In what order to you prioritise the following when fresh foo

[Joanbunting Profile]

We recently had some house guests and they very much enjoyed shopping with us in our local markets and shops. However they seemed to be looking for entirely different things to those I find important.

From the following list how would you prioritise? I;ll tell you mine soon.
Organic (Bio)
Freshness
Local
Seasonal
Equitable ( fair Trade)
Food miles travelled
Price
Ease of rpearation

Please feel free to add your own considerations

[miss mouse Profile]

Interesting.
Local & seasonal go together I think
Freshness matters next
Fair Trade is a good thing but not essential

Price not an issue within reason, I wonder why the cheapest might be so cheap though and what might be so special about the most expensive

Ease of prep again not an issue, what is hard to prep?

organic, not fussed either way, I think food standards are pretty high thanks to the EU

Food miles I try to avoid.

Stuff or suppliers that have been disappointing in the past is avoided like the plague.

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Hmm - I'm not sure those elements have a fixed order in my head, they are elements of what I look for but I try to get the best quality I can find, with price also having an influence where relevant, so it's always a bit of a balancing thing.

Local is tricky living in the inner city, our farmer's market defines it as a 70 mile radius, it was less originally but because we are right in the east of London a tighter circle excludes too much of the Thames valley.

I don't quite get "ease of preparation" - I get really annoyed with how hard it is to buy mange tout, fine beans etc. untrimmed, I prefer to trim them properly just before use, and I don't think they can keep well once cut. They also require a lot of packaging, which I avoid

My current favourite place to buy veg is a stall in the Sunday market, quite local, quite reasonably priced, run by charming young people and the sort of veg you'd hope to grow on your own allotment

I also buy in the supermarket, the Turkish shops and the main market though

[Pampy Profile]

I'm very much with Sue on this. I'd add free-range and sustainable too, particularly with poultry and fish. I dislike trimmed vegetables because I always find that the trimmed ends go brown or dried-up so have to be trimmed again, which is such a waste.

[miss mouse Profile]

I dislike trimmed vegetables because I always find that the trimmed ends go brown or dried-up so have to be trimmed again, which is such a waste.

So true. I am away from home and the local trimmed leeks offering has them trimmed far too short IMO.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

I think freshness counts for a lot, surely.

I grow much of the fruit & veg we eat, thus it's generally the more exotic produce I buy. I don't grow strawberries or asparagus, we only buy these in season. Usually they are from local producers, sometimes UK produce from the market or supermarkets, but the market stalls can be unreliable in respect of labelling.

None of this is certified organic unless it comes from a supermarket. I don't use anything on the plot that offends organic standards, but can't be sure about our manure suppliers, I expect all horses get medication from time to time.

I can't grow bananas or avocados of course, nor worthwhile crops of aubergines or melons, thus these are from the market or supermarket.

Meat is usually bought from our local butcher, who sources from local farms, or we buy from the farm up the hill, who grow their own, or from farmers' markets. We also buy local produce on the road, so fish and game from Norfolk for example.

[Joanbunting Profile]

I completely go along with sustainable . I
I added ease of preparation because the friend I was with didn't regognise certain items and therefroe didn't know what to do with them. Perhaps I should have said food knowledge/experience.

I hardly every by prepprepared fruit and veg because I object to the packaging and the keeping qualities once opened.

The same friend is passionate about fair trade though. I do buy it when I can. Things like brown sugar , coffee and the likes.

As far as food miles go I heard something interesting the othrer day. By the very nature of somethings, eg pineapples and bananas have to travel but it's how they do so. Flying stuff in is fairly mad.

My priotrities are season, local and fresh. I am not particularly bothered about them being Bio as long as responsibly produced and with a known provenence Within reason I'm not bothered about cost

[Stokey Sue Profile]

Ah, I see what you mean about ease
I have a great book called The London Cookbook by Jenny Linford, who had the wonderfully simple idea of asking the owners of market stalls and exotic groceries whay they actually did with the less familiar fruit and veg they sold (must have taken a lot of work) and I incline more to that, asking what it is and how to deal with it

Best answer I got was when I asked about cho cho (chayote, christophene) - "They cut it up and boil it, then it's like turnip, but not as exciting"

[Joanbunting Profile]

That's my tack too Sue. They are only too pleased to offer advice In the case of our butcher he has no problem with holding up the entire shop to expand at length and ask advice of others including customers. Its not the same when there is no helpful person to ask or the customer feels hesitant to show their ignorance.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

This reminds me of the time when a group of us were staying at an island Bird Observatory. We took our own booze, several took wine. Everyone could pronounce at length about the virtues of Fair Trade, glass bottles, cork closures, organic, food miles and so on. In fact, we all took the same brand of wine box because it was on special offer at Waitrose...

[Alexandria Profile]

Great thread Joan ..

Definitely agree on: Seasonal & Local, of course quality of the product and must be sustainable or Bio .. And no plastic wrapping.

We buy all our produce ( veggies and fruits ) at: Le Mercat de La Boqueria or the Farmers Markets held throughout the city or just outside of the centre of the city or the El Corte Ingles Hyper Market, which has an amazing Fruit & Vegetable Section, where one can pick and select .. We do not buy wrapped fruit or veggies .. I like to pick my own fruits and veggies, and have my suppliers where I am a regular customer ..

If it has no aroma, we do not buy it as per our Grandmoms and Moms ! Veggies have aromas and of course fruit as well ..


If I am new to a product, I ask questions to my retail suppliers on how to´s ..

Have a lovely day ..

[Renee Profile]

Oh dear, BM! Well that had to do with convenience of course!

Local and seasonal
Freshness
Organic
Price not too important

I'm lucky to have a fish stall on the market which sells fish fresh from the docks in Fleetwood. I can get organic vegetables from another stall on the market and they grow a lot of their own.

I agree about the great thread Joan!

[karadekoolaid Profile]

My first priority has to be fresh. If it's not fresh, then I don't want it.
Secondly, seasonal and local, if possible; and I say "if possible" because there are some items on my shopping list which are simply not available all year round or are not grown nearby.
Price obviously comes into play, but it depends how desperate I am to prepare the item! Sometimes I get a specific request from a client for, let 's say, Crimini mushrooms. So Crimini it is, almost regardless of the cost.

Food miles, equitable, organic really don't enter into the equation when I'm looking for veg.

And finally, ease of preparation - not important at all. In fact, I've been known to buy a new vegetable simply to see what I can do with it.

[Badger's Mate Profile]

Another issue with fruit - ripeness. It can be quite difficult to buy properly ripe fruit. Some unripe fruit will ripen properly at home but some doesn't