Where Do You Buy Your Fruit?

[Xeronema]

Recently I've been buying all my fruit (not vegetables as I'm a bit of a salad dodger) from the local market which runs every Friday morning. With some types of fruit, such as apples and melons, I've noticed a huge difference in quality (flavour, freshness, etc).

I'm interested to find out where all you fellow AB'ers buy your fruit. Do you buy it from your local market/grocers or the supermarket? ]

I suppose this question should also be open to cover vegetables as well as fruit; just because I'm a salad dodger doesn't mean I'm not interested to know.

Thanks in advance :)

[venator]

Costco for bulk like potatoes and onions - excellent premium quality - occasionally buy their soft fruit -v. pricey, but Californian. Mushrooms & tomatoes too, but only when we can use a bulk buy.

A 20 minute drive to Kenyon Hall Farm - excellent farm shop - the asparagus is just coming in now. They do superb pick your own - the whole range of soft fruit, and they import a pallet of Italian produce every week. If you're anywhere near, it's worth a trip http://www.kenyonhall.co.uk/

Pop into Bent's while you're in the area - if M&S did a garden centre, this is it http://www.bents.co.uk/

We have a Tesco Local 2 minutes up the road in our little village, and we shop carefully for odds and ends.

Sorry, rambling again ...

[ummmm]

I was chatting to my son about blackberries. I'd bought a punnet for £2 to make a sauce (my son robbed them for his photography assignment)

When I was a kid we used to be able to pick them freely and now they're charging £2!!

Also....what happened to all the caterpillars? Again, when I was a kid all the weeds were covered in black and yellow caterpillars. I haven't seen one for years.

[graeme74]

i buy honey crunch apples from asda delicious

[Retrochic]

Ummmmm there are loads of blackberries in hedgerows in September you just have to actually go outside and look ;-) As for caterpillars -I can send you plenty out of my garden if you really want them in various colours and sizes.

[thugulike]

I buy all my regular fruit and veg from Aldi. They mostly sell out each day and don't keep the food in cold storage which makes it taste much better. I have a relative who is a fruit and veg inspector and he reckons Aldi fruit and veg is the freshest around. I only go elsewhere for things like fennel or celeriac which Aldi don't sell.

[ummmm]

Not many hedgerows round here nowadays.

I go outside everyday...to the shop and back :-)

[EcclesCake]

I buy most of my fruit through via an organic veg box delivery company and top up with visits to farmers markets and farm shops. Occasionally I'll pick up bits in the supermarket but not often.

I am a slave to the seasons and prefer to eat fruit when it is in season and at its peak. Obviously when it comes to exotics I make an exception, but you'll never find me buying raspberries in December.

[maggiebee]

Aldi for me. Their Braeburn apples are delish.

[Stephen_G]

Usually from my local Sainsbury's.

I can get nine or ten fairtrade Bananas for about £1.20, but I once bought a similar amount from an indoor market stall in town and the guy charged me £2.40!

[paddywak]

We had a man and wife open a traditional style green grocers in the village a couple of years ago after a bit os a shakey start they are now doing wellas Tish says they might be a bit more expensive then the local Tesco but you get what you pay for,the customers obviously don't mind the place is always busy.

[Retrochic]

I don't agree that local greengrocers can be fresher than supermarkets. Local shops buy from cash and carry outlets in bulk and from experience leave their produce out on display a lot longer than the supermarkets who have a much quicker turnover. Bendy carrots and parsnips, crinkly leeks and sprouting potatoes are the norm in the greengrocer near where I work yet people still buy them because they think its somehow better. If I have to buy veg in the winter I buy frozen, but I freeze a lot of garden veg anyway so only buy peas and sweetcorn.

[ummmm]

I've never seen sprouting spuds in our local greengrocers. It's always busy as well so I assume the turnover is similar to supermarkets.

[Retrochic]

Ummmm like you said about the blackberries, it depends where you live and local population.

[ummmm]

I used to come home with handfuls of them. Such a shame that my kids have never experienced it.

[cazzz1975]

We have black and redberries growing outside my house, I see quite a lot of people nicking/picking them in the summer months

[woofgang]

supermarkets. We have got a local greengrocer but the produce is poor quality and costs more.