Hazel Sparkes from Pershore Country Market
Worcestershire Country Market Society

“I love baking. I like to put on the radio, send everyone out and bake. In fact I even make sure that I don’t work on a Friday just so I can bake! My favourites are making preserves and baking cakes. I have two diabetics in my family and a daughter who doesn’t eat cake, so I was always looking for reasons to make them. A friend suggested I join Country Markets to sell my cakes. I’ve now been a member for three years and simply love it. I’ve recently taken on being a Market Manager too.

One of my specialities is Butterfly Cakes. I sell about seventeen or eighteen boxes of six on a Saturday morning at Pershore Country Market and I’m selling my cakes into a local shop now as well, which is so exciting! A little while ago, a lady bought a large number of them at the Farmers’ Market; when asked if she was having a party, she explained that they weren’t for eating, she was going to take pictures of them to transfer onto a fabric! Shirley and Monica thought it was a real hoot.

The people at Pershore Country Market are very nice and were very kind when I started, helping me with all the information I needed to begin selling. Country Markets food is lovely, you just can’t beat homemade food. It’s so fresh, made properly by a real person not by a machine and you know exactly where it’s come from. You can’t say that about a lot of other foods can you?”