Banned foods.

[Spardo]

I have just come back from the very small weekly market in our very small village. It has only been going a couple of months but has got to the stage where I don't have to go out to shops at all tomorrow. A fair selection of veg, including some mucky mis-shaped potatoes that only need a quick scrub under the tap (I never peel) and taste every bit as good as the spotless ones from elsewhere. Tomatoes of odd sizes and shapes, same with green peppers, caulies so small that I bought 2, red onion, lemon (for my T&Ts) and leeks. A young woman was selling little home made cakes, I bought a dozen, which seemed to surprise her, but they are vital for our desserts, Fran's with Fortimel (prescription energy drink) and mine with either ice cream or yoghurt, and a bloke selling home made pain de campagne. I bought one big enough to cut into 4 for freezing, and a round one all on its own marked 'special' which is covered, and filled, with nuts, raisons and seeds of every description. Cut that in half, one for today and the other for the freezer (I am the only bread eater in this house) and couldn't resist a chunk of 'special' without butter or jam just to be going on with, yummy. There was a queue there and I was worried that the special I had my eye on would be gone before I got to it.

If this persists, I will be able to give up on the unreliable boulangerie in the big village, she never makes more than 2 batards (wholemeal) and it is pot luck if I get them both (or indeed any) and her cakes are way too fancy and therefore expensive. Also wrestling with unopenable bags at the supermarket to do their job and weigh everything for them.

Total cost? Around € 30, no more, and probably less than the average elsewhere. Fingers crossed the stallholders also find it profitable and don't go away.

[exile]

A fair selection of veg, including some mucky mis-shaped potatoes that only need a quick scrub under the tap (I never peel) and taste every bit as good as the spotless ones from elsewhere.

And what is more guaranteed to not have been sprayed with a germination retardant, which many of the commercial varieties will have been - especially as you go through winter and into spring.

Important if you eat the skins. Less so if you peel your spuds.

[Spardo]

A fair selection of veg, including some mucky mis-shaped potatoes that only need a quick scrub under the tap (I never peel) and taste every bit as good as the spotless ones from elsewhere.

And what is more guaranteed to not have been sprayed with a germination retardant, which many of the commercial varieties will have been - especially as you go through winter and into spring.

Important if you eat the skins. Less so if you peel your spuds.

Exactly so, spud bashing was never in my vocabulary. Don't peel apples either, or throw away the cores, only the little woody stalks are rejected by me, but if I am buying by weight and able to handle the fruit, I discard those before weighing anyway.

[Spectrum]

Jersey Royals are just a branding exercise for a variety called International Kidney - available elsewhere.

I always wonder how they deal with rotation and pest build up growing exactly the same variety in the same place year after year.

Lots of chemicals, no doubt.

Only a guess, but they may rotate them with the Daffodils, I know they use a lot of seaweed which makes a good fertilizer.