The importance of local links and daily chats
When you begin reading this post you may think it is totally unrelated to my usual blog subject matter, but read on, I promise it's relevant - honest!
I would like to tell you about our local greengrocers, for many reasons.
The first is that although it is rather dinky, it is cute and painted a sunny yellow inside, and full of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables. At the moment I am particularly enjoying their perfectly ripe and juicy nectarines and their avacados, plums and cherries. Fruit is my favourite snack and the only way for me to avoid eating chocolate bars.
I digress.... The second and very important reason is that this Greengrocers is run by a friendly and fun couple called Brian and Anne. They make everyone welcome and are always so chatty.
They love hearing about the antics of Wolfgang and Daphne and what I'm going to have for dinner and all sorts. They are just plain lovely.
They also now stock my full range of greetings cards! It all came about in a slightly odd way, but as I always say, sometimes it is worth just asking a polite question and see where it takes you. As I was paying for my big bag of nectarines yesterday I dug around in my handbag for my wallet and my fingers found the little bag of leftover cards that I'd had in there from the weekend (when I'd taken a sample of my cards to a gift shop when we drove out for a countryside jaunt). I pulled them out and found myself saying, half jokingly, "I don't suppose you'd like to try selling these would you?"
Dear Anne immediately said yes, of course and a deal was promptly settled on, which consists of them selling my cards for me for no charge and me supplying them with a regular recipe to put on their noticeboard. They'd been pestering me (gently) for another recipe sheet as the last one had been there for several weeks already. I can't help fiddling around with images and words; any excuse will do. So one day when I'd borrowed a book of soup recipes from the library and found a tasty looking one involving bacon, Savoy Cabbage and potato I asked them to find me a Savoy Cabbage. True to their efficient and reliable service, the next morning as I walked by on my way to work, Anne waved me in to show me the luscious green beauty that had just arrived. So, Andy and I cooked our soup, photographed it because we were so chuffed with it, ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I then printed out the recipe and photo to make a kind of advert to show customers what they could use this lovely produce for, and gave it to Brian and Anne one day and thus something fun and special has been born. We had a lovely Cauliflower from Brian and Anne the other day which we used for a Cauliflower and Gruyere cheese soup. It was rather tasty and extremely comforting, basically Cauliflower cheese in a bowl. Yum.
Daphne and Wolfgang are also really pleased when I've been to the greengrocers in my lunch break.
When you begin reading this post you may think it is totally unrelated to my usual blog subject matter, but read on, I promise it's relevant - honest!
I would like to tell you about our local greengrocers, for many reasons.
The first is that although it is rather dinky, it is cute and painted a sunny yellow inside, and full of lovely fresh fruit and vegetables. At the moment I am particularly enjoying their perfectly ripe and juicy nectarines and their avacados, plums and cherries. Fruit is my favourite snack and the only way for me to avoid eating chocolate bars.
They love hearing about the antics of Wolfgang and Daphne and what I'm going to have for dinner and all sorts. They are just plain lovely.
They also now stock my full range of greetings cards! It all came about in a slightly odd way, but as I always say, sometimes it is worth just asking a polite question and see where it takes you. As I was paying for my big bag of nectarines yesterday I dug around in my handbag for my wallet and my fingers found the little bag of leftover cards that I'd had in there from the weekend (when I'd taken a sample of my cards to a gift shop when we drove out for a countryside jaunt). I pulled them out and found myself saying, half jokingly, "I don't suppose you'd like to try selling these would you?"
Dear Anne immediately said yes, of course and a deal was promptly settled on, which consists of them selling my cards for me for no charge and me supplying them with a regular recipe to put on their noticeboard. They'd been pestering me (gently) for another recipe sheet as the last one had been there for several weeks already. I can't help fiddling around with images and words; any excuse will do. So one day when I'd borrowed a book of soup recipes from the library and found a tasty looking one involving bacon, Savoy Cabbage and potato I asked them to find me a Savoy Cabbage. True to their efficient and reliable service, the next morning as I walked by on my way to work, Anne waved me in to show me the luscious green beauty that had just arrived. So, Andy and I cooked our soup, photographed it because we were so chuffed with it, ate it and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I then printed out the recipe and photo to make a kind of advert to show customers what they could use this lovely produce for, and gave it to Brian and Anne one day and thus something fun and special has been born. We had a lovely Cauliflower from Brian and Anne the other day which we used for a Cauliflower and Gruyere cheese soup. It was rather tasty and extremely comforting, basically Cauliflower cheese in a bowl. Yum.
Daphne and Wolfgang are also really pleased when I've been to the greengrocers in my lunch break.
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