Buy British, buy local....

Brilliant- agree to try on all counts- apart from the buy British bit, as it would not be very local to me

www.fifediet.co.uk/
This was started some 8 years ago in my area. May be of interest to you and others wanting to 'eat local'

Picked up on that a couple of years ago, Gally. They send a regular newsletter to me.

OK Granjura local to wherever you live!

Count me in Penstemmon

Somebody please explain what 'jingoism' means

Over nationalistic is what I mean by it! in other words I am not doing it because I dislike foreign goods!

I always try to buy British. Sometimes not so easy!

There was an item on Radio 4 a few weeks back about a couple who tried to do this for a year, I seem to remember they did quite well until it came to batteries, but can't be 100% sure.

I think that with most things in life there may well be an element of compromise, for example when I needed a new washing machine a few years back, I did buy it from a local independent shop, but the machine itself was not made in the UK.
Good luck!

I have mentioned this before, but I have contacted the major supermarkets asking them to have a separate section on their websites for British items, so that people can go straight to it to do their shopping rather than having to scrutinise every item to see where it has come from. Tescos are working on it, but the others were a bit sniffy - I would like to see a campaign started, so the more people who contact the supermarkets about this the better.

I found difficulty just this week when looking for a new car possibly in New Year and everything that that took my fancy was foreign made,even Vauxhall & Fords major parts are shipped in from The Continent & Asia.

Similar idea to what you are talking about Mishap. The supermarkets here do have separate sections for Scottish produce which makes the buying local easy to do. I choose from this and other British products.

I have noticed in Aldi and Morrison's British fruit and Veg has the Union Jack printed on the cellophane packaging. Likewise Scottish raspberries particularly in Sainsbury's are marked with the Saltire.

I am very lucky living in semi rural Cheshire where local cheese is produced and available locally, likewise jams pickles and chutneys also made locally can be purchased from local shops and markets.

Farms here still grow their own potatoes and sell free range eggs. I live within a short drive of two fruit farms so plenty of pick your own fruit, beans and peas and apple juice also made on the farm.

In our village we share apples and damsons and produce from our gardens.

We also have a large fishing pool outside the village we have often enjoyed freshly caught trout courtesy of friendly neighbours.

Many of our neighbours still have open fires or wood burning stoves after high winds there is an abundance of free wood to be found in the old churchyard.

Transport can be a problem at times for some but we all help out and anyone standing at the bus stop or walking up/down the very long lane into town is offered a lift.

I do have moans at times but reading the above makes me feel extremely lucky to live where I do,

What often puzzles me is how products made in Britain can be shipped thousands of miles and sold to a foreign public cheaper than the retail price in UK. Similarly foreign products imported into two different states having vastly differing retail prices.
We had a buy British campaign some 40 or 50 years ago but supermarkets killed that off obviously driven by their mantra of the consumer wanting cheaper prices. My belief is that the main reason is the Supermarket wanting increased profit. The consumer wanting cheaper prices is an excuse in my opinion and although partially true, who wouldn't want cheaper prices, it is not the main reason for reductions in quality, quantity, service and a British made label. I believe prices are determined by whatever the buying public is prepared to pay and set as such. It would be nice to have the choice to buy British however.

Puzzled wasn't the word that sprung into my head ps when I saw Whiskey and Scottish salmon cheaper in French supermarkets. They did however, have marked British sections where the prices were a lot more expensive.

Being a CAMRA member , the buy local exists in pubs were locally produced real ale and cider is available its logo is locale.
Makes you wonder how much is local in supermarkets, or is it regional?
I live in Brackley , a town without a bakery now, if I go to Oxford with the bus change at Bicester , I always call in Nashs there for cakes such as lardy, and all other doughy cakes like Rock Cakes etc.
Mick

Agus I buy many British products in Cyprus a lot cheaper than identical items in UK. There are exceptions such as alcohol but that I think is down to heavy excise duties or profiteering. Papantonios, Carrefour and Lidel all seem to offer good value whereas the old Orphanides chain, who monopolised the Island for so long with high prices, went under on the introduction of competition.

Didn't quite understand your first sentence, Michael apart from the bit about being a CAMRA member. Could you just clarify what you mean by "pubs were locally produced" and "its logo is locale". I think I understand but there may be some esoteric real ale speak that I am missing?

Must be a French thing then ps Carrefour was the supermarket I was referring to and the prices took another jump up during the summer, more so in holiday resorts with so many tourists. It was actually humorous seeing British tourists filling their trolley with British products that cost them a good bit more than at home. Maybe just me but I never understood that one.

Notable that in some places there is a culture of buying locally - Western Australia springs to mind. Producers label their products etc
Most of the Made in Wales products are high end gourmet things like expensive cheese. No problems buying Welsh ice-cream - the problem is resisting it.
Fruit is the biggest issue isn't it. Once the UK apple and pear crop has been consumed we are faced with apples from as far away as US and NZ. I was noticing the fruit in W'rose this morning - lots of unseasonal fruit and exotic fruit from all over the world. Veg on the other hand - pretty easy to find UK produce most of the year.

Agus if there are tourists involved then price wise anything goes. I return to my last sentence in my post of 12:49 in that the price is set by whatever the market is willing to pay. I steer clear of tourist areas as I am in the mountains. Incidentally my tools of choice are the Bosch Blue Range and for landscape work Stihl. In Cyprus the Bosch Blue are a minimum of double what I am charged in UK, in the case of the compound mitre saw treble the price and the Stihl much the same around double. Both made in Germany and shipped to either UK or Cyprus.

I had a go at the manager in my local Tesco during the summer BBQ season. We live in an area where most pigs are reared outdoors and yet they didn't have any outdoor-reared sausages in the store.

They now have a whole section given over to these and outdoor-reared bacon.

It does pay to make a fuss.

Sorry Aka I just had a vision of outdoor-reared sausages

ps I remember the I'm Backing Britain campaign in the 1960s.

Most knitting yarn is now produced abroad, however for those interested Rowan manufacture Pure Life British Sheep Breeds DK. It's a blend from Blue faced Leicester/Suffolk or Jacobs sheep. Not an economy yarn by any means but currently available from an online store based in Warrington.