Submitted by Julian on Thu, 29/09/2011 - 15:20
Posted in
Food Frome at St Catherine’s Artisan Market – first Sunday of each month May to September and Christmas market first Sunday of December
Food Frome sells Cattern Cakes, a rich and spicy yeast bun, and seasonal fruit tarts at the Artisan Market on Catherine Hill in Frome on the first Sunday of each month. The market is a lively event with many attractive stalls selling local crafts and food. We walk through the streets and sell from baskets on our arms. We now have regular customers especially amongst the stall holders many of whom seem to rely on us for their sustenance through the day.
The choice of Cattern Cakes is particularly apt as Cattern is an old word for Catharine and these cakes were eaten on St Catharine’s eve in memory of the saint who lived in the third century. The old spelling with two “a’s” is used here, but not for Catherine Hill.
St Catharine was the patron saint of lace makers, spinners, spinsters and wood turners. Her feast day is on 24th November and a service is still held in Abbotsbury, Dorset. She lived at the turn of the third century and was considered to be one of the most beautiful and intelligent women of her time. When she refused to marry the emperor she was sentenced to death on a spiked wheel. But the wheel shattered and she survived - only to be executed in 310 AD. She was made a saint and is the patron of both spinsters and craft workers who use wheels.