Do you try to 'buy British'?

[Treehugger]

I was just thinking about this as I have had terrible trouble trying to find British strawberries over the past few days (maybe I am a bit early, but I am sure I have seen some.) Do you consciously try to buy British, or for our overseas friends from your home country? It is only in the past few years that I have developed more of an awareness of this, but buying this way seriously restricts what we end up buying depending on availability. Overseas varieties also tend to be much cheaper which baffles me slightly!

[Oola]

Yes I do - I was so used to buying my British onions from the same place in the supermarket, that I was pretty disgusted when I got home and realised they were from New Zealand! I mean, there's nowhere else further away that they could have got them from really.

I don't think there's anything wrong with eating seasonally - after all, you're making the best of the flavour and nutrients because the food doesn't have to be stored for so long, you're cutting down food miles and it makes you more creative. The thing I buy that I definitely know isn't British are grapes, because the chickens go mad for them.

I try to buy organic when I can, but sometimes the organic stuff is flown over from Peru or Argentina, and it sort of defeats the object! I think though I'm right in saying that if Rich was to buy meat, he'd opt for foreign organic over standard British, purely because we believe that simply meeting some low-end standard of the meat industry to be certified by the British Farming Association isn't good enough. If there was a choice between British Organic and foreign Organic, I know he'd definitely opt for the former.

I think the reason overseas strawberries are cheaper is because at this time of year, they grow more prolifically in the warmer climates. Here, British strawberries are probably grown in polytunnels and sprayed with pesticides, so really I don't see any merit in them apart from them having less food miles. Mind you, when you take into consideration the processing of food, it can add on secret food miles that you didn't know about.

In my blog I wrote about pickled onions - my Mum went to an onion farmer with her friend, as they often have literally tonnes of onions that are rejected by the supermarkets, even though they're perfectly edible and otherwise fine. So the farmer threw them a few sacks and said help yourself. They came away with bags and bags of free onions for pickling. The farmer told them about the journey that normal pickling onions make. It goes something like this...

(from my blog)..

"Did you know that your average British pickling onion does a few thousand miles? A typical journey might go something like this - grown here in the UK, picked and sent off to places like Poland, where they are peeled, sent back to Britain to be pickled, sent back to Poland to be bottled up and then finally brought back to be put on our supermarket shelves - and sometimes labelled as British. Food miles? Well, for me, about 40ft."

Crazy isn't it. Just goes to show you can never REALLY trust the supermarkets to be absolutely open and honest with you. I hate the fact that I rely on them sometimes, that's why I'm trying my best to grow what I can myself. I can't even remember the last time Rich bought his meat from them. He's in a quandry though - he says "is it better for me to buy locally from my butcher or farmer's market, or to support the growth of the organic and free range industries in the supermarket?". Basically, if he doens't buy free range, British or organic from the supermarket, they'll 'assume' that the customers don't want them and stock more of the standard crap that welfare-wise is a complete shambles.

[Treehugger]

We buy our meat from a butcher who rents one of OH's factory units. He specialises in Cumbrian Fell Bred meat and it is absolutely delicious. I could highly recommend it. They will Fed Ex it to all over the UK (which kind of defeats the object of the argument about adding mileage to your food, I know!) Am I allowed to post a link to it on here Oola or would you prefer an email to your private account?

[littlemiss]

i ALWAYS make sure i buy british, i buy meat from small farm producers, farmers markets and local butchers, our fruit and veg from local growers, local greengrocers or market, and for continental/speciality foods that are not british i try to buy them through small deli's, i detest the supermarkets and what they do to not just farmers but fishermen, small local shops and businesses, and sometimes greenfield sites, the whole ethos of a supermarket makes me cringe. i know it is a convenience but it is far outweighed by the community benefits that you get when using local shops

[Oola]

yeah go ahead with the link Treehugger :) Basically if your link is in context it's absolutely fiiiiine

Very good point littlemiss, I attribute a lot of my town's lack of community because Tesco has all but decimated most of our local shops.

[jazzactivist]

I agree with you littlemiss, and try my best to support small local businesses and shops. I try to buy seasonally and British as much as possible. However, as I was brought up in South Africa I have quite a passion for different fruits that don't grow here eg grapes, bananas, avocado pears etc. I am so happy to discover that butternut squash now grows in the UK! Please put in the link for the fellbred meat, treehugger, since I am moving to your 'neck of the woods' and will be wanting to buy food. Thanks.

[Ivy]

I always see that I buy local (not British as this wouldn't be local for me:) ) But than there are things I can't get as local produce, like raisins, citrus etc but I'd rather wait for an other month for the first strawberries than buy Spanish, pesticide laden ones. They taste like water because they are picked semi-ripe and are sprayed with God knows what, so that German government had to give out warnings that they are not save to eat for pregnant women and small children for the last two years.

[littlemiss]

Orton farmers market is one of the best farmers markets in cumbria, selling loads of different things from cheese to preserves to meats, but you cant really go wrong with your local butcher either as they source locally too, also, try your local farm supplies shop as they have things like huge sacks of spuds grown locally for a fiver x

[Oola]

I think though if meat in particular was local, I wouldn't necessarily opt for it if it was brought up on an intensive farm. I would rather invest in a farmer a bit further away that employed free range standards. Even better, I would like to be able to visit the farm, as we do with Farrowby Farm (http://www.farrowbyfarm.co.uk/), where Rich buys his bacon.

When my Mum goes up to Norfolk for the day with her friend, she always comes back laden with onions and spuds from a massive farm shop there. Works out so much cheaper than the supermarket, not sure the quality is that much better, but from an economical and food miles point of view, if she's going that way anyway it works out well.

[Treehugger]

Here you go, the link to the fell bred meat people is www.lakesspecialityfoods.co.uk
I can highly recommend their meat, it is second to none.