Now we are 45 minutes drive from a proper supermarket so we really need to discipline ourselves to buy the things we need when we are there. I do the household management stuff (R does the company accounts and all our finances) so it is my responsibility to make sure we are properly fed and don’t run out of things between shops.

So our routine now is that once a month we do a big batch shop at Costco in Glasgow (we have trade membership because we have the company). This gets us all the staples plus a lot of fresh vegetables – many of which I process for the freezer. The quality of food in there is lovely – and it is really cheap (with the proviso being that everything is in big quantities so you have to buy in bulk). Then every two weeks after that we top up at Asda in Dumbarton and go to Homebase at the same time. Milk and eggs we buy in the village shop, and there is also a fish van which comes once a week.

Instead of buying expensive premade lunches, I make a loaf of bread and a pot of soup every day – plus we also have a meal made from scratch every night from fresh ingredients (instead of eating a lot of frozen pizza and ready meals). All this is cheaper (I reckon we spend half of what we used to on food) and a lot healthier; the only downside is that I spend a lot of time cooking.

This summer (as well as my own vegetables) I want to find out whether there are any farmers’ markets etc we can start getting stuff from – though I think the green credentials of that as a concept will be spoiled by having to drive there.

Until then – here is our rather gorgeous looking recent veg shop from Costco.

Actually, wanting to grow our own food has nothing to do with finances, as my guess is that certainly this year and possibly permanently it will cost a great deal more to grow this stuff than it would be to buy it, especially if you take my time doing it into consideration. What it has got everything to do with however is personally doing away with one of my biggest annoyances which is to do with Supermarkets (well food shops generally) and out of season imports from far away places.

It’s not that I am an eco crank but it seems madness to me that in a time of increasing pressure on the world’s energy resources that so much food should need to be imported into the UK from such unlikely countries of origin.  For example, I was going to buy some spring onions recently until I noticed that they came from Peru.  And every herb in our local supermarket comes from Israel when it doesn’t come from Kenya or somewhere equally unlikely.  I don’t mind this too much when it is things like coffee and bananas that don’t grow here and realistically speaking- can’t.  But I draw the line at spring onions from Peru I am afraid. So I didn’t buy them.

Growing our own vegetables I will have nice fresh stuff when it is in season, and out of season we are going to try to do without.