Fresh Produce!

I've spent the past year or so sourcing fresh produce to eat and cook with. The supermarket can provide a convenient place to get all your shopping needs in one place but quite often the quality isn't up to scratch, it costs more and the fresh produce has been handled by delivery people, staff and many customers mostly resulting in bruised, mishandled produce.

The local Fuit and Veg shop is in the same complex as the supermarket. Their produce is always fresh, great quality and cheaper. The supermarket trucks in their produce from another State. Let me explain something to you. Much of the produce is grown in our State, transported to another State where it is bought by the supermarket buyers and then transported BACK to our State for sale in the supermarket. That is INSANE!! The produce is either very old or picked green so that it has no flavour. It also makes the cost of our produce far greater than it needs to be.

Ask your local fruit and veg shop owner where they get their produce from. Our local shop gets their produce at the local markets. In the same city. You aren't paying extra for added transportation and the produce is fresher because it hasn't been shipped across the country twice. They are able to take advantage of any growers sales. An extra bonus is that you can buy very ripe produce that is perfectly fine for saucing, stewing, roasting or blending for a fraction of the original price.

You cannot put a price on personal service. Looking for slightly riper or greener fruit? Perhaps something not on display? Chances are the person serving you is the owner and willing to go the extra mile for the customers. Our local fruit & veg shop offers an online ordering service. You can choose to collect the prepared order which has been packed for you or if the order is > $30 they will deliver it to you. For FREE!! Tell me that isn't an added extra for families struggling to find extra hours in their day.

Fresh Produce!! Try it. You'll like it. :)