Oxford SlowFoodStudent

Why to shop there • What to buy there • What to do with it

Occupying a large chunk of central Oxford, the Covered Market is a passage for many but a shop for few. Yet if you are planning to go seasonal and local in Oxford, then there really is no better place to start than here. You can get almost everything you need to run a kitchen without recourse to the supermarkets, and at a more competitive price than you might imagine.

Furthermore, what you’ll get thrown into the bargain is a wealth of knowledge about good food, as well as smattering of the kind of urban theatre that has all but vanished from the average high-street: porters lifting crates over heads; cries and shouts between traders; butchers mock threatening each other with dangerous-looking knives.

But the chief benefit is the quality and ethicality of the food. As well as being fresh, well-prepared and varied, most Covered Market produce is in some way environmentally better than its supermarket counterparts: fewer air-miles, fairer prices for suppliers, and less unnecessary adulteration and packaging.

The trick, of course, is to buy in season, to buy creatively, and then to cook in new and exciting ways. Shopping in the Covered Market on an average budget means that easy solutions like premium cuts of meat and pre-packaged asparagus tips are off the menu; but dig deeper for somewhat more recherché vegetables and ask for more interesting cuts, and you’ll be onto a winner. Stick to the Northern end of the Market, away from kitsch jewellery shops and clothes stores, and start with that healthiest and most basic of foodstuffs: vegetables.

Indeed, although you might spot the odd avocado flown in from Peru at Bonners’ the Greengrocers, you’ll also be free to chose from a much larger selection of tasty British apples, potatoes and root vegetables, and anything you do buy comes honest and un-shrinkwrapped; take along a couple of thick cloth bags and you can wave goodbye to unnecessary plastic. Ask what’s in season and treat yourself to tasty, carefully sourced local produce at a price comparable to, often cheaper than, the big-bucks competition.

On the other side of Bonners’ is another vegetable stall, McCarthy’s, with a great collection of herbs and, in autumn, some fantastic wild mushrooms. Opposite them sits the brilliant Oxford Cheese Shop, whose enthusiastic, sometimes slightly brusque staff will let you try before you buy, cutting the required amount of your selection off huge wheels, or lovingly packing smaller cheeses into paper wrapping. You won’t find gimmicky fruited Stiltons or pre-grated Parmesan here: just large quantities of darned good cheese.

Back at Bonners’, you could always skip the cholesterol-heavy dairy products and get healthy with fish. Turn round and feast your eyes on Haymans’ the Fishmongers, who have some of the most knowledgeable staff I’ve met this side of the Channel, and who are especially good when you’re not quite so flush as you’d like – they’ll sell you sardines, hake, and dogfish, cut them into fillets and steaks, and, at under £5 per lb, still let you off with change to spare. There’s nothing left to do other than flour up your fish, fry it in butter, and devour.

Next stop, meat. The Covered Market does not want for butchers, and each one puts on an impressive display of hunting and slaughtering prowess, with carcasses hanging from the eaves and rack after rack of fresh game: yet there’s only one place you should really be interested in.

Fellers the Butchers, also within sight of Bonners fruit and veg’ stall, have not only the best selection of produce, but the expertise to help you chose the right cut for you and your cooking schemes. Although you’ll find no pies or cooked meats here, you will find everything you need to prepare great-tasting meals from scratch. Want to impress on a shoestring? Grab some whole pigeons at £2.50 a throw, and serve the birds roasted whole, larded with bacon. Need something really cheap? Their excellent range of offal is ideal for slow-cooked stews, and will feed four for under a fiver. At the top-end, their steaks are expensive but absolutely brilliant: treat yourself to one of those a week and forget your cellophane-packaged, intensively reared beef every night. Vegetarian? They also have a cheap and reliable farm egg supply.

And if, after Feller’s sausages, rabbits, and venison, you should somehow still hanker after pies, then just across the way lies David Johns, a butcher specialising in cooked produce. Traditional steak and kidney, or perhaps something a little more adventurous; brawn, or ‘head-cheese’ is on sale here, as well as ‘faggots’. Ahem.

Finally, you might want to treat yourself to something a little more extravagant, and this is where the delicatessens come in. Palms will help you stock up on some good-quality basics like milk, butter, and oils, as well as offering some more unusual, if expensive items. They also have a good range of beans and pulses. Fasta Pasta, meanwhile, stock an incredible range of their namesake, as well as some classic Italian deli-wares. Not exactly the most local thing you’ll ever buy, but great as an odd treat.

Another substance that isn’t particularly local and often labelled ‘Italian’ is also available at Cardews, a tea and coffee merchants tucked away in the North Western entrance into the Market. Freshly ground in front of you, their “continental roast” is of exceptional strength, but with some twenty other blends on offer, not to mention innumerable sorts of tea, milder morning beverages are also taken care of.

That’s a whole week’s shopping, accomplished in less time than it takes to cycle out to Cowley Road and back. Indeed, one of the major benefits of the Covered Market is that, throughout its three-hundred year history, its role has always been to bring the Oxfordshire countryside’s produce together and sell it to townspeople in central Oxford; it functions as a kind of supermarket for those who dislike supermarkets.

And unlike the supermarkets, if you give it your regular custom, it will reward you. You’ll recognise some of the faces behind the counters, exchange a bit of banter, and get some fantastic tips for what to eat and how to eat it. A penny in every pound you spend there goes into a genuine shopping experience, a little extra that you won’t find elsewhere. At times, with its passageways and wooden slats, with its purveyors of such near-extinct delicacies as pigs’ hearts and scrag-end of lamb, it seems quaint, a slice of the past: but if we are to make a proper effort at eating well and eating sustainably, then it’s places like this that are the future.