Hunt of the Haggis

There are no British specialty stores anywhere near Charlottesville, that I can tell, but there are a few in NOVA. When leaving home this weekend I remembered that I had set myself with a mission. I needed to find some haggis.

There is a place called the British Pantry out past the airport, in Aldie. They have British biscuits, chocolate, meat, and other products in one room and a tearoom in the other. I could tell I was at the right place because they had a British-style telephone booth in the front. The other cars parked there had license plates like "UKGIRL" and "CYMRU", my little Scottish flag sticker fit right in.

I bought 1.77 lbs of haggis for $15.71. It will probably not be worth it, but that's okay. It's haggis.

It wasn't too far out of my way, though the roads back there were little two-laners with passing zones and lots of hills. It probably only added about 30-45 minutes to my total drive time. I'm going to try and find someplace closer to Cville that doesn't mark up quite as much. First stop should be the Foods of All Nations just down the street, then we'll see.

Pictures should be coming soon, as well as stories of a third (and final?) Hunt.

Saturday Morning Farmers' Market

Cville has a Farmer's Market in the Downtown Mall every Saturday morning in season. Despite living here for three years or so, I never went, probably because I didn't like veggies until six months ago. I finally went yesterday, and I really liked it.

Most of the produce stalls were about the same, but besides the vegetable farmers, there were quite a few people selling baked goods, homemade chipotle jellies, or jewelry & crafts. Some local coffee companies were there as well, so most people had a cup of Shenandoah Joe or Mudhouse in their hands as they browsed.
There was also a Barack Obama booth, to sign up for volunteering?, or to receive a free button/bumper sticker with a donation. I didn't expect that from a Farmer's Market, but it is Charlottesville, so I wasn't too surprised.

I was really tempted by some of the cut flowers I saw, I don't know how one goes about growing flowers to sell at weekend markets but they were beautiful!

Anyway. I bought a curried ginger scone on a whim from this nice old man and had it for breakfast this morning. It was delicious, though I added apricot jam to keep it from becoming overpowering. I'll bet his 'sweet' scones are better than the 'savory', maybe if I go again I'll try it.

Sad to say, I think I bought a cucumber when I actually wanted a zucchini. It was labeled corretly, too, I'm just not very good with produce.