Not getting your meat from the supermarket

I feel that if I had completed this post when I had thought of it it would have have an air of prediction and I could have been adding a 'told you so foot note' now. My butcher is loving the horsemeat scandal - new customers and a lot of material for his jokes. When I was in Derby I bought my meat from the market and when I moved back "home" to look after my dad I was very pleased to find there was a great butchers a few minutes walk away. I've never been a big fan of supermarket meat: bland fatless flesh from half a world away.

So I make a trip to the butchers a couple of times a week and its great.Big bits of what are still recognizably animal that are expertly butchered for you as you wish, Nothing is too much trouble and he happily indulges my foibles while telling me jokes. They have moved with the times and make things like moroccan meatballs (really good) and their own sausages as well as selling set price 'weekend' and 'midweek' packs that let you budget.

He knows where all the meat comes from, local farmers on the whole and all free range. They sell a lot more than meat too, slowly stealing more and more of my budget away from the supermarkets (though he doesn't sell gin and chocolate so they will always get some) and supporting more local small businesses: cheese, bread, pies, curry sauces, pickles and chutneys... Oh and frozen fish.

I like knowing a chunk of my albeit small budget goes to local family businesses, I like knowing what I am eating and I like good tasty food. I also like that food sold to me with a cheeky joke and some cooking advice!