Spoilt for Choice at Village Greens, Prestwich

A quick shout out today for our local community store / organic supermarket / community owned cooperative: Village Greens of Prestwich, in north Manchester / south Bury.

From September through to the end of December (or even January, if I’m very lucky) Village Greens (or VGs as we call ’em in our house) stock a regularly-rotating range of freshly picked, all-organic apples. In the pic above, from left to right, we have this week’s purchases: ‘Scrumptious‘¹A very, very tasty apple indeed, not at all sugary, with hints of pear drops and aniseed., ‘Red Windsor‘, and ‘Lord Lambourne‘ and they also had ‘Discovery‘ in stock. Last week they had ‘Lena’²I can’t find ‘Lena’ in any of the usual databases, unless it’s a misnomer, and it should be ‘Luna’ (a.k.a. UEB 3375/2) or ‘Elena‘ ? and ‘(Laxton’s) Epicure‘, and next week it could be something different again.

This makes Village Greens the best possible source, around our neck of the woods, for sampling a wonderfully wide range of delicious apple varieties, the vast majority of which will taste so much better than almost anything you’re likely to find in the major supermarkets³The exception that proves the rule is when Tesco has occasionally stocked ‘Norfolk Royal Russet’, which is one of my favourite apples, bar none.. They also sell, all year round, a range of organic apple juices from Oakwood Farm in Sussex⁴If I’m correctly remembering a conversation from a while ago, Oakwood Farm might also be the source of VGs’ apples. But don’t quote me on that..

Anyhow, if you’re based in or just passing through Prestwich then do make a point of calling in at at Village Greens to buy a few bagfuls of apples. Your taste buds will thank you for it.

Footnotes

• 1
  A very, very tasty apple indeed, not at all sugary, with hints of pear drops and aniseed.
• 2
  I can’t find ‘Lena’ in any of the usual databases, unless it’s a misnomer, and it should be ‘Luna’ (a.k.a. UEB 3375/2) or ‘Elena‘ ?
• 3
  The exception that proves the rule is when Tesco has occasionally stocked ‘Norfolk Royal Russet’, which is one of my favourite apples, bar none.
• 4
  If I’m correctly remembering a conversation from a while ago, Oakwood Farm might also be the source of VGs’ apples. But don’t quote me on that.