and Portobello's curve funnels wind between the terraces, so wear thick socks and waterproof shoes. Gloves with open fingertips make it easier to handle coins and paper bags. A backpack beats tote bags once you add a bottle of milk and a sack of potatoes. If you plan to linger in the arcades, a flask of tea in a side pocket is a small luxury on a raw January morning.

Most stalls take cards, according to the organisers, and there are cash machines around Notting Hill Gate for the ones that do not. Bring your own bags and containers, since London Farmers' Markets asks shoppers to cut plastic. Smoking is not allowed on the market site. Not every stall attends each week, so a favourite cheesemaker may be missing on a cold Saturday.

Notting Hill weekends fill up fast with brunches, visitors and Portobello crowds. Tell Karpo APP which day is free, what you want to cook, and whether you want a quiet producer shop or a lively street market as well. It can arrange the playground market, Portobello and Queen's Park into a shortlist in the order that suits you, with a warm stop on the way. You still pick the produce yourself.