Market Fruit and Veg, cheaper? Better?

empy

Market Fruit & Veg, Cheaper? Better?
Good morning:wave: well as today seems to be pay day I have been concentrating on my budget for the month ,its looking ok so far, I think:T . Now the question is, I have decided to give the supermarkets a miss and only use local places and the coop to reduce my food miles. Now I am very fortunate that there is a farm literally at the end of my garden that sells all the meaty and chicken stuff that I need.
I plan to get stuff like washing powder and grocery items from either the coop or the old fashioned arkwrights store in my village. This just leaves fruit and veggies, now in my location I have access to a market on a Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, my question is are market veggies and fruit cheaper and better quality than the coop?

Many thanks
empy

melli_2

empy wrote: »

Market Fruit & Veg, Cheaper? Better?
Good morning:wave: well as today seems to be pay day I have been concentrating on my budget for the month ,its looking ok so far, I think:T
I plan to get stuff like washing powder and grocery items from either the coop or the old fashioned arkwrights store in my village. This just leaves fruit and veggies, now in my location I have access to a market on a Tuesday, Friday and Saturday, my question is are market veggies and fruit cheaper and better quality than the coop?
. Now the question is, I have decided to give the supermarkets a miss and only use local places and the coop to reduce my food miles. Now I am very fortunate that there is a farm literally at the end of my garden that sells all the meaty and chicken stuff that I need.
Many thanks
empy

I guess it depends on the type of market.
If it's a farmers market stuff tends to last for a quiet a while. But at the local street market I have to use stuff almost straight away (or within the next few days). The pound bowls I sometimes get are also the same

rachbc

It varies tbh. My local town market is excellent quality and cheaper than the supermarkets, the big city market is cheap as chips but the quality is more varied - though I have to say still generally good - you just have to maybe be a bit more carefull about using stuff like soft fruit/ stone fruit more quickly and use stalls that let you choose your own rather than serve you from behind the counter

Butterfly_Brain

There is only one of the two fruit and veg stalls that I use at our market. The quality is always good and it is all locally sourced they have competitive prices as well and are much cheaper than Asda which is low quality and high prices or Aldi with low quality and cheap prices.
The biggest plus point is that you are greeted with a smile and a how are you every time:)

LameWolf

It varies tremendously; I think the only way to find out is to give it a try.

The big veggie stall at the monthly Farmers Market I go to isn't so good; I've bought stuff there before now, got it home and taken it out of its bag, only to find it's already going off!:mad: I don't purchase there any more. I do still go to the Farmers Market, as there's an excellent cheesemonger there, and other stalls I buy from - I just give the veggie stall a miss.

However the fruit'n'veg stall on Stony Stratford weekly Saturday market seems to be very good; the produce is reasonably priced, and keeps well, and they generally have a good selection of stuff. That's where I shop for my f'n'v now.

Farway

As others say, it depends, we only have one veg stall at the local market, no cheaper than local ASDA TBH, and quality is a bit hit & miss, I stopped using them and just get from supermarkets now

tryingtoruletheworld

I guess they do vary a fair bit. I use a local box scheme and top up from an organic veggie stall at the local farmers market which is very good value, even compared to the supermarket value brands! I am also lucky to live near a couple of farm shops, fruit and veg shops and pick your own fruit places.

It is worth trying all of the different options to see what suits you best, or use a mixture of all of them, it works for me! I also prefer using the markets etc as I can either take my own reusable bags/containers for the fruit and veg, rather than buying it in plastic boxes and bags that seem to fill up my bin in seconds, or use the paper bags they offer.

empy

Thank you for your replies, well in the end I decided I prefered to have organic so went to a local farmshop that sells organic produce, TBH the quality was not that great and it was incredibly expensive considering the quality :- S. In the end I have just ordered a box from Riverford to try, my veg and fruit are coming from sacrell farm- anyone have any experience with either Riverford or Sacrell Farm?

Emma

zippychick

Hi Empy:j

I'll move this over to shopping and groceries once you have more OS input

Thanks:A
Zip

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The_Thrilla

Market is cheaper and it tastes better, but it's not open Sundays or bank holidays. Some of the big car boot sales have at least one costermonger.

rosalie-lavender

empy wrote: »

Thank you for your replies, well in the end I decided I prefered to have organic so went to a local farmshop that sells organic produce, TBH the quality was not that great and it was incredibly expensive considering the quality :- S. In the end I have just ordered a box from Riverford to try, my veg and fruit are coming from sacrell farm- anyone have any experience with either Riverford or Sacrell Farm?

Emma

I use Riverford and have found their quality very good and the veg lasts a long time. I don't know which farm ours comes from though. I have also tried Abel and Cole and they are quite good too.

I have found veg stalls in our area are very hit and miss quality wise. I looked at some grapes on Saturday and wasn't impressed and didn't buy them. I will get them from Tesco's instead.

We did have a really good veg stall but they all swop pitches and he has moved on elswhere. The family that took over used to offer bulk deals on stuff they wanted to get rid of and I used to get some good bargains if I timed it right. They seemed to have moved on too and the stall that is there now is not brilliant. They were selling strawberries three punnets for a pound on Saturday. That would have been a good price if they hadn't been going mouldy and fit for little more than the bin. The rest of their stuff was ok but not brilliant and the grapes didn't look too fresh so I gave them a miss.

I also tried out the farmers market and found the veg past it's best.