LIVING
CONSUMERS’ RIGHTS AND DELIGHTS
IN GREECE.
LIVING , JULY 2008
I have just returned from
England ( hence the material on our website is even later than
usual…sorry! )
This time, I came away with a
niggling dissatisfaction over the whole process of food shopping
,which for me has to be visual and tactile. I need and love to
handle, inspect and generally relate to my fruit and vegetables
before I buy them. Who needs ‘organically grown’ labels to
verify a plant’s growth process when the carrots on offer are
hairy and dirty, potatoes are irregularly shaped and tomatoes
pitted and pocked?
It is a wonderful experience
to overhear locals asking the greengrocer if the pears are Greek
and if the answer is “yes”, they are eagerly selected in
preference to the imported, more perfect looking ones.
I love the sound of the
crackling brown paper when the fresh produce is placed inside
them and the coolness of that paper in my arms when I pile them
into the car. Plus I am satisfied that the brown paper is less
harmful to the environment than the ubiquitous plastic that is
used in England.
The proof is in the eating.
There is no comparison to
eating Greek tomatoes, which are sweet and succulent, despite
their external flaws. When cooking carrots, it is such a joy to
observe the water turn orange, due to the presence of natural
plant pigments which haven’t been removed by forced growth and
medication.
Fruit is truly seasonal.
I can buy delicious mandarins,
satsumas,oranges and pears in the winter and then enjoy a
plethora of locally grown dusty grapes, deep red, fleshy
cherries and the sweetest of peaches during the summer.
I don’t want to have access to
pears in the summer and grapes in the winter if they have to be
imported and bred to near perfection for the sake of aesthetic
beauty and availability.
England, to my mind has lost
the plot.
Take the time ten days ago
when I wanted to cook a meal for my generous hosts. I had to
queue for twenty minutes with a basket full of fruit and veg,
all washed, trimmed and snugly packaged in a polystyrene tray,
covered in cling-film. Why? Why are you doing this? I wanted to
yell to the cashiers and shop managers, stock -buyers and
politicians.
I want to pick out my own
items. I want to wash and chop and cook my own food. I want
onions to make my eyes stream and I want to pick out slugs from
my lettuces. I want tomatoes to taste of tomatoes and not of
watery cardboard. I want a relationship with my food and control
over my cooking.
I stomped out of that
supermarket and visited three more ( there weren’t any small
greengrocers in the area) in pursuit of spring onions which were
dirty and held together with an elastic band. I finally found
some and vowed that in future, I would only shop at that
supermarket.
Back in Aegina, I am so
grateful and relieved that we still have greengrocers who remain
important. I will ensure that I always shop from them so that
they don’t become extinct.
As consumers, we have the
power to keep small businesses afloat and we are surely foolish
to believe that supermarkets always have the cheaper goods. They
don’t !
Sometimes I fear that even
Aegina might become like little England, as I see tourists (
and Greeks) emerging from supermarkets with trolleys laden with
goods, including fresh produce.
Do we really want malls and
plastic to remove us from the real world?
I hope that the Greeks are
strong enough to resist change and will focus on what they are
good at…family and community life, which surely starts with
choosing the food you’ll serve your family and friends!!
Alison
Lorentzos
copyright 2008
