Mood:
brightNow Playing: Manhattan Transfer (because Stephen's not here)
Topic: Elisabeth's Entries
What a funny day so far, but only because this is Woking, and one just can never seem to get used that fact.
Stephen first of all was doing a sleep-in at work, so I spent Fri. night getting my hair cut, and shopping for groceries. If you check back a few posts, you'll know that I'm currently reading a book about what we don't know about our food. Now that I'm starting to know just a few things, it's literally paralyzing me (much to the annoyance of the other shoppers of course) whenever I'm in a grocery store now.
Last night I was going to have a girly night & buy a ready-made meal, drink chardonnay etc...but no dice ma'am. I ended up having fried zucchini over fettuchini, which was delicious and filling. Of course I still had the wine.
I slept in an extra 45 min. and started my quest on how to source the most ethically produced food within the confines of Woking. So I made a list, decided to make two trips into town, and set off for the "farmers market" in town. I used those quotation marks because I'm sure upon further investigation over half their produce is from other countries. So why are they there? Again, as I was fingering the celery from Spain at the market, I was paralyzed, and yes, getting in people's way.
But I looked at the people jostling to get their produce from the markets, and concluded the following:
-Although the produce is probably not British, it looks like better quality produce than that which you find in the supermarkets, as well, it's cheaper. Plus, your money is not going to the supermarket chains, which are responsible for so many ills to society, individuals and the planet.
Since there was still room in my backpack, I legged it to Holland and Barrett, the national health food chain. I tried to find ethical alternatives to what I would usually have bought from Sainsburys. I was hoping to find plain flour (perhaps organically produced even), but only found potato and rice flour. At the end of it, I came away with English honey (if the label is truthful, that means we've saved thousands of transport miles as our last brand of honey was from Austrialia), and English strawberry spread with all natural ingredients.
With still more room available, I decided to check out Heater's bakery to see how good their baguettes were. First I stopped at Blockbusters and rented The Kid (Charlie Chaplin), Dr. Zhivago (never seen it...), and Baise-Moi (if you don't know, you don't want to know probably). Then into Heater's bakery where everything looked terrible! It didn't even smell of bread! No baguettes of course, so I ended up getting this because the man behind the counter kept asking me what I wanted:
Finally, with spring having arrived, I was hell bent on buying flowers. But I wanted to see how ethically I could do it. I was all prepared to talk to the Interflora florists, but with tomorrow being Mother's Day (in the UK only-don't panic!) it was packed with fathers pushing baby strollers, so I went back to market & decided to let my nose decide which flowers were best. For a flower stall, it was surprisingly unfragrent. So I chose the nicest smelling thing: carnations & of course I had to have some daffodils as well:
Oddly, as I was heading back past the trainstation, more and more squad cars and vans packed with neon-yellow jacketed policemen were pulling up to the station. What now? Bomb threats? As I walked through the stinking tunnel under the train tracks, I though, how horrible would it be if a bomb went up and I was trapped, or killed in this stinking tunnel.
With flowers in one hand, my other on the bicycle handle-bar and hovering over the brake, I wound my way back to the apartment, sound as a pound.
As I made a raspberry/banada smoothie & checked my shopping list, I saw a helicopter hovering over the town center. What's going on?! Is it just rowdy FC Woking fans?
Heading back into town for the second time, I first went to the butchers, where I found my most ethical purchase: free-range eggs, laid yesterday, and from a farm actually in Surrey. The two men in Vincent's butcher were extremely friendly and I will hopefully now continue to buy our eggs there.
Then to Sainsbury's where I had to stop shopping because I couldn't hold the weight of the basket anymore. I jumped on my bike again and finally home (again.)
The fruits of my labours:
And even though the potted basil plant is more than I need for my recipe, and a bit more expensive than the washed & trimmed basil, I now realize that many illegal immigrants working under gangmasters problably have prepared that basil, so I tried to get the least-labour intensive product. And look how beautiful:
Stephen's getting off work in 2 min. and I haven't cleaning anything! But I did get him cider so should be ok. But I should go and manically tidy up...
And if you think you're feeling jealous that spring's hit us already, here's a window into what spring looks like in Woking:
