Buying local - I'm puzzled

jezman_g

Clearly, all local shops are not the same. It's easy to imagine 'small shops good, supermarkets bad'. This is only half right (supermarkets ARE bad, co-op excepted, but small shops are not necessarily good). Don't let a bad one put you off all of them, though. If you get bad food from them, let them know. If they're rude in reply, don't go back.

mah_jong

powie69 wrote:

...............as I cannot afford to shop in small overpriced places all of the time.

I cant afford to shop in the overpriced supermarket with lax attitude to offers and promotions. (I questioned why why items had not gone through till as BOGOF despite the shelf clearly marked....... turns out after some to and froing and supervisor called that the pomotion was due to start 'tomorrow' but they would let me have it BOGOF ! I wonder just how many others with out MS savvy had been conned!!!)

I go through any reciept like an inventory ! However its weeks since I graced its doors and hope it will be many more!

(rant over ....sorry of you have read this before on the rant board!!!)

paul_h

jezman_g wrote:

Clearly, all local shops are not the same. It's easy to imagine 'small shops good, supermarkets bad'. This is only half right (supermarkets ARE bad, co-op excepted, but small shops are not necessarily good). Don't let a bad one put you off all of them, though. If you get bad food from them, let them know. If they're rude in reply, don't go back.

This is very true - there's good and bad out there - you just got to find the best from experience. Look for the busiest shops in towns, especially towards the weekends. Talk to the butchers, grocers, etc., find out where their produce comes from.

Look out for the farm shops around your area, even in towns they can often be found on the outskirts. Check out these websites to see what's in your area -

http://www.farmshopping.com/

http://www.bigbarn.co.uk/

Incidentally, living in a rural area, we have a farmer's market in the local town - but we find that the produce is of variable quality, and the prices tend to be high - we feel lucky to have our excellent mobile butcher who pulls up 30 yards from our front door...

frosty

I buy all my veg from a local farm,they have a portacabin at the side of the road, yesterday when I went to buy my veg the tractor had just pulled up outside,it was full of freshly picked veg......large caulies 50p....onions 30p for six..........giant cabbages 50p........large sacks of potatoes £3.00........swedes 50p...if nobody comes out to serve, you write what you have in the book and leave the money in the box.

Debt_Free_Chick

I wouldn't say that meat from a local butcher is always cheaper, although in my case is often is. However, there are two things about supermarket meat ....

Firstly, you need to be sure that you're comparing like-with-like. Supermarkets sell "braising steak" or "stewing beef" etc ... but what exactly is it? I like to know the cut of the meat I'm buying e.g. skirt, shin etc. I'm sure that Supermarkets in general sell very cheap cuts of meat at over-inflated prices, simply by giving them attractive labels. I use a lot of thriftier cuts of meat for slow cooking, but you simply can't tell what the supermarket is selling you.

Also, supermarkets tend to stock far more "prime cuts" of meat, with prices to match, than they do slow-cooking thriftier meat. We make HM beefburgers from beef skirt ... try and get that in the supermarket :eek:

Supermarkets do sell "cheap meat", but it's often imported - inferior quality, food miles, not properly hung, tough, tasteless etc .... I prefer to spend a little more on good meat and find savings elsewhere.

Watch out for butchers that are really just meat supermarkets i.e. simply buying cuts at the wholesaler and putting them on the counter. A test for your butcher .... ask for breast of lamb. The butcher should go out to the back cold-store for this - it's so unusual for people to buy this nowadays, that they rarely, if ever, put it out on display. Butcher should then ask you if you'd like it boned & rolled and if so, he'll do it there and then.

If your chosen butcher can't supply breast of lamb, he may well be just a meat supermarket. Another "test" of mine is to ask for the soft beef bones from around the brisket. Both of these "tests" should reveal a butcher that actually buys carcasses and "butchers" them ... rather than huge vac-packed cuts of meat from the wholesaler.

I am very lucky to have a local Butcher & Grazier .... as a grazier, he buys young stock from the local livestock market and rears them to slaughter. He's currently supplying half a pig, butchered, for £60 and a whole lamb for the same price! He can't label it as organic as he's not registered with the soil association, but just talking to him reveals that he rears his animals with love & care in an old-fashioned natural way. He supplies the best meat I've ever had.

You have to work a little to find a good butcher, but once you do, it might be worth making a special trip to a good butcher to stock up the freezer, rather than buying meat weekly (or more often) in the supermarket.

Finally .... I can buy well-hung beef, direct from the farmer, mail order cheaper than the price that Sainsbury charge for the Jamie range.

My conclusions are .... prime cuts of meat are more expensive and inferior quality in the supermarket. Cheap cuts of supermarket meat are "cheap for a reason" and the kind of meat I wouldn't buy at any price!

Regards

culpepper

We live in the county town but have only one butcher and one greengrocer.Although the fruit and veg is sometimes cheaper than Asda's,it is sometimes more expensive and beggars cant be choosers. The butcher is always more expensive(I suppose they think there is no choice so they can charge what they like).

Fay

I always buy my meat from the local butcher and having got to know him quite I can always have a natter and talk about recipes with him. I find that some things there are cheapter than in the supermarket i.e. bacon and sausages for a start; however, most of the meat I buy is more expensive than from a supermarket. But the reason for this is that I get better quality and bigger portions than I would in the supermarket. Instead of having small lamb chops from Asda, I buy large lamb steaks from the butcher...they are a bit more expensive (but lamb chops are dear in asda anyway) but not massively so, and they are all meat and lovely. It really is worth it.

I also like the butcher because he will supply me with what I want e.g. I had half a pound of minced pork on saturday...wouldn't get that in a supermarket! hehe

Kantankrus_Mare

I must admit that when I have time I will always get my fruit and veg from a small shop rather than at Asda.

I can often get two bags frull of stuff such as peppers, mushrooms.onions.cauli,bananas, spring onions, salad bits and pieces for about 6 quid!!

No way asda can compete with this.....I feel they charge way over the odds for mushrooms and peppers which I use lots of.

With the money I save here I will use the best butcher in town which although some may say is expensive, there is nothing wasted, I know exactly what Im getting and he has different offers on each week so that if I plan it right I dont pay full price for anything and get my freezer stuffed with food.

I am in the process of comparing tinned foods and basics as we are still lucky enough to have a Kwik save in our town and wondering if its worth boycotting these products at asda as well?

Hubby laughs at me as sometimes its only pennies you save but as I always say......looka after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves!

MrsRogers

I thought I would resurrect this thread as seems to have been a good debate.

My husband and and I have just returned from France where we went self catering and had some fantastic meat.. this inspired me when we got home to go and buy from our local butcher who incidentally has a fantastic reputation.

WOW WOW WOW The meat quality and taste was fantastic.

I feel a bit stupid and really very annoyed to have been sucked in by these supermarkets. I am a farmers daughter and have eaten 'proper' meat all through my upbringing my husband too has always eaten proper butcher bought meat (his mother and mine still do). Yet its taken us to go on holiday abroad to re discover decent meat.

I am annoyed at myself for being sucked in by these supermarkets and I am annoyed that I have been feeding my family inferior meat quality at pretty much the same price for so long.:mad:

Apologies rant over... :A

If like me you buy your meat from the supermarkets I urge you to go and try your local butcher..

DH and I have made a decision now that EVERY Friday will be butcher day so we dont get sucked back in!

ubamother

I'm very lucky in that my little high street has a great greengrocer and several very good butchers. The meat isn't always cheaper than the supermarkets, but I know where it comes from, and if I want something specific I can ring up the butchers and ask for it, and they'll get it ready for me. I've known our butcher for 13 years, and if I need stuff and am not well enough to get into the shop, he'll pop my order to my house on his way home. If I'm planning food for a camp with hordes of kids, I can go to my greengrocer, go through what I'll want and he'll box it and take it to my car and put it in. Because I shop there several times a week, for big orders for camps he usually charges me cost, and always happily supplies free boxes of strawberries once a year for the church fair's chocolate fountain!

The kind of service I get in both shops can't be bought - and often my husband and I can spend 20 minutes in each shop chatting with the owners and staff on a Saturday morning. Every week the butcher and his wife give my son a packet of crisps and lots of kisses and cuddles, and he gets a plum, apple etc. from the greengrocer - they've watched him grow since birth (he's now 11) and that sense of caring safe community enriches his life (and ours) tremendously - if it takes a village to raise a child that's exactly what we have, and I'm very thankful.

Oooh, haven't I got all passionate!! My advice is to become a regular if you can - and shopping becomes so much less anonymous and a lot more fun.