Janet started making preserves to feed the family. One summer she gave some of her marmalade to the church stall at a local fete. A friend with a B&B bought some for her guests and the next morning  came hot foot for some more.

She took what we had. I went without.

From such small beginnings… the following Christmas Janet organised a craft fair in the village hall. She made about two hundred jars of marmalade and chutney. I was convinced that I would be eating this for years to come. She sold out.

The next year she made and sold at craft fairs, and it was at one of these that she was invited to come to a farmers’ market, only the second to be held in Dorset.

She could immediately see the potential, and when the original grant ran out was keen to run them herself. I wasn’t.

At this time I was running Christchurch farmers’ market. This was slipping quietly downhill and I was told that farmers’ markets throughout the country were finding things difficult, and gradually fading. I spent a lot of time thinking about why this should be. Christchurch had either to be revitalised or closed. I decided to try some new ideas, and, almost like magic, it was suddenly up and running. I was pretty sure that I had ‘cracked it’. Shortly after this I received a phone call from a friend who had attended a council meeting in Weymouth.

“They want a farmers’ market,” he told me. “You and Janet ought to do it.”

It amazes me how often I get told what I should be doing.

After discussions with Janet we went to talk to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, and the upshot was that we started a market on Westham Bridge, now a car park, but originally the way across the harbour and into town. Starting at Easter, we applied all the ideas that we had worked out and our reception was more than enthusiastic. The market started at 10 am and by eleven most people had sold out. The following month was very similar. The third month the producers were bringing in so much stock that we thought the bridge might collapse. They didn’t run out, but they didn’t have a lot left.

I sat in front of my computer and worked out a business plan. It looked too good to be true, and to be honest it was, but it wasn’t so far out.

Where should the next market be?

Verwood, a village in the east of Dorset that has grown into a town, had always attracted us. Janet negotiated with the charter holder in Ringwood and obtained a license for twelve markets a year.

A word of explanation here. Market charters were granted by various kings - the Ringwood one goes back to Henry III in his minority - and grant the rights to hold a market on a particular day or days. The area covered by a charter extends to six and two thirds miles, this being the distance a man and mule can go, do business, and return home in one day.

Mrs Pook’s now runs a total of five markets and is negotiating for others.

Janet and Martin have always believed in buying locally if they can. Martin’s simple explanation for this is that you can always go and sit on someone’s doorstep if they fail to deliver. But from whichever point it does make sense. There is however a proviso - we want to buy the best. And we are lucky because in the local area there is so much good food that it is rarely necessary to go to far.

Best in Dorset farmers’ markets are run to a set of rules so that the public know that if they buy from one of our markets that the produce will meet some exacting standards.

Our markets are run to the highest standards, and we ensure that all our producers are not only aware of our rules but we ensure that they comply with them. In this way we are able to offer our personal guarantee that what you are getting is local and the best of it’s respective kind.