The shop: crates on the pavement from half seven, the season on the tickets, everything loose
Fruit and veg
The shop itself: thirty-odd crates of fruit and vegetables on the pavement and up the walls, bought at the market three mornings a week and from Welsh growers when they have it, every ticket priced and labelled with where it came from, all of it loose.
The shop is a narrow double-fronted unit on Commercial Street with the crates out on the pavement from half past seven and the shutters down at half five. Carol buys at the wholesale market on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings and from growers in the Vale and Pembrokeshire when they have the crop; what is on the pavement is what came in that morning or the morning before.
The tickets say what things cost and where they came from: Pembrokeshire earlies in June, leeks from a grower at St Brides Major through the winter, Cox and Bramleys from a Monmouthshire orchard from September, rhubarb from Llangynwyd in March. When nobody in Wales grows it, or it is not the season, the ticket says Spain, Kent or Costa Rica, and the seasonal calendar on this website says when the Welsh one is back. Lemons, bananas and oranges never grew in the Llynfi valley and we sell them anyway.
Everything is loose. Take a paper bag from the hook or bring your own; we weigh on the counter scales, which Trading Standards check every year. Half a cabbage, a single onion and one sweet potato are all fine. Bruised fruit and the end of a crate go into the £1 bowl by the till, and the chalkboard by the door says what is best that week, which is usually whatever Carol argued the price down on at the market.
What you get
- Fruit and veg bought fresh three mornings a week
- Welsh and Vale growers named on the ticket
- Imports labelled with the country, never dressed up as local
- Everything loose: one carrot is a sale
- The £1 bowl of seconds by the till
- Open Monday to Saturday from 7:30am
What it costs
Potatoes £1.40 a kilo, carrots £1.20, onions £1.30, leeks 60p each, a Savoy £1.20, Cox apples £2.80 a kilo, bananas 22p each. The £1 bowl of seconds by the till. The seasonal calendar says what is good this month; the boxes page builds this week's box with the delivery day.
Questions about fruit and veg
Is it all local?
No, and we will not pretend. In November about half of the veg is Welsh or from the Vale; in June more; in February less. The ticket always says where it came from.
Can you put something aside?
Yes. Ring before eleven and it is in a bag behind the counter with your name on until we close.
This week's box, with the day the van reaches your street.
Small £15, medium £21 or large £28, this month's veg, two swaps if you want them, and the next round for your area worked out before you order. Free delivery around the Llynfi valley. No subscription; pay on the doorstep.