Cherries

Our first English cherries of the season. The man on the stall in Epsom market said that these particular ones had been bought on Saturday, about a week after English cherries had first appeared - it having taken that week for the price to come down to something with which he could do business in Epsom.

£6.40 for the kilo, so the dearest yet this year.

Much brighter looking than the imports from Spain, reflecting their much shorter journey to Epsom. So far very good, firm and sweet. No duds.

Will they still be around when we get to the Isle of Wight for our annual visit? I think that last year we missed them. A pity as the journey would have been even shorter there - and for my money, the shorter the better, except for the speciality apples and pears which ripen in storage for use in the autumn and early winter. Cherries not in that department.

Will they still be around at all if and when we lose all the cheap labour from the mainland which is used to pick our flowers, fruit and vegetables?

PS: which reminds me that we have not had a gangmaster scandal for a while and even the blog can only manage a mention en-passant at reference 1. But I have learned that while a windows search for 'gangmaster' will find 'gang-master' in a word document, a word search will not. I would guess an oversight on the part of MS quality control rather than design on the part of MS product masters. I suppose I might tempt some fellow geeks out of their burrows if I were to post something on one of the many product forums - and I might even find the answer - but it is certainly too hot to bother with anything of the sort this afternoon.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/orgo.html.