Page 50 - Phonebox Magazine March 2016

Live Local. Love Local.
One of the luxuries of living in a small market town is ‘slow shopping’. Forget trolly rage as you ght to manoeuvre down the busy supermarket aisles. Forget the need for speed as you try to pack your bags as fast as the ultra ef cient assistant
sends them past the checkout. And forget being done and dusted in under an hour. This is shopping to be savoured. Don’t go with a shopping list. You’ll probably be disappointed and it spoils the fun anyway. Go to be inspired. Go ready to have real conversations with enthusiastic and knowledgeable staff. Have a coffee and a cake. You don’t want to rush these things. And go in the knowledge that you’ll come back with more than you went out for and a smile on your face.
First stop: Olney Butchers. The meat is the star of the show so this must be your your rst port of call. They have an excellent meat range including game and sausages and you can order in special requests. We chose sirloin steak for Saturday and lamb shanks for Sunday. A couple of rashers of bacon were added for tomorrow’s breakfast.
Next up, the veg shop: Harvest. Here we stock up on the usual fruit and veg from the shelves and racks ladened with colourful punnets. The lamb shanks are to be cooked in a Thai broth, so we need ginger, lemongrass and shallots. Luckily Harvest have it all. We also get eggs and our favourite Amazing Grains bread, made locally right here in Olney.
Deli stop number one: Wild Leaf. We were having friends around so wanted a few bits of cheese. These guys are very happy to cut you some small pieces and helpfully recommend a varied mix from their extensive range. They’ve got a solid French and UK collection, including the Local Wodehill Blue made in Odell. An unexpected bonus, we also bought lemon sole, Wild Leaf have just started selling fresh sh. They have a small selection, but phone the day before and they’ll get in what you need. Time out here for a coffee.
Deli stop number two: Olney Delicatessen. Here we are after coffee beans. It’s recently under new management and the owners have just taken on a new coffee supplier Woodenhill, who roasts over in Ampthill. It’s what they serve in the café and they will soon be selling bags of it too. We came away with a free sample to compare with our usual. It faired very well with a rich but mellow avour. Some tiny chocolate chip muf ns were for sale for 50p. So a couple of those slipped into the basket too.
And nally for some booze: Bacchus. A huge selection of wines, beers and spirits run by people who really know their stuff. We came out with wines from the Spring eld Estate organic range – a favourite choice, some London Lager and some local Concrete Cow MK IPA. And we even found a bottle of English malt spirit (distilled in Wolverton) to add to our burgeoning whisky shelf.
And that was shopping done. It was a long walk home with our heavy bags for life stuffed full of paper wrapped parcels. Luckily the Swan is half way. So we stopped off there to refuel. This is slow shopping done properly and we are fast becoming experts. HB
Read. Talk. Eat. Drink.
If a foodie book club sounds like your thing, come along to the Bell and Bear on March 17th. £8 for dinner while we chat about March’s book – Me before You by JoJo Moyles. For more details search for the Bell and Bear Book Club on Facebook or email helenjbillingham@gmail.com
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50 Phonebox Magazine | March 2016
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