Wednesday 15 July 2020

One Week Eating Local (2) Part 1 = The Start

It was last November when I did the One Week of Local Eating, eating only food produced in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex as much as possible - that's nearly 8 months ago - good grief.

I decided it would be interesting to do it again with so much of my own food available and bought brie and butter from the Dairy Farm down the A140

Then from the 'Locally Produced' shelves at the Co-op. Flour from Essex, Hill Farm Garlic Mayonaisse from near Halesworth in Suffolk and  Rapeseed oil from Norfolk. Co-op usually do Hill Farm Rapeseed oil but perhaps that's not available at the moment. Bacon from Brundish (10 miles) and Sausages from Bury St Edmunds



From the garden I've got the first onions, not very big but already the tops have gone over thanks to wind and rain



Also available are aubergines, tomatoes and cucumber from the greenhouse. Courgettes, potatoes, mangetout peas, beetroot and green beans from the garden.

Not a lot of fruit left in the garden as the strawberries have finished, but there are a few raspberries left. Most gooseberries and redcurrants are in the freezer but windfall apples are just about use-able with plenty of cooking and sugar.

The cheapest local eggs are only 80p a half-dozen


Bit blurry, had to take the photo in a hurry as another car pulled up for eggs just behind me.


That's my start position

Back Tomorrow
Sue

18 comments:

  1. What a brilliant idea Sue. If I was physically more mobile I might try this myself - there is nothing as good as local produce. Luckily we have a good local Deli and I have a lady who does my local shopping for me so I only have to get the essentials on a Tesco delivery. I am still not circulating because of lockdown.

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    1. It was fun to do last November so thought I would do it again

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  2. Ah, Marriages! Very local to me. :-)
    A super idea and I'm looking forward to reading all about it.
    xx

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    1. Always Good quality flour I already had Multi grain in the cupboard too

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  3. It should be easier this time with so much coming through from your garden. I think you could include Cambs as it borders Suffolk.

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    1. I probably won't need to include Cambs this time as veg is all homegrown

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  4. It should be so much easier this time, with your own produce to back up the bought in goodies. And it's a good thing to do supporting local businesses especially at this time. Things may be a few pence more to buy but you are helping the local economy instead of the 'big boys'.

    Gosh those eggs are cheap!!

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    1. I thought they were too cheap to be good when I first found them but they are fine - everywhere other gate sales are £1 or nearer £2 at the posh farm shop

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  5. Plenty there to go on with. We can even get local milk (produced 5 miles away) if we go to our local Community Shop. Your garden produce will certainly fill any gaps.

    Our free range chicken from the butcher last week came from Fishguard - my daughter said our butcher was so confident about the source, she almost asked the chicken's name!!

    I think our nearest local flour (stone ground in an old water mill) is at St Dogmael's. There used to be a working mill at Whitemill (6 miles away) but think they are no longer working, which is a shame. We have very local hen/duck/goose eggs from my smallholding neighbour, 1 1/2 miles away.

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    1. I can get milk from the dairy farm but had some open in the fridge so didn't this time.
      I enjoyed our visit to St Dogmaels mill many years ago

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  6. I've never made a point of looking for locally produced food but I'm intrigued now as to what's out there so will keep my eyes open. Brie would definitely be top of my list. xx

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    1. Much easier to do than last November with all my home grown produce.

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  7. There don't appear to be many local producers of goods here, although there are some gourmet brands available and a national supply could be managed (for dairy, flour etc.). I checked to see how big NZ is (compared with your area) and made the surprising discovery that we are 10% bigger than the UK - but have 60 million less people!

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    1. Population of Suffolk is around 740,000. Norfolk around 850,000 and Essex has over 1,400,000. So we are busy places - but less sheep than NZ!

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  8. That's tough to do, though we try to do as much as we can. Well done! And thanks for your visit to Marmelade Gypsy. It was so nice to see you there and your comment. We're all in this together.

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  9. I like that idea of eating local. I haven't done it yet. I keep meaning to. I think it would be a lot easier in the summertime (here at least) as some of the farm shops are open and producing local food. I think if it was just me I'd give it a go.

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  10. Looks like an excellent start to your eating locally. Good luck.

    God bless.

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