Prepping for Brexit thread

C_J

I think that working from home (for those able to) will continue in the future, with our work/home life becoming more balanced - employers have seen that their staff can be just as productive from their home offices as from their work offices, and I think there will be a degree of flexibility to maintain a combination of both of these going forward. If busy mums and dads aren’t spending hours every day commuting, there may be the opportunity to visit a weekly produce market (and to have more time to cook from scratch).  I think the future is going to look quite different in many respects.

[Deleted User]

We're in a pretty much rural area and so are all the villages locally, we don't have big supermarkets just a Co op and that's fierce on pricing.  We also have allotments and supply a lot of our own fruit and veg but it's not farmers markets in our village halls it's local produce markets for the smallholders and those who run  small scale farming businesses, they still exist here and the weekly markets keep them in business.  The prices are higher than in supermarkets but not so huge as in the Co Op and the produce is fresh.  It helps not living in a crowded city centre and having to rely on   Farmers Markets, I always feel they see people coming and follow the latest food fads, I can live without Buffalo Cheese and Llama milk!

greenbee

A lot of artisan food producers are doing very good business online. Entrepreneurs are generally pretty adaptable and have moved business to where the customers are. Lots of them say it's better business too - they make what they have orders for, so there is less waste, and they don't spend all day sitting at a stall. Some deliver direct, some deliver to local retailers who act as distribution points. For those who don't go online, advertising in the parish magazine means that they have access to these producers via phone. 

The markets round here are primarily for the tourists rather than locals - certainly the farmers' markets. And much of what appears at the charter markets (standard ones, not farmers' ones) is anything but local. When the farmer's markets are back GQ, maybe you should take a stall and sell your artisan, hand-raised leeks and 'feral' chard  

GreyQueen

Ah, but selling produce of council allotments like mine is completely against allotment rules. The leeks have been shared with the family but the majority are still in-ground. I'll be having a few up tomorrow, to see me over the week. I love leeks, they grow with mininal tending - have hoed mine once since planting out - and give a lot of bang for your buck. Don't think many folk would thank you for a posy of chard leaves as a gift, frankly, it's quite a strong taste, not many like them.

The feral chards are presently about 2 feet tall, these same plants will be over 6 feet by the end of the summer. I just garden around them and pull bits off them at need.

Toonie

GreyQueen said:

Pre Covid, we had a bi-monthly farmers' market in the city centre. I'd have a brief look at loaves of bread in the £3-£7 range, and small pots of jam at about £5, and locally produced cheeses, the cheapest of which was £18 a kilo. Lovely stuff, I am sure, but way beyond my pocket and way beyond the pockets of the majority of consumers. Good job I have access to non-artisanal industrial agriculture food (and the allotment produce) or I would be very skinny and starved in no time at all.

Same with our farmers market on a Sunday, I used to be able to get chicken carcasses, a load of potatoes, carrots and cabbage, and a loaf of bread and a lump of cheese for £5 (around 4 years ago). But now that £5 is a sourdough loaf (which I can make at home for about a quid for twice the size), let alone slices of cake for £4 or cookies for £3, and lately hot food stalls which are mega expensive for what is essentially fast food.

GreyQueen

I'm sorry to hear that your bargains have gone away, those you listed would have been the basis of several hearty home-cooked meals.  I could have lived the week on those, with perhaps the additon of some eggs. I do smile inwardly at farmers' markets, or at least the version I get to see as a country person living in a smallish city with a very close rural hinterland. It does somewhat smack of the ex-urban luvvies playing shepherdesses a la Marie Antoinette. Still, they're keeping some old skills alive and there are worse things people could be doing with their time than making artisanal cheeses, aren't they?

So long as it's not Tiffany Aching with that semi-sentinent cheese whose name escapes me......... wanders off to do something creative with the 2.5 kg of spuds which Tesco were selling in Christmas week for a mere 25p.

Primrose

I think a lot of these producers are perhaps banking on the fact that some peope are working from home and thus saving considerable work commuting costs so have spare cash for these things but for many now unemployed, these costs are do completely beyond them.   The problem is that when you produce some of these "artisan" foods for yourself you realise how cheaply they can be produced and how much profit the makers must be making.  I love "artisan" type markets but having produced a lot of home made stuff over the years can rarely bring myself to pay their high prices.

GreyQueen

Of course jam is mostly sugar, and sugar is very very cheap. One of my spies and informants inside British Sugar has told me in the last few weeks that there is a lot of sugar stored up from previous years, so anyone who is worrying that might be a problem can put that one to bed, as it were.

greenbee

GQ, my entire village is currently full of ex-urban luvvies playing shepherdesses. The small-holding up the road was sold on, and you can now get eggs there which is great. Except at £1.70 for 6 and cash only in a locked cash box it's wildly impractical. Who has cash in a pandemic? Also the cashbox was nicked and everyone said how terrible it was for that to happen in such a nice village. There's a reason people use jam-jars - a. you can find your own change and b. people don't steal a box that's worth more than the cash in it... When they started selling bunches of garden flowers the prices were so high people thought they included the vases. They need to remember that everyone here has their own gardens!

The farmer up the road is going back to selling eggs and veg at the farm gate, and possibly also milk. I think he's a bit late to the party though, as so many people signed up with M&M during the first lockdown and they're unlikely to switch unless he buys stuff in - the best option would probably be for him to partner with the village shop and between them they could do shop/delivery and cover all needs (the shop is owned by a local sheep & cattle farmer so sells local meat already - and they also partner with the butcher in the next village but their veg is terrible as turnover is low). 

TBH I think most people like the idea of buying the odd box of eggs/jar of honey (we have a beekeeper in the village who sells through the shop and pub) from the gate, but are happy to have everything else delivered by the many supermarket that you see constantly in the village. 

GreyQueen

Horace! Tiffany made Horace the cheese who achieved a type of sentinent life. Love Pratchett, mayherestinpeace.