i heart shopping local

It was a day for the firsts of the season. First raspberries (from the shop that is - we've already picked two from our long neglected, too late planted canes and the birds have eaten two) and first grapes.

I grasped greedily at the grapes, selecting an enormous bunch, but just as I was about to drop them into the bag, one of the shop assistants said (agape) 'You did see how much they are didn't you?'

Ah. No. One of the pleasures of my life is not worrying too much about the price of things. I had not checked the price, but I had noticed they were Australian. Big cash cost, lower environmental cost. Those are the kind of calculations I make.

So I checked the price, and... they were $19.95 a kilo. I put the big bunch back and reached for a smaller bunch or two, although in the end I think I selected so many of them they were probably the same weight as the first enormous bunch. Oh dear! However it did satisfy the horrified shop assistant.

Oh dear, oh shmeer... I like good food. And I have found a really good way of justifying paying any price for it. (And yes, I babbled on to all the shop assistants about my clever little calculation)

A packet of rubbish crisp chips, full of trans fat and empty kilojoules, completely lacking in nutritional value, costs $1.50 for 50 grams. That works out to be $3 per 100 grams, $30 per kilo... a whole lot more than today's grapes or the coming cherry's $16 per kilo.

So, when you boil it down, good food costs my wallet less, costs the earth less (don't tell me the production and packaging and transport of all that crap food doesn't rack up quite the carbon footprint), and fills my body with a whole lot of nutritional goodness.

So I bought the grapes and I don't feel even a little bit sorry. In fact, I feel quite replete. Nom nom.