Guildford farmers market

yellow iris (Iris pseudacorus) by River Wey

bread Celtic bakers

strawberries

carved melons by Thai restuarant

First a diversion to St Mary’s. Farmers market is one of the rare occasions St Mary’s is open.

I was disappointed last month no strawberries. Today there was strawberries, and gooseberries, though it begs the question why £2-50 a punnet when in the supermarkets £1-99 a punnet. Strawberries by the time I got hem home were squashed.

Bread off Celtic baker, plus flapjacks, not sure if they were blueberry or date, I took the last two.

Disappointed the stall from which I look forward to Cornish pasty, had almost nothing left, and not what I wanted.

Tomatoes from the isle of Wight tomato stall.

Radishes off Secretts Farm. Expensive but worth it. Except they were not. They were large, woody, and I threw them away

Thai Restaurant from Jeffres Passage had a stall with carved melons, and demonstrations of carving. If there was an award for best stall, they would have won, as no competition.

It is good that local food entrepreneurs have a stall. That is what a farmers market should be about, supporting quality local food entrepreneurs, recycling money within the local economy.

Thai Restaurant is where I had lunch.

Harris + Hoole are to open a coffee bar in North Street. It will open on Thursday. Not a good location, but then they would be paying double the rent if they were to open in the High Street.

Harris + Hoole give the impression they are an indie coffee shop. They are not, they are a chain embarked on aggressive expansion. Even worse, they are a front for Tesco.

• Customers criticise ‘indie’ image of the coffee shops part-owned by Tesco
• We had to take Tesco’s cash to launch our coffee shops but the values are down to us
• The horror of the ‘fake’ independent coffee shop
• The trendy chain of posh coffee shops that’s Tesco in disguise: Pop in for a latte and it looks like a quirky family business. But it’s not as it seems
• Tesco fund a chain of ‘independent’ coffee shops
• Storm in a coffee cup? Harris + Hoole’s founder on its controversial Tesco backing
• Eat, drink, shop as Tesco buys Giraffe restaurants
• Tesco effect: How big firms quietly own little brands

It is disingenuous of H+H to claim they are a family businesses. They are not. That H+H came from a branding firm, only serves to illustrate how tacky is this exercise in hoodwinking the public.

Doe H+H pay tax, or are they corporate tax dodgers like Starbucks? Want to know more about H+H, you will have difficulty. They are owned by an offshore holding company in low tax Ireland.

There are genuine indie coffee shops in Guildford. Try Glutton & Glee and Milk & Honey, both through Tunsgate. Milk & Honey is closed for refurbishment, but should reopen within the next week or so.

The service in M&S was bad for even their abysmal service and contempt for customers.

During the day, bumped into four people I know. Often a matter of seconds and I would have missed them.

A cool afternoon, more like autumn than summer.

Guildford farmers market takes place on the first Tuesday of the month in the cobbled High Street in Guildford.

Currently the Guildford Summer Festival. Usually they have an extra farmers market but I had seen no information to that effect. I asked at the Celtic Bakery. Yes there was an extra one, but the last Saturday in July, ie three days before the next market. This is crass stupidity, neither benefits stall holders nor supporters of the market. It needs to be midway between the two markets.

Top Story The Digital Mission Daily (Wednesday 3 July 2013).