Suppliers

Last month I posted about trying to find a brand of lemonade that didn’t contain artificial sweeteners. To my surprise I found that even the non-diet versions contained both sugar and sweeteners.

I mentioned Moor Farm Meats the other day. I went out for a drive to day and found it – it’s fair to say that it’s not a place you would find unless you were looking for it.

One of my major failures in trying to source local produce has been finding a good burger. As I like to BBQ, and burgers are the main fodder for my monthly board-gaming sessions (where I feed anything from 8-16 people), this is not an insignificant part of my monthly food spend, and is something that keeps bringing me back to Tescos. Which irritates me every time I fill a basket with them.

I was recently exposed to a minor rant from a friend for mentioning veg box schemes in her presence, as I knew how much of a budget she was on, and that veg box schemes are for “rich w*nkers”.

For the last few months, my garden has provided enough veg for me, so I stopped my regular fruit and veg delivery from Riverford Organic Farms and replaced it with a fortnightly fruit box. Then, because I liked what it was doing to my diet, I stepped that up to a weekly fruit box.

Visited my local garden centre today – Waterside – and found they now have an extensive food hall, run by Hambleton’s Farms. It has both a good cheese counter and a butcher’s counter, and also has a tempting selection of “gourmet frozen meals”.

Have just run over to Vine House Farm, to stock my freezer up with more of their pies, since the last ones went down a storm.

In trying to find local retailers, I don’t plan to assume anything – least not that “small is beautiful”. Just because a place is local and independent, it doesn’t mean that they are necessarily any better than the supermarkets they will be replacing.

A few days ago, I said I would have to compromise for a while with buying bread from Tescos. Although I often bake my own, meeting the needs of my regular board-game playing group – two or three dozen burger rolls plus the same amount of finger rolls – was beyond my routine bread-making capability.

I mentioned this farm shop over on my personal blog, just before I got the new site launched. I don’t intend to repeat posts from there in the future, but am doing so here for completeness, as this was my first Food Adventure win.