Waiting for Mr Chilli-chewer

Today at the shop, me and Ange waited in anticipation for one of our favourite customers to come in to get his usual bag of veg and a handful of chilies to chew, raw. He swears they're helping him give up smoking. Don't know his name but when I find it out I'll blog it, with a pic if poss, so you know who I'm talking about.

He was missing Ange's fierce little birds eye chillies (variety Demon Hot), homegrown in Wellhouse, so she brought him some in. They're waiting behind the till so Mr Chilli-chewer, if you're reading this, your chillies await.

The GVG always buys local where possible, and sometimes even goes without produce out of season if it thinks the food miles are just too much (eg importing asparagus from Peru). The chillies are coming all the way from Cairo, and they're still not as good as Ange's. It's a cliche I know, but local and home-grown always tastes better.

Ange used to be a teacher but now she's a grower and a shop girl, working at the GVG two days a week and usually more. She can't seem to keep away - she gets excited about something and just has to come in and do it!

She grows her chillies in an enormous greenhouse which is visible from space. You can see it on googleearth. It's huuuuuuge. In the summer she also grows tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, aubergines, strawberries, peaches and apricots in it. Roll on summer! For now, the greenhouse houses the citrus trees to keep them frost-free til they can go outside again.

Good to buy local produce just now includes the winter roots, leeks (leek and potato soup, yum!), mackerel from the east coast, honey from Joyce Jones in Elland and brownies home-baked in Marsden. And of course the Handmade bakery bread, which our customers often remind us is the best in the world. And then there's Longley Farm dairy produce. I've grown up on it and I wouldn't settle for anything less.

There was recipe on telly the other day for creamy smoked hadddock chowder made with leeks, potatoes and sweetcorn. The sweetcorn we can't provide locally right now but the rest we can. Not bad for a little shop that was failing six months ago.

People power! Peace! That's me signing off.