To market, to market, to buy a fat carrot - food shopping!
Why do I shop on my local outdoor market, instead of choosing the easy option of supermarket. I must be a fool!
So why do bother, its bloody hard work carrying all those heavy bags in all sorts of weather; parking my car in a pay and display car park where I run the risk of getting a parking ticket for taking longer than an hour or two to do the weeks shopping for four?
It could be so easy. I could go to one of the big four supermarkets not that are not far away from me, park not have to pay or I get my money refunded. I can load all the goods into a large trolley in a covered warm environment listening to pseudo pan-pipe music to make the experience even more inviting!
Even easier, sit at my computer and order all my shopping quickly and easier on tesco.com listening to exactly what I want on last.fm…
But am I? I love people, I enjoy eating quality food that lasts longer and is healthier buying great quality seasonal vegetables that have been grown locally. Less ‘food miles’ and the produce lasts longer. It’s fun! Also I care about local businesses and employment and I feel passionately about my local market town. It’s part of who I am and it makes me feel good.
Let me prove my point.
The carrots I bought from the market last weekend with their tops on are still in good condition at the bottom of my fridge 8 days later - I’ve only used half of them. (I love carrots. In fact my next blog will feature the humble carrot again!)
- My market carrots were cheap at 53p a kg. Supermarket loose carrots are currently 69p per kg.
- They were grown locally. Supermarket carrots are usually grown in the UK but because of the centralisation of their food distribution, they will have travelled hundreds of miles.
- Because they were local, I’m helping keep a local carrot farmer in business.
- They would have been fresher when they were bought. Carrots are high in Vitamin A and Beta Carotene which starts to denature after the tops are cut and they begin to age.
- Large Carrots complete with tops aren’t available at the supermarket.
- No packaging was used at all. They went straight into my fantastic shopping bag, which I love!
But more than that, I love walking around the Market, everyone seems to know each other. They stand around talking, with their dogs in tow - it has a real sense of community. Stall holders always have a sense of humour. I come away with my local veg, meat, bacon and dairy produce. Fantastic.
The best thing is I drive away with a smile on my face - that’s good for the soul.
I’m sure there are plenty more reasons why it was better that I bought my carrots on Clitheroe Market instead of Morrison’s.
I also bought local beef, cheese both local and national (all British though), gammon, mussels (I dread to think where they’ve come from and I’m sure there are ethical issues - but they were bloody good!), worming tablets for Beasty ( the black lab!!) and some Parma Ham (from Parma I hope!) and lots and lots of veg and fruit.
What do you think??
Carrot trivia: Carrots were originally native to Afghanistan! Click here for more interesting carrot trivia
