Thursday 19 September 2019

Why I Don't Regularly Shop at Farm Shops

I was on my way home from Ipswich when I remembered that there was no fresh fresh fruit for the weekend but coming home the back country road way meant I didn't go by any shops except being near the Hog and Hen farm shop that opened two years  ago.

So I called in and bought a few local things that I wouldn't usually buy, an experiment - and a weekend treat.

  • The James White Pear and Raspberry is locally produced fruit juice, it's delicious........but expensive. BUT then I noticed in small print "made in Suffolk from imported produce". Not so local after all then.
  • The punnet of Strawberries were local, and tasted better than many I've eaten from shops this year...............but expensive and by the end of Sunday even though they were in the fridge some had gone squidgy so I think had been in the shop a few days.
  • The mushroom - just 1 large one for an omelette, well it was local but was just a mushroom! and when I came to slice it up it was more akin to leather ....old I think.......and VERY expensive.
  • The "misc cheese" wasn't cheese but Butter from Suffolk Farmhouse Cheeses  where I visited with WI a couple of months ago. The owner said they were about to become the only place in Suffolk producing it's own butter so I thought I'd try some.It's beautiful butter but £3.25 for  250g is also VERY expensive.

I thought about doing a Blog Challenge of shopping and eating only local foods for a month but maybe it will be for just one week or I'll be bankrupt!


Thank you for all the comments about figs...love them, but only fresh....much too gritty when dried.

Back Tomorrow
Sue

24 comments:

  1. We used to have a local farm shop with butchers, it was expensive all those years ago, back in the day when I wrote cheques for shopping. I dread to think what the prices would be like now. It is nice to by local, I like a market.

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  2. The one we go to once or twice a year has its own meat, which is excellent, if pricey, but the veg always looks so tired. Lovely idea to shop in them, but not for sub-standard produce!

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  3. We used to buy local butter in slabs wrapped in greaseproof, cheese, eggs and fresh vegetables down in our indoor market in town - very cheaply back then but now put the word 'farm' in front of the shop and the prices suddenly escalate. Some produce in farm shops, like jams, are still mass made they just have fancier more appealing lables but the content is still just fruit and sugar. Farm shops are enticing to look round and they do present the food well but you can find the same things elsewhere much cheaper.

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  4. I agree with all of you. It's an experience visiting a farm shop but in no way can it be described as frugal. I like one the other side of town but it's not close and it is costly. Nice as a treat now and again.
    xx

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  5. We went to a posh garden center with a farm shop this week, and again the prices were unreal, I love game so I was drawn to the chiller, but the prices were beyond us, even for the smallest piece of meat.

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  6. To me a farm shop should only be locally produced stuff....whatever they sell but the one nearest to us has stuff from all over. I think the only thing you can safely say is local is the meat so I sometimes buy that and now and again a bottle of Aspall's Golden Malt Vinegar which I can't seem to find anywhere else now.
    Hugs-x-

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    1. Aspalls factory is just a few miles from me. They used to be a family company but got took over by a big US? company last year

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  7. I love the idea of using all your local shops and produce and we have a very good farm shop about two miles away. However I have only around £50 to feed four of us for the week so all of it is prohibitively expensive. Fiona x

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  8. Farm shops are a funny subject. The farm opposite me sells anything it grows and produces from a rough wooden pallet in the farm gateway; cider, plums, pears, eggs, runner beans etc. 8 miles up the road is a place calling itself a Farm Shop which looks like a supermarket with concrete path and parking. The produce comes from allover and even some things are tinned. The former is a farm shop, the latter has gone beyond the definition. I do not expect to get things cheap because we are spoilt/ruined by the supermarkets when it comes to pricing but I do expect things in a farm shop to be home made and home grown.

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    1. The best "farm shop" I've ever seen was the one we used to have at the gate at the smallholding! - all our own produce - I do miss that

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  9. I get so annoyed that we are all being conned all of the time. We buy in good faith and then get fiddled
    Briony
    x

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  10. I have been irritated to realise 'local' foodstuffs aren't what they first seem. And yes, they do seem to be very expensive. My OH declared this week "you can add 50p to the price simply by putting the word 'artisanal' on the label". In Norfolk I buy eggs from the farmer round the corner. They are same price as Tesco free range - and I'm happy that more goes direct to the producer, and the chicken lives (almost) within walking distance of my kitchen!

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    1. Yes eggs are one of the few things that I can buy really locally- as in half a mile- although they don't have them all year round so not reliable

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  11. It's a fine line between shop local or shop affordable. We all want to do the noble thing, but then I see these local producers pulling up in Tesco, Morrison's or Aldi to do their own weekly shop, so not exactly supporting local and a huge bushel of double standards!

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  12. I know that feeling. I attempted to shop at a lovely greengrocers in the next town, it cost a fortune, took ages to get there and back and most of the produce wasn't all that local.

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  13. Same is true here Sue - our freshest and most reliable source of all fresh produce is our fantastic Co-op.

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  14. There is one farm shop near us that really is a farm shop, but a lot are just rural delis with prices to match. I went into an award-winning one and asked where they kept the fresh veg and the assistant looked at me as if I had asked to buy drugs! That was my first and only visit. If I want to buy olive oil and upmarket preserves I can find them a lot cheaper at the supermarket.

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  15. It is unfortunate that something so appealing as a Farm Shop can be so expensive. You would think that as there were no "middlemen" it would be the opposite. It would be amazing if one of them started a tend of cheaper prices.

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  16. I wonder why a farm shop would have such expensive items for sale? Seems a bit counter productive to me.

    God bless.

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  17. The tourist flytraps called farmshops ..lol all the locals buy from the gate shops and the big local markets , if you cant get veg cheap here there is something wrong we are surrounded by it

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  18. We have a couple of stalls each week selling fresh produce grown locally but sadly it is about 30 miles away from our little cottage and whilst good not cost effective unless I am in town that day.

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  19. Oh dear...kind of defeats the object then doesn't it. Maybe rather than a farm shop you need to visit a good old fashioned market! x

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  20. I miss the green grocer in England. Over here there are what are called Farmer's Markets but things can be quite expensive. I know that food prices are on the rise over there but fresh fruit and veg is way cheaper. I'm cringing now that I'm back and spending what I am on food for us.

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