November 11

The trek out to the stupor-market can be a bit of a chore but really we only have to go a few blocks. Spare a thought for the ‘fresh’ produce on display - most of that has to travel quite a bit further. Here is a census from our last shop:

• Cucumber - Spain
• Cherry tomatoes - Holland
• Butternut squash – Portugal
• Mushrooms - Ireland
• Rosemary - Israel
• Baby corn - Thailand
• Mange trout – Kenya (note: this is not a variety of diseased fish, but something like snow peas)
• Trio-pack of peppers (in order of appearance) - red – UK, yellow- Spain, green – UK

The Union Jack is proudly displayed on the carrots, potatoes, lettuce and, in a show of diversity, the pak choy. Any do-good thoughts we have from not running a car over here are dashed by the fact that if you included the carbon cost of freighting produce over from abroad, a punnet of strawberries for example should cost something like £52.

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Went out to dinner tonight with Brendan’s workmate Marco. We went to a Mediterranean restaurant where I’m sure all the ingredients were sourced from local farms… local farms around the Mediterranean that is. But hey, at least we walked there.