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Lunch can be pretty ‘hit and miss’ with those who are working ‘flat out’ (where DID that phrase come from?).

Today, somewhere between a late morning bath and hoofing out the front door to collect my mail from the Post Office, I paused and looked around the kitchen before hauling a trout out of the freezer. The trout was promptly returned to the freezer because I’d spotted a miniature pineapple and remembered there was some Rachel’s Organic Coconut Yoghurt in the fridge.

Coconut yoghurt’s the only thing I buy of Rachel’s, these days. Most of the stuff goes off before I can eat or drink it. Yeo’s organic yoghurt (and milk) far outlasts it.

Anyhow, before I could think twice, the pineapple was sliced off at both ends and the skin and sharp bits cut off so the whole thing was hexagonal in shape. Moments more and it was on top of the yoghurt. That was a great first course.

Next, a small avocado. Off with the skin, and into a bowl with fresh spinach and rocket. A good splash of olive oil, a little Teriyaki sauce and onto a plate. Finished with Furiyake Japanese seasoning (bits of seaweed, seeds ‘n stuff). Very satisfying. I bounced off around my local village, which has sprouted all kinds of flower arrangements: hanging baskets and standing plinths overnight. I wonder what we’re celebrating…!

The mind ponders a meal tonight, inbetween work simply not achieved today and the absolute deadline: midnight. Fresh tomato, oregano and basil soup (my basil’s flowering: only Waitrose* basil-in-a-pot would last that long) followed by something with baby cauliflowers and courgette shouldn’t be too much trouble. A stir-fry with the cauli, perhaps?

On supermarkets, after becoming depressed at the price of my Waitrose bills, I have been checking out almost anything. But ASDA is too depressing to walk into, frankly. I thought much the same of Lidl, which now has organic food, a keen man told me. I went to explore and found a stack of organic carrot, tomato and mixed vegetable juice, which was not something I’d seen anywhere else. It is terrific - especially with some vodka lurking in the middle of it.

Aside from that, there’s some really good Norwegian smoked salmon. But fresh vegetables went off very rapidly. So Lidl’s done its dash in the fresh veg department.

So has Tesco. Before lunch today, I picked up a pack of peppers (just for tongue-tying effect) and, more dubiously, a pack of organic beetroot that had not been refrigerated at source and was due to expire tomorrow. Not today. But the pack was blown up like a balloon. Dumped ‘in disgust by Mary of Mortuary’.

Sainsbury’s tends to do better although Wm Morrison’s beats everyone - including Waitrose (at least for price) - in the fresh fush (approved NZ pronunciation) department up my way. All the same, their organic salmon has hiccupped heavily twice in price over just one week. I have yet to dare scanning Waitrose for the same product. Like UFO’s, food prices are rising faster than petrol.

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