The Thoughts of a Greengrocer I finished last month by telling you that I was going to have a few days off and I used these to go over the Channel to France. I have always enjoyed driving on the French roads as they are quite empty compared to ours. I went as far as Chinon in the Loire Valley. It is noticeable that the prices over there are now much on a par with ours for food.The big difference between food shopping in France and at home is the fresh food in the major supermarkets. Fruit and veg. is frequently from a local grower and little of it is pre-packed. Also I saw that the supermarket is willing to sell produce for flavour rather than looks. Little bits of scab and other marks don’t matter. Root vegetables are still dirty with soil on them and so on. Because we have become so used to the extra clean, evenly shaped, identical sized under-ripe stuff I would struggle to sell some of what I saw. The other thing that took my interest was the wine for sale. This was mainly local wine with a fair bit of other French types and a tiny shelf of foreign wines. The prices impressed me so I took more notice than I have done in the past. We know that the French don’t have alcohol duty on each and every bottle as we do and this makes an enormous difference particularly when vat is charged on the duty paid. The net result is that a simple but nice bottle of wine in France is likely to be half or less than the same bottle in Britain.
Castle Greengrocers Retailer & Wholesaler
22 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DF 01497 822742 Open: Monday - Thursday 9.00 - 5.00 Friday and Saturday 9.00 - 5.30
Fresh fruit and vegetables, quality wines and local jams and preserves
Back home we are still seeing plenty of local apples and we are almost onto the local pears. Plums and so on are finished but suddenly only today (I write this article on the 14th of each month) I have some local quinces brought in. I have enthused about these before but the jelly that can be made from them is gorgeous and adding some grated into apple pies and crumbles makes a big difference; or just leave them in the kitchen for the sake of the scent. In Birmingham there is still a lot of talk about building a new whoelsale market on the outskirts of the city - depending on which side this could seriously help or hinder us on our visits to market - perhaps I’ll be retired before it is all settled. On which happy note I’ll leave you - remember, next month is Christmas! Article sipplied by Sturat Pritchard, Castle Greengrocers.
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