Welcome to The New Greengrocer!
This blog is a cornucopic adventure in food by a Canadian girl who moved from Vancouver to the Chilterns countryside to be with an Englishman and became a greengrocer. (Crazy, I know!) A lifelong foodie and former consultant on environmental programs, international development projects, ethical business strategies and community-based planning , she used to work with a broad range of organisations to help them inch forward toward a more sustainable future. After having worked, eaten and explored her way around the world to over 20 countries, she swapped the global lifestyle for a more local one.
Championing local food, ethical business & sustainable communities
She found her footing in the UK as a greengrocer, managing the food hall in a historic walled garden deep in the Chiltern hills. Digging into sacks of muddy potatoes, convincing folks to try unusual and strange-looking veg, and visiting local producers and farms, she would extol the virtues of local honey and rapeseed oil and eating seasonally. Hence, The New Greengrocer blog was born from both her passion and new path in life, to connect to her surroundings and create a sense of community around food. You’ll find stories about local producers, seasonal cooking ideas & ingredient inspiration, and, of course, lots of foodie (albeit amateur) photography.
Getting stuck in…transforming the food hall at West Wycombe Walled Garden
Feeding the chickens on a snowy December day
Having re-started from the ground up, she has now left the walled garden for the High Street with big dreams and an entrepreneurial spirit. Her first venture was to open up a local food shop & delicatessen in High Wycombe called Local Roots, bringing the farm-to-fork philosophy to life. So if you’re in the area, pop in for a latte (fairtrade coffee and local milk, of course) and say ‘hi’!
Farm-to-fork in the Chilterns – my new shop Local Roots in High Wycombe
Drawing by J.E.Lythe, Bucks Open Studios
Feel free to comment, share and get in touch: thenewgreengrocer(at)gmail(dot)com or on Twitter (at)LocalRootsWyc
Written and photographed by Vidya Crawley, unless otherwise stated. Photos are posted under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence.
Hi, like the web-site. It is a real boost to people looking for local foods and services and driven by somebody with that pssion to suceed in all these things, all the very best.
Having a family business that’s keen to provide a simular service, The Painted Kitchen Comany. Our aim is to use materials/woods from substainable sources, products that
are easy to use to house foods at the correct tempertures that we enjoy This makes for a healthy lifstyle and a happy family.
Kind regards John Easterling
Thanks, John, for browsing and for your comments! It looks like we’re both helping people to better connect to their food in different ways…