Sparks of joy in my kitchen.
Can you Marie Kondo your store cupboards?
Hoping that substack is a safe space to write this or I fear a backlash, perhaps justified in that not everyone can afford, in time or money, this approach to their food shopping. Luckily I don’t have thousands of people to share this with so unlike Jamie Oliver I can get away with buying a side of salmon and not breaking the internet with a barrage of abuse.
Most of the time I enjoy food shopping. This is probably because I also shop online for the bulk of my shopping (the boring bits) which equates to dog and cat food, washing powder and toilet rolls, this stuff simply turns up on my doorstep every two weeks with very little intervention from me. I have to sometimes check in to remind Ocado that just because I ordered Harvey Nichols Bloody Mary Tomato Ketchup once I do not need it in every shop going forward. Although it really is a very good ketchup, especially with a bacon and halloumi sandwich.
So where am I going with this. I have always been extremely aware of where most of my food comes from, I think more and more in this UPF world we have to be. Big food conglomerates are out to trap us all in their web, they do not care about what you eat, they don’t even care if you eat, just so long as you are buying their products. I want to encourage people to think more carefully about what they are buying and who they are giving their hard earned cash too. If you can afford to support a local family business instead of lining the nameless fat cats pockets, you will undoubtedly benefit too.
Here amongst my ramblings are just a few suppliers that I love to shop with.
I love food, I love eating, but eating food for the sake of it is not that enjoyable. Grabbing a supermarket sandwich on the go because your hungry might be a necessity but how much joy do you actually get out of it? Where as if I have time, I can buy fresh bread from my local Hambledon bakery in Rutland, free from emulsifiers, colourings or preservatives, fresh salad from my Riverford veg box or picked in my garden, sourcing my meat from the local butchers, where I can know that the animals were reared and slaughtered in a humane way. This a sandwich that is filled with delicious healthy ingredients and a big old hunk of joy.
Our local Waitrose stocks Manor Farm yogurt. The yogurt is produced locally from milk from grass-fed cows, using probiotic cultures, which produces a wonderful creamy texture and flavour without any use for added sugar. The company have been winning awards every year for their product since 2010. It’s not just because of the flavour and quality of the yogurt that I like to buy it, I love that I am supporting a local family company, with every purchase I feel I am invested in supporting a great product.
I have mentioned before that our neighbouring farm Mee blueberries have regular pop up shops, and you can not argue with £8 for 2kg of frozen blueberries. Unfortunately another local fruit farm recently closed down (it’s been cited due to staffing shortages post Brexit, but I do not have all the facts). They had a farm sale this last weekend selling off a number of Land Rovers amongst other machinery, how I would dearly have loved to pick one of them up, but this is such a loss to our local community.
Hill Farm PYO was established in 1970’s as a pick your own farm shop and it is thriving every year. It is a very popular destination for family’s from Peterborough especially during the school holidays.
What can be more British then an apple, yet only 40% of apples eaten in Britain today are grown here, Gala, Braeburn, Jazz and Pink Lady are all originally antipodean varieties, so what has become of all our heritage varieties.
One reason is that the cost of producing apples in the U.K. has increased by 30% since 2021, but retail prices have risen only a fraction and as with the local fruit farm the number of commercial orchards has fallen dramatically in the last 20 years. The orchards that remain are investing in non British apples that may produce higher yields and are less prone to blight but generally inferior in taste.
The Cox (Cox's Orange Pippin) our most popular English eating apple is still grown in orchards in southern England, but it’s ideal climate is now much further north and is being grown successfully as far north as Scotland.
Of the 3,000 varieties known to have been grown in Britain, around 2,000 are currently held in the national fruit collection at Brogdale in Kent, but only a handful are cultivated widely enough to be generally recognised. To seek out some local varieties and orchards check out the East of England Apple and Orchard Project.
When I first moved to Elton I could not believe my luck, there were two butchers in Oundle, one in Warmington and one in Nassington. Of course the meat has never been better then when we had our own herd of Tamworth pigs. Sadly Seven Wells butchers which had been serving Oundle since (1983) closed in 2003, taking their iconic hessian bags with them. The butchers in Warmington that used to be famous for it’s venison and game birds was taken on by a friend of mine who ran it for about five years before moving onto a different career. Moulds family butchers in Nassington have local hero status having been in business since 1890, Simon Mould is the forth generation to run the shop.
Hodmedod’s are a Suffolk based, online retailer selling store cupboard staples sourced from independent British farms, where the crops are sustainably produced, they work with local farmers, on bio-diversity and searching out less well-known foods, like the fava bean and promote education of healthy eating to schools and local communities.
Artisan - “made in a traditional or non-mechanized way using high-quality ingredients.” I’m can not express my wrath at the use use of this word which once conjured up images of farm house kitchens, traditional craftsman, small batch products, speciality skills or ingredients, but that’s ok as it appears there are hundreds of other people taking to the internet to let off their steam on this very subject, for many people I think it’s up there with moist, a word which I personally have absolutely no issue with at all especially when used to describe a carrot cake. With multi national food companies now claiming to be creating artisan products, the misuse of the word is devaluing it’s meaning and value.
Having said that there are many good, (scratch that - amazing) artisan cheese makers though the UK. The French really don’t know how good we are over here at cheese (or wine!) and I for one am happy to keep it that way, don’t let them get their mucky paws on our delicious dairy products. I had a friend who worked for Rennet & Rind, and last summer he produced the most amazing British cheese board selection for my birthday and now they have opened a shop locally in Stamford so happy days.
Not everything on my joyful shopping list needs to be locally sourced, there are many exceptions, and many items that I could not justify buying as a regular grocery item but if you want to buy me a present, I am easy to please, just so long as you can get your hands on a small batch bottle of early harvest cold extraction EV olive oil or maybe a 12 year old Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale.
I am not being holier than thou in my discussion today, I am as guilty as anyone for taking a short cut every now and then, I just want to suggest that if you have the time to stop and think before buying a big brand, low-fat, advertised as nutrition loaded, almost definitely UPF product - is there a local, family, real human supplier from whom you can source this (or a far superior) product. Place the two products side by side in your mind - which one would make you truly happy to buy and which one is just convenient. If you still want the pot noodle that’s fine, but at least you thought about it - I’d choose shreddies almost any day of the week.
Look out for local food guides such as The Great Food Club for recommendations on excellent independent restaurants, pubs, farm shops and delis, for sources of inspiration.
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