Days 16-18

We ate the bread before I remembered to photograph it. Whoops. I'll probably bake another loaf on Thursday when I'm off, if I have time. If it's pretty, I'll try to remember to keep the camera nearby.

We were discussing the project with a friend of husband's earlier, and he thought it was a great idea. Husband said that most people he's told about it have been very receptive to the idea and have offered suggestions of independent shops to visit. His idea for the next step is that we make a map and put all the shops on it. I wonder if we can get it online...his photoshop skills are probably more than up to the task.

Someone asked me not long ago if it wasn't more expensive to shop at local independents than Tesco. The short answer is yes, but it's worth considering the reasons behind this. Tesco and other supermarket chains have the purchasing power to keep prices artificially low; many consumers don't think about this and assume 'that's just how much x costs and I'm being overcharged if I buy the same product somewhere else for more'. A recent example that has garnered a lot of media attention is broiler chickens, how they're raised, and the low prices paid to farmers who intensively rear them. I watched Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's programme on Channel 4 and plan to sign up for the campaign to get people to switch to free-range chicken. More information about it is here: http://www.chickenout.tv

Getting back to my earlier point, this person said that it was too expensive to shop at farm stands and such in her area because it has many wealthy people and so prices are higher. I mentioned that one item with competitive pricing is free-range eggs. That might be something she could afford to buy, as prices for local free-range eggs are often equal to or lower than Tesco in this area.