‘Shopping locally for your weekly staples’ with Ed Johnstone from The Sussex Peasant

There is a lingering idea that buying local food is something reserved for a Saturday treat: a joint for Sunday lunch, a special cheese or a punnet of strawberries that tastes of summer. But local food can be more ordinary than that – and I mean that as a compliment.

At The Sussex Peasant, much of what people buy each week isn’t luxurious or unusual. It is eggs, milk, bread, potatoes, carrots, onions and greens, alongside meat, cheese, flour, honey, preserves and other store-cupboard goods. These are the ingredients that make breakfasts, packed lunches and simple family suppers. 

I think that the easiest way to begin is not to replace your entire supermarket shop overnight. Choose three or four things your household buys every week and start from there. Eggs, potatoes and seasonal vegetables are a good place to begin, followed by bread or milk. Once that becomes part of your routine, build from it.

Price matters, particularly now, and local food shouldn’t pretend otherwise. Small farms cannot always compete with supermarket loss-leaders, loyalty-card promotions or produce sold at prices that bear little relation to the cost of growing it.

Whilst saying that, when it comes to core staples like yoghurt, milk and eggs, and the most in season produce, our markets very often beat the larger retailers on price and offer the freshest produce. 

Freshly harvested vegetables often keep longer, so less ends up forgotten at the back of the fridge. A whole chicken can provide a roast, sandwiches and stock; a larger joint can become two or three meals.

Right now seasonal Sussex produce is also more plentiful, making it the moment to buy tomatoes, courgettes, beans, sweetcorn, apples and early squash, rather than insisting on the same vegetables throughout the year.

It also helps to shop with a loose plan. Start with what looks best, then build meals around it: roasted vegetables with sausages, a tray of potatoes and chicken, soup made from squash, or eggs with greens on toast.

Simple food wastes less and lets good ingredients speak.

Buying locally does not have to be an all-or-nothing declaration. Most of us will still use supermarkets and – lets face it with busy lives – convenience matters. The point is to shift part of our weekly spend towards food grown or made nearby.

When you do, you receive more than supper. You know where the food came from, your money travels a shorter distance and a greater share reaches the people who produced it. Week by week, those small, modest choices add up – for our kitchens, our farmers and the Sussex landscape around us.

To find a weekly Sussex Peasant farmers market close to you in Brighton, Hove, Ditchling, Lewes, Newick, Danehill or Cuckfield visit www.thesussexpeasant.co.uk