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MISSION ONE: Buying local produce for a month
Longdean teacher, Heather Salthouse's first blog in her year-long campaign to go green.
Last month Miss Salthouse stocked up her shelves with locally produced food. Here's how she got on...
"I've been in the fish queue for almost 15 minutes and I'd normally be half way round Morrison's by now.
Why did I buy all my veg before the fish? My arms are going to be stretched down to the ground by the time I reach the front of this queue.
When I finally reach the front I said to the trader 'Hello! Some fresh mackerel please! Oh you don't have any, oh… erm, Ok. Smoked mackerel? Brilliant! How much? Oh, that's cheap. Where is it from by the way? Norway? Oh dear, that counts that out then.'
I have learned a lot this month. Buy your fish before your bag of potatoes, and take the bread from the back of the stall.
Local weekend markets are cheap, but not everything there is locally produced.
September and October are the harvest months, and the supermarkets are abundant with British grown fruit and veg.
Specialised farmers markets (as opposed to some weekend markets) are great places to meet the farmers themselves who are very happy to tell you about their produce and the best way to cook it.
I have bought potatoes, courgettes, aubergines, peppers, tomatoes, sweetcorn, squash, cucumber, raspberries, strawberries, cheese, smoked salmon, homemade cakes and bread for a fraction of supermarket prices, and all of which served to remind me what food used to taste like when it was more wobbly looking but bought from the local greengrocer when I was a little girl.
Needless to say, I am a Farmers' Market convert and whenever there is one on near me, that is where I'll be heading! I don't feel I have the time to go every weekend, but I now enjoy making the time and it's something I look forward to.
For those weeks when you are really pushed for time, you could use one of the many up-and-coming online companies who deliver British grown produce to your door, but be warned – it is expensive. That said, the produce is every bit as good as from a Farmers' Market, and I personally end up spending less because not going around the supermarket means I can't pick up other bits like scented candles and crisps.
You can't stock your cupboards on solely Hertfordshire produce (unless you turn your weekly shop into a full time job), and I don't know if buying British produce from a market makes less or more of a carbon foot print than buying from a supermarket.
I do know that at this time of year it is completely pointless in picking up, say, apples from France during the summer we have our own, fresher, tastier and less travelled varieties. Now that must make less of a carbon foot print, and it helps keep our farmers in business."
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Weather for Hemel Hempstead
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: East
