Food Daze in Granger Market

The last two days have been much more relaxing than I expected. Thursday, I had to do a laundry run. As my regular reader knows I have method of measuring when I need to get some washing done, well I ran out of these garments. I leave it to your imagination but there are no prizes for guessing. However that meant I had to go back and forth to Town three times.

After dropping off the washing, I went and got some shopping. Quite by chance, over the last week or so I have been living off a vegetarian diet. I have no problem with that, but I did want to go to the butchers. I had no idea of what I wanted but as I keep my cooking flexible I often will look to see what’s good value and plan my menu from that. Anyway, I got some goodies including 5lb of mince, Ground Beef. While it may be a lot for one. I can cook and prepare several meals from this and stock the freezer.

I also went to see if I could get some new trousers as one of my old pair is wearing in the crouch. I think that it may be climbing over fences or hedges that cause it. Or is it sitting in damp trees? So I looked in a couple of shops, but I was not impressed. I could get some that would make me look like I was eighty or some jeans that failed to cover my butt. While I know that it may be the fashion to show a "builders crack" or to have your underwear on display, above your waistband, but I am not into making fashion statements, not at my age. Also I wanted to get something that looked reasonably smart. As often with getting involved in the conservation work and wildlife watching, my mode of dress would make Charlie Chaplain look dapper, I wanted something that I could wear to the pub if I wanted. However the only ones that I could find that I liked were either seventy-five pounds or some jeans for 10 to 15 and they looked cheap.

Having not found what I wanted I caught the bus back to the village. As my regular reader will have worked out by now, normally I will do my supermarket run on a Thursday. With the events of last week, I went to see if it was the same driver. As the free supermarket bus runs a few minutes before the paid bus, and I already had my day ticket I had the choice. Also, as I had received such a positive response from the Supermarket regarding my complaint, it was a good opportunity to see if they had been warm but empty words. Well it was a bus that was in better condition and a different driver. So I did get the free bus.

I was glad that I did as many of the people that had been there the previous week were there and I was not the only one that had put my complaint in writing. I also discovered that the woman that was nearly abandoned by the driver is actually ninety years old. To me that made what he, the driver did even worse. I think it will not take long before the word gets back round the village that "Laughing Boy" has gone and some of the elderly women that have stopped using the bus may return. As it used to be such a pleasant run with the old dears. I think I became an honorary old dear myself.

While there was not much exceptional about my shopping, I did spot that they had some bottles of pectin as used in jam making (American translation: Jelly). As it’s a discontinued item at a reduced price, I got two. Also as I needed some more containers for the freezer I was looking in the isles I do not normally search. I spotted that the supermarket had some Jeans in stock for three pounds. Now while I know that supermarkets can buy in bulk and hence can sell at reduced prices, at three pounds (five dollars US), I could not see the labours that made them being that well paid. Now I don’t know if they came from a sweatshop paying slave wages, but at that price I could not see that they came from anything close to what I would see as Fair Trade. The one indulgence that I got was in the shape of some apple and cinnamon Hot Cross buns. I don’t know if these exist in other parts of the world, but are basically a fruit bun that has a cross on them and are made and sold at Easter. Normally I would not bother, but just the though of apple and cinnamon Hot Cross Buns had me salivating. Add to that my tongue hanging out and my wagging my tail and you have an undignified image of me.

After returning from the Supermarket, I did not much time before I had to return to Consett to collect my washing. While at the bus stop I saw a Red Kite for the third time that day. I am beginning to think that a pair of them may be nesting or trying to nest close by. I will keep you informed if they do. On the bus was the Conservation Officer from the friends of Chopwell Wood, and we chatted about various sightings. Often this sharing of information can be useful, however it is just nice to keep in touch with the others involved with conservation in the area.

I latter went back out to keep monitoring the ponds, not intending to be out that long; I became engrossed by the activity of the Toads. Not easy to film at night and I am not happy with what I have got. I think I need a more powerful IR light to properly film wildlife, well something else to add to my growing shopping list. It was interesting as it was like being at an amphibian orgy. With Toads and Newts all seaming to be seeking amore.

It ended up with me not getting back home until Midnight and as I had not eaten, me cooking my evening meal at midnight. I was buzzing from what I had seen and after eating I put on the radio and wrote up my notes and it was not until about half three in the morning before I went to bed. Even with being up so late, I was still up and about by nine. I am not allowed to sleep when a cat wants feeding.

As I still wanted to see if I could get some trousers so I decided it would be worth going into Newcastle. While on Friday there was a blustery wind it was a bright spring day. The first thing I noticed was the slight colour changes to the trees. In winter the trees outlines are shades of dark grey but in spring the trees take on a purple hue just at the point of leaf burst. It can last for just a day or two and Friday was a peek of this. Just a week before the trees still looked bare and lifeless, now its clear that life is exploding on the trees. Spring is here.

When I went past the point where a week before I had been able to see a Heron Nest, it was obfuscated by the leaf burst on the trees. It really is amazing just how quickly the transformation comes. As well as seeing two of the Red Kites, I was pleased to see that the flowerbeds along the roads on roundabouts are a riot of colour. These civic amenities are an important asset as they really do help make the environment look and feel better.

When I got to Newcastle I went wandering and having got my new jeans, I went looking at the food shops in Granger Market. Twenty years ago, Granger Market was a rather tatty looking place. It’s a covered Victorian market square housed within a rather beautiful building. As well as the improvements to the fabric of the building a few years ago Newcastle City Council made a real effort to improve the market by getting rid of the tatty shops selling junk and encourage genuine specialist shops. As these are small businesses and the market has always had a strong food emphasis, this refocusing has been successful in my opinion.

Two of the shops that I discovered twenty years ago are still there, the cheese monger and the coffee roaster. Both I visited first as I love the real cheese and they have a real expansive range there. Further, I can find locally produced artisan cheeses. I could have spent a fortune as I was tempted to try many of them, but I will be returning regularly and sampling many from the range they carry. The owner gave me a taste of a new one that she has just got in and I will be getting that at a latter date. But as I joked with her, I do not want to go up a jeans size. I already use middle age spread, the margarine of choice for the over forties.

I also got some more coffee from the stall there. When I lived at Ryton upon Tyne, many years ago, I would pass the factory where they roast the Beans going to and from work. I love the range they have as well as the quality. They do have fair trade coffee too but the main reason I like using them is simply the quality.

While in Newcastle I also wanted to get some Mealworms and some seed mixes to feed the birds. While the prices are a little cheaper in the city than going to Consett, I had to balance the saving to the extra cost of going to Newcastle. The return fare is Five pounds although if I paid two single fares it would be seven twenty. Therefore it is mainly the specialist nature of the products that make the journey worth while. Therefore, as I had to wait for a couple of hours while the pet shop unpacked their order where the Mealworms were, I discovered that some of the improvement to Granger Market are subtle and will make a regular trip there worth making.

I apologise in advance to my vegetarian readers, but one of the types of business that Granger market is known for are the butchers. When I worked in Newcastle I would see the carcasses of whole pigs, whole lambs and half cows being carried in. It is still possible to see this if I went along early enough but at that Time I was a vegetarian myself. Therefore while I did see specialities like Pheasant and Partridge there if I visited the market, as I had no real interest in buying I failed to see that the meat was much better quality and value than the supermarkets. As I had already bought my meat I was just there observing the fare on offer, I saw that I should have come here for my meat. As the range of cuts was excellent and there was none of the tricks that are often used to make lower quality meat look better than it really is. Also several of the shops were displaying locally sourced meat naming the farm in one case I noticed.

As local food and supporting local business is an important part of my ethical ethos, I will make the effort to buy from Newcastle as well as the butcher in Consett that I use. It was looking more as though I could justify the cost of travel and the carbon impact of making that journey even more. As I went round the different Butchers, I could see a whole range of dishes that I could be cooking. While there were also the cheap packs that were clones of the supermarket fare, I was pleased to see Free Range Chicken that was cheaper than the supermarkets, and the packs of meat were far more generous, at the same price as the big chains.

I realise that shopping like this can be a bit more of an effort, but the savings are worth it. Especially when looking at similar products in terms of quality. The supermarkets all have their premium ranges, and they can be much more expensive than their budget ranges. The chains of course always say that they are helping to cater for all budgets, yet it is the quality range where they make some serious profits. Yet meat from a good local butcher or a market like this is the same high quality as the supermarkets premium ranges but only the cost of their standard range.

Therefore I think I will have to make time to explore this market for my meat before doing my supermarket run in the future. The other aspect of the Granger Market fare that is known for is the greengrocers. Here I have seen a serious improvement. Twenty years ago while there were examples of real quality and range, there were also sellers that would try and palm off any old rubbish. When my ex wife and I were together, we had the experience of having to throw out half a bag full of vegetables, as they were rotten. As most of the traders have great looking displays, it all looks great, but you were not allowed to serve yourself, they did from behind the counter. Therefore our days shopping was not the quality it appeared to be and had to be thrown away the day it was purchased. As I mentioned previously the Council who owns and manages the Market made improvement and this helped remove the rubbish traders. It was funny that at the time this made the local television news and one of the traders that was complaining about the plans was the trader that has sold my wife and I the rubbish. He is not trading there anymore.

The first aspect I realised about the greengrocers there was the range of Vegetables available. Even the ones I go to in Consett that are excellent do not have the range. Therefore it can have a limiting effect upon the range of dishes I can cook. I fully realise that in a city of more than a million people the range will be greater than a Town of several thousand folks, but seeing the range my mind lit up to meals I have not cooked for ages.

Further, I noticed that some of the produce was local too. Therefore I was like a big kid when I spotted some purple-sprouting Broccoli. Not that many children would get excited about Broccoli. As I have always acknowledged I am considered eccentric. So I got some of that and some Jerusalem Artichokes. Something I really love and I could only get them by growing my own. For folks that don’t know them, Jerusalem Artichokes are a root vegetable that produces a lot of foliage and works as a wonderful windbreak. Perfect for sheltering an exposed garden. However, it absorbs all that wind during its growing season and releases it when eaten. Therefore it is a great vegetable for consuming before a nice long walk in the countryside.

Another change that has happened to Granger Market is there are now Fishmongers in the market. Previously, there was the green market opposite the Granger Market and in there was the fish market. Try not to get confused, as I will be setting exam questions latter. Part of the impetus for changing Granger Market was to redevelop the Green Market. It was a 1960s development and while I liked using some of the traders there, I did not like the building it lacked atmosphere and character. Therefore when the green market closed the good traders were able to relocate to Granger Market. As I say I think the move towards quality has greatly improved the market. Also the traders are grouped together so it is possible to compare quality and price on similar produce.

While personally I have stopped eating fish as simply until I can find fishing that is truly sustainable, I want to avoid adding to the depletion of the seas. But I will look into this further as by visiting the Market there is now a greater range of species available than I have had previously. While I know that most people will not eat anything but Cod, if there are other seafood’s that are sustainable I will buy them. I was tempted to buy some Razor shells and Lobster tails (all the way from Maine). But if I did I would have risked wasting some of the food I already had.

The last find is a gem in some respects but not in others. It’s an organic shop selling a range of dried goods predominantly. What makes it a gem of a find is simply that they have a very wide range of unusual and hard to find spices. I even asked if she had Asafoetida and she did. Anyone who has used this will know that in its raw state it smells, and is why it is also known as "Devils Dung" However, when used with other spices it can lift a dull curry to something exceptional. It does always make me think that it must have been a brave cook that discovered it was so good and useful. I am having a vegetable curry tonight.

However, while I love the idea and ideal of organic foods, I sometimes can not see how the prices can be justified. I did have a business where I tried to sell organic foods, and while many people said that they would buy organic if the price was too much of a premium, understandably people did not buy. Therefore I only stocked what I could get when the price was comparable to conventional produce. Even then people did not buy organic even though I was in an affluent area. As I also supplied good local produce as well, I did not go bust as would have happened if I had tried to be totally organic. This experience showed me that while people say they want organic in reality very few people will buy, even when the prices are the same.

However, I also discovered that some people would try and sell you any old rubbish. I often had to reject produce as it was just to poorer quality. The suppliers would use the retort that it was because it was Organic. To that I would reply I am rejecting it as its "Organic Rubbish". I am talking about things like wilted carrots, or lemons that were beginning to dry out. Things that I would not even try and sell at a reduced to clear price. My suppler went bust.

Therefore I suspect that many people who say they would like to buy organic have been put off by the poor quality of some of the produce that can sold as organic. Add to this the premium often not based upon the extra costs of production, but sellers or suppliers trying to make an extra profit by charging what they think "the organic brand" could sell for. That brings me back to the shop in Granger Market. Most of the items were very expensive. And we are talking two or three pounds for items that in the supermarkets will be less than a pound. Pulses, Rice, Grains. While I am sure that the quality is much better than the chain stores, I can not help thinking that she will struggle to make a living. I hope that I am wrong, as there are products that I would buy and will buy there. But I too have to live on a budget and can not afford to pay over the top prices for food, organic or not.

Well even thinking of all this food is making me hungry, so it’s a good job that I have a well-stocked larder. Now should I have bought those jeans in a larger size?