I couldn't carry a box

I always loved receiving my Riverford box,  arriving home to a box packed full of shiny fresh fruit and vegetables never failed to delight.  As you know a year ago with a tear in my eye I cancelled this in favor of shopping locally.  I was reminded of this on Saturday as I carried my loaded box of fruit and veg to the car, this box too was beautiful full of shiny fruit and veg.  Of course it is always all in the packaging and I am the first to fall for something wrapped in tissue with a bow round it packed in a paper bag.  But I realised this week, that carrying your shopping in an open box gleaming up at you is as good.  This is as satisfying for me at Horsley Community shop when I grab one of their used cardboard boxes and fill it with groceries, be it cereal, washing up liquid, milk or butter.  This week they are starting to stock Duchy Farm’s organic veg so my box will be all the more bountiful.

I have been busy with Elizabeth David this week trying to crack through those last recipes.  A couple of beef stews, lamb fillet and a pepper omelette.  Butter has been the ultimate ingredient this week, transforming some ordinary carrots to something extraordinary with a splash of cream and some salmon steaks cooked in butter then bubbled in white wine were sublime.

I heard a saying this week that taste is not in the cooking but in the shopping.  This I have to agree with, taking pride in my beautiful, locally sourced box of shopping, and what it’ll cooks up is invariably more tasty.