I went to my local Indian supermarket today. It has the most wonderful array of produce you can imagine. Bursting at the seams with fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit, spices to tempt the palate of the many nationalities who shop there. It's one of the few places where the fruit is properly ripe when you buy it, packaging is minimal and most things can be bought in exactly the quantity you want, from individual to industrial.
I bought mangoes (Brazil), figs (Turkey), coriander, mint and basil (UK), tomatoes (Spain) and bananas (Colombia). And then I thought about how many air miles were represented in just those few items.
And that's the dilemma all of us face. Nobody can disagree with the principle of local sourcing and eating seasonally. But we're never going to grow bananas, oranges and mangoes. So am I prepared to give them up?
Saw some bananas growing in the jumbo greenhouses at the University Botanic Gardens in Bristol the other weekend. You never know, with global warming, we might be growing them outside before long......the Bristol figs were good this year too....
ReplyDeleteJust planted a fig - we can compare notes next year!
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