ONE YEAR ON: RCMA MARKETS

Just over a year ago I decided to start a food blog. I had become frustrated with living in Cardiff and still had a year to go with my degree and decided to reconnect with the place I lived. I spent a few months deciding what I wanted to do with the blog, what I wanted to achieve and what I wanted to say. As I was already a huge fan of blogs, I had read many tips and advice articles to help get me started. I had a look at what was out there and decided that I really didn't want to go down the restaurant review path. I wanted to find out what was really out there and set about planning and scouting out potential locations to blog about. 

The first blog post I ever wrote was about the Riverside Market. With all that happened to me in the first year of this blog, I decided it would be fitting to go back to where it started. I spoke with Natasha Wilson of The Riverside Market People to find out the plans and projects lined up for the farmer's markets across Cardiff.

 On her role within the RCMA:

"My official job description is Marketing Assistant but because we are a small organisation I end up chipping in on lots of different things. Primarily my job has two key aspects though; ensuring that the market has a presence online and in the media so that people are aware of what we are doing, and increasingly ensuring that our traders get their messages and news to the market visitors each week.

 I spend quite a lot of time working from a desk so it's always great to get down to the markets at the weekend and have a proper chat with people. I love getting to know what our traders are up to and they always know their stuff when it comes to knowing the best way to use their produce."

On keeping the community at its heart:

"We always try to shape our markets around the communities they are in and while Riverside tends to be our figurehead market, the markets in Roath and Rhiwbina are great for bringing fresh local produce to their local communities too.

Many of our traders are the same across different markets but it's always interesting to see how the different communities engage with the markets in different areas. Roath market is my local market and was the one I used to visit the most before I started working for RCMA."

On the future:

"Launching Whitchurch is one of our key aims at the moment, we have a three month trial market every Wednesday starting on the 17 July, I'm looking forward to getting into working on the publicity for it. We are also throwing a third-anniversary celebration for Rhiwbina market on the 5 July which is promising to be a lovely day and we will be attending Cardiff International Food Festival to promote our markets as well as the community garden project."

RCMA markets run throughout Cardiff each Friday, Saturday and Sunday.