#CamShopLocal - So how did it go?

If you read my recent blog post or are one of my Twitter followers you will know that I was taking part in #CamShopLocal - a week without chains, shopping at independents only. So I bet you are wondering if I made it?

Well I did and I didn't. I started off with the most excellent intentions, and the arrival of a four day weekend just before it started meant that I could plan ahead by shopping over the weekend. I got a veg box from Cambridge Organic Food Co., I bought meat and cheese from Gog Magog Shop along with baking ingredients. So by Monday I was raring to go, I had a meal plan too!

The biggest challenge came once I was back at work on Tuesday - there are some options nearby but fitting in lunch, a trip to the Post Office (to send my jewellery orders) and then food shopping is hard to achieve in 1 hour! Most of these shops close at 6pm which leaves me not much time since I finish work at 5.30pm.

I managed really well with what we had in the house until Friday when a long week and a frazzled brain meant that a bottle of wine from Tesco, on the way home, was what we both needed. Then I fell in Waitrose on the last Monday - I had been away all weekend mostly and I just needed to get things for dinner!

Here is what I bought, and ate, over the week:

Gog Magog Shop - lamb for Easter Sunday, merguez sausages, eggs, butter, flour, sugar

Cup of local tea - Kandula Tea

Last Cam Shop Local Dinner  - ravioli from Limoncello (Mill Road), homemade pesto (basil from the grocers on Mill Road, Hilary's). Cheeky bit of Morrison's bread from the freezer!

Jigsaw Bakery - Linton. Beautiful bakery run by Matthew Whitby - sourdough bread, sweet loaves, brownies, shortbread, so many wonderful things, plus great coffee. A lovely local business that has just started - we got a sourdough loaf and a currant loaf which were both excellent and served us well over the week and weekend. 

Sourdough (nibbled) from Jigsaw Bakery

Currant loaf from Jigsaw Bakery

Supplies from Al Amin - we visited on Bank Holiday Monday after a visit to Hot Numbers...

Naan, yoghurt, halloumi and aforementioned ravioli from Limoncello

Hot Numbers Flat White - bank holiday Monday coffee outing

Veg box Parsnip soup - Friday lunch with a chorizo roll from Norfolk Street bakery

Wobbly bottom goat's cheese (from Teacake in Shepreth), Winter Purslane (from COFCO via Wild Co Organics) and Sourdough bread from Jigsaw bakery - Easter Saturday lunch!

Oops. Last day of Cam Shop Local. Finished work at 6pm, where to go? Good old Waitrose I'm afraid. 

Overall I enjoyed finding some new shops and trying some new produce - things like the salad leaves from COFCO were fantastic as was the ravioli from Limoncello. I definitely see a difference in quality when shopping for locally sourced foods and I think this is the key to why you should shop local. 

In all honesty, I think it is pointless searching around for local shops selling laundry liquid, toilet roll, cat food and petrol because it is all much of a muchness - you are still buying from big brands, Persil, Andrex, Felix or Shell in the end aren't you? 

If you support a local food producer then you are getting salad leaves grown 5 miles from your house, meat reared to high standards at a local farm, bread baked fresh that day by the owner or goat's cheese made from milk from goat's nibbling on grass in the field next to the dairy. That kind of thing. 

I'm always on the look out for local producers as it is, so this just upped my game a little more than normal. I was lucky that week in that I had to be in Cambridge city centre more often than I would be normally, usually I only visit once a week at most - so I had a chance to visit Mill Road shops for local produce, and grab a coffee at Hot Numbers, and finally visit the lovely Norfolk Street Bakery.

Without going on too much, I'll try to sum up! I love local producers and the interesting things they are doing and I will search them out if they are doing something a bit different. I also like what the supermarkets are doing, there are some brilliant small brands being stocked such as the Collective Dairy (yoghurts), Peanut Butter Co, Lily's Kitchen (pet food) to name a few. They are also making great strides in stocking more world foods and also more interesting fruit and vegetables - have you seen some of the new style Morrison's fresh section lately? It is pretty great - not many supermarkets sell fresh turmeric root, purple potatoes, samphire and 15 different kinds of herbs. There are obviously things they are doing wrong like squeezing the price of dairy and meat so farmers continue to go out of business by the day along with opening massive stores and spoiling previously nice areas. 

I think for me I will continue to support both - I need supermarkets for convenience but I need locals for interest, quality and being part of the foodie community. 

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#CamShopLocal - One Week, Independent Shopping in Cambridgeshire

I've been chatting on Twitter, and this always leads to some kind of plan taking place - usually visiting a new cafe or trying a new recipe, but this time the challenge is much greater. Fresh from the EAT Cambridge food festival, the foodies in the area are buzzing with enthusiasm about what our local Cambridge producers and suppliers can offer us. So with that, a group of us are challenging ourselves to shop locally and with independents for 1 week, from the 2nd April - 7th April.

No supermarkets or chains for 1 week. Supporting the little guy or girl, whether that be visiting the local butcher, baker, farm shop, clothing shop, restaurant or cafe. I am not going to lie, it is going to be hard and it will be interesting to see how my opinions change.

At the moment, I love independents and the unique things they can offer but I see supermarkets and chains as very much a part of my life. I am busy. I work 9am-5.30pm 5 days a week, making jewellery is my 2nd job, I blog, I bake and I do occasionally like to sleep. So being able to pop to the local Tesco (of which there are SO many in Cambridgeshire), Waitrose, Sainsburys or M&S is very much what I need to be able to get on with it.

To be fair to them, I think supermarkets have been getting it right recently too, current horse related mishaps aside, they are stocking more interesting produce, they have local sections and (particularly useful for me) world food sections along with stocking interesting cheeses, meats, niche brands and seasonal products.

But I think basic produce in supermarkets isn't good quality- fruit and veg, bread and meat either don't taste of anything or don't last long enough. But I make do, I buy them anyway and I expect what I can out of them. I add more spices, more salt, more herbs to make them taste better. Unfortunately they aren't even that cheap anymore either.

And I do visit Starbucks and Costa. I need time for a restorative coffee and cake during the week! I prefer Costa but it is not a patch on my favourite tearoom, Teacake, who I also visit equally as much. Cambridge is teaming with independent cafes, a lot of which have opened up recently.

This is also not just about food. What about household items- washing up liquid, bleach, loo roll, cat food? A lot of these are dominated by big brands, but I am not ruling out shopping for brands because seriously is there an artisan toilet roll producer in Cambridgeshire? But I will buy them from an independent rather than a supermarket. It may well cost me more, we'll see how that goes. I have to admit we do have most of these things in the house already so I may not need to buy.

I'm afraid I'm drawing the line at petrol. Judge me if you like but petrol is already bankrupting me as it is. And the two independent petrol stations (which, let's face it, still get their oil from big multinationals) are about 15 miles from my house, and about 12p a litre dearer.

So, petrol aside, I'm going to challenge myself to be less of a lazy giraffe consumer - to plan my shopping better and to really think about how to be smarter even if I am busy. Over the Easter weekend I've used the extra time to get some supplies from a local baker and Gog Magog Farm Shop along with a veg box from the Cambridge Organic Food Co.

There was something that came up during the Eat Cambridge food debate that there wasn't as much of a food scene outside of the city, which I very very much disagree with! I live and work outside of Cambridge centre and there is plenty going on, and I am very good at finding it, my list below will show you :)

I've got a list of places in my head that I will be shopping at - close to work and/or home. In no particular order:

Leech & Sons in Melbourn (meats, cheese, bread, fish, cakes, bread, eggs and 5mins from my office)
Bury Lane Farm Shop, near Royston (although I don't rate them much, it is a bit like a theme park farm shop. Might be good if I need something quickly)
Teacake Tearoom in Shepreth - my favourite tearoom. They also sell 'household staples' like loo roll, milk, bread, eggs, baked beans...
The Country Store, Sawston (cat food and litter, and I think logs for the fire, because it is definitely still going to be freezing in April)
The Ickleton Lion  - my local pub!
The egg lady, Ickleton (I hope her ducks start laying again soon)
Cafe Cou Cou, Saffron Walden (amazing shortbread and fruit bread)
Gog Magog Farm Shop & Cafe (all manner of things! Their fruit and veg, meat, cheese, food cupboard bits, bread, tea, coffee. It is one of my regular haunts and I've seen them grow into a fantastic local business who really care about what they do).
Several butchers in Saffron Walden
Saturday Market in Saffron Walden (fruit, veg, fish and seafood, brilliant bread, olives, tapenade, houmous, plants)
Walden Local Food - veg stall in Saffron Walden on Sunday
Jigsaw Bakery in Linton, blog post coming up about this soon - brilliant new bakery run by one man in a tiny little shop/kitchen


Wish me luck! I'll be tweeting using the #camshoplocal this week and blogging my progress/frustrations/achievements :)

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