A Shrewsbury farmers’ market is coming back for the first time in 2010 this week, with organisers promising it will be bigger and better than ever before.

The market, which takes place in The Square from 9am until 5pm on the first Friday of every month, is now being run by Asterley Events. A wider range of high quality food and drink will be on offer at the market.

The market aims to tempt people to try some of the best locally produced food as well as those from neighbouring counties.

Jennifer Jones, from Asterley Events, said she wanted as many people as possible to come along to the events, support food producers and enjoy the great produce on offer.

She said: “There are still many well-known Shropshire producers amongst the stallholders such as Bings Heath Smokery, Wroxeter Vineyard, Bonbonniere hand-made chocolates and Fordhall Farm meats, but these are going to be joined by new stallholders from the county as well as neighbouring English and Welsh counties.”

New Shropshire stall holders include The Shropshire Cheese Company, Stokes of Ellesmere Pork Pies and Blueberries. Blueberries, as the name suggests, offer a range of traditionally made sauces, elixirs and syrups made from blueberries grown on its farm in north Shropshire.

And from the March market, the RSPB will also join the Food Fair selling organic lamb and beef from their 11-and-a-half acres of organic farmland at Lake Vyrnwy.

To celebrate the return of the farmers’ market and to get people in the mood for Valentine’s Day, stallholder Lynne Morgan, from Baked For You, has baked a heart-shaped cake.

Visitors to the market will have the chance to win it by guessing its weight.

This year Selby Martin, vice president of the Shropshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, encouraged people in the county to support shops and markets in the local food web.

He warned that if they didn’t future years could belong to the retail giants with big chains squeezing out remaining county food traders and real choices of where to shop.

By Russell Roberts