Sunday 20 July 2008

Summer vegetables

I can't believe it's been a month since my last post already! Things are getting fairly busy at work at the moment, so I haven't had too much time to give to this project. However, I have still been trying to eat British wherever possible.

One thing of note is that Sainsburys now stock British sweet peppers! These certainly weren't available last summer, so this would appear to be an indication of a shift towards increased local food production. Well, by local, I mean within the UK.

Actually, I have really noticed a difference between this summer and last summer. It is now almost a year since I started this project and although it has never been as challenging as I thought it would be, it has definitely got easier as time has gone on. It seems to be becoming really fashionable to eat locally produced food now, which it certainly wasn't just a couple of years ago. This is an interesting shift and I will be watching to see how it pans out over the next few years.

The biggest challenges have been with things like snacks. Some brands of crisps boast about being made from British potatoes, but I can't go round eating crisps all the time! :-) Also, I tend to eat meals at work quite often. I usually have a baked potato with cheese for lunch, which is very likely to be produced from British potatoes and cheese. Actually, eating out in general presents the biggest challenge and I regret that I haven't had more time to research what position most restaurants take on using local ingredients.

Anyway, I shall post a more thorough review nearer the time!