Best place for Fruit & Vegetables

oldMcDonald

I believe that it is worth while finding a GOOD greengrocer that you can tame

Some greengrocers are just pants and not worth bothering with at all, signs of bad greengrocers are wrinkled oranges and apples, soft onions and brown speckled bananas. All of this indicates a long-turnover of produce and so items are not as fresh as could be. Bananas are picked green and ripen as they are shipped, when opening a box of bananas they are still green but with a little yellow. If shops bananas are going brown they have been out for a while.

Once you find your greengrocer be nice to them and make friends with them and ask questions. Independant ones are usually interested in what they sell (unlike supermarkets), and are happy to share information how to cook different things. For example, we would be happy to cut melons etc for the customer to try.

Most greengrocers are cheaper than the supermarket for seasonal produce and independant ones will often buy seasonal items such as courgettes and tomatoes from local gardeners.

I personally wouldn't buy from markets. They tend to sell cheaply as they buy cheaply - with fruit and veg this can be due to a special offer at the wholesalers as it has been 'sitting about' for a couple of days and needs to be shifted. As a result it tends to have a short shelf-life once you get it home.

I don't like to buy fruit and veg from supermarkets on principle. Many small shops are put out of business by supermarkets. Whilst greengrocers and butchers etc can be cheaper, most poeple will be in the supermarket for their main shop and will buy veg and meat there for ease, thus killing off villages and independant shops locally.

I think in the end the best place to shop depends on what you are after, price, ease, parking....but as an ex-greengrocer I like to stand up and shout for the small shop!!

nicki_2

I buy fresh fruit from Asda, simply because the alternatives around here (apart from a 6 mile round walk or £2.20 return trip on a bus to town for Lidl/market stalls) are Aldi (our store is not that good I've found and more expensive than Asda SP), Co-op (very expensive!) or green-grocers (everything is bruised and likely to go off before I've used it!) but veg I've taken to buying frozen, except for potatoes and salad ingrediants. We just don't go through enough veg fast enough after shopping to warrant fresh veg during warm weather. In the winter I'm more likely to buy root veg for stews so I buy that fresh but also from Asda. Tesco's is not local enough for me to shop there for stuff unless I'm near it but I always find their stuff goes off fast as well

Now we're growing most of the veg I would buy and I don't think you can get much fresher than straight out your garden :rotfl: But this is just my experience.

leeegglestone

im the same, livin alone i didnt think buyin fresh veg would be a good move as i either would get bored or wouldnt eat it so frozen is best.

Have just bought some Bananas and Pairs in the Co op

lynzpower

My parents ran successful green grocery shops until high st rents went up so much they backed out. They loved thier business, as did the locals, and the quality of the produce was known far & wide. My parents supplied a number of resturaunts, hotels etc too. My dad now works in importing fruit & veg ( he wont discuss food miles :rolleyes:) and I note the blinding contrast of whats available through greengrocers in manchester compared to the poor quiality in london.

Farm shops are fab ( there are some up in Cheshire with freebies outside as well) but it just doesnt happen near me here AFAIK. So its supermarkets for me. At least if I buy from waitrose then I know that there are support systems in place for the workers ( with the john lewwis partnership) and that thier produce isnt made under the same slave situations as say, asdas.

I do usually buy at tescos at the mo, cos Im skint, but quite a lot of value stuff is grown in Kent, which is about the best I can do at the mo! If you use lettuce, you can grow your own in a bit of compost, mine are coming on a treat, and you only need to use what you use not buy a big bag that will end up going off ( and covered in all sorts of chemicals etc)

recovering_spendaholic

leeegglestone wrote:

lol what the hell did you do with them.

Nah im not near a market unfortunately.
The thing i keep wondering about is if I buy fresh stuff, wont i have too much for just myself, end up wasting it or it going off quickly. how longs it usually last if it doesnt have a date on.

It does go off quite quickly, but if you can find a greengrocer nearby then you can buy a little bit at a time without having to go to the supermarket, where all kinds of other temptations are on view urging one to spend more!! You can alsomake stuff like mashed carrot and swede and freeze it. Sometimes I think that frozen peas, beans, chopped onions and sweetcorn are essentials and I would not buy fresh, and other times I like to get fresh ones. Also in the supermarket you can buy all stuff loose and they sell stuff like half melons and half cabbages too.

Mrs(no)money

It's interesting to see the replies to this thread - there seems to be regional variations. Here, where a lot of the land is farmland, you'd think there'd be veg galore at rock bottom prices - but it isnt unfortunately. The local market is pretty good but only if its produce thats in season, and even then, because they add up without a calculator, they can be expensive!! Other than that, its waitrose (bendy broccoli and brown caulis) or co-op. Again, both quite expensive. Strangely, both shops have best veg on a Wednesday after 11am. Does this mean they only have one delivery of veg a week? In which case, frozen probably has more vitamins by the weekend!!

On the plus side, OH parents have a huge garden and grow almost everything and often give us some, (complete with creepy crawlies!!) :eek: Thats when you know its fresh!!:T

tobymangel

Used my local market this morning to get my fruit and veg and meat this is the first time been in but have been inspired by this money saving site.

Anyway i was really impressed with the price f+v came to £4 usually spend around £8 or £9 on the same stuff what i found i benifited from was as i'm only buying for myself i could just buy the amount i needed rather than a large amount of pre-packed which i wont use up quickly enough.

The only problem i found was that i was unsure of the weights when she asked me how much i wanted of each item, just shows how much we rely on supermarkets doing everything for us and just picking up pre-packed produce that isn't of the quality i picked up today.

So anyone with any advice for next time i go ? she weiged it all in lbs and I did alright on carrots but only ended up with about 5 mushrooms which wont last long the woman did seem willing to help but there was a queue forming and i felt a bit pressured and left without the lettuce for my lunch so had to go to spar which at 99p pretty much messed up my savings i'd made.:mad:

wigginsmum

I'm fortunate enough to live a couple of minutes' walk from a huge 24-hour international supermarket (Turkish-owned, I think) with superb fruit and veg at very reasonable prices and self-selection. And failing that, there's the Saturday market.

In terms of filling bags I just tell them to start filling and I'll tell them when to stop. Meat I tend to buy a lb at a time from their butcher's section.