Green/grocer/ies

[shewhomust]

What I learned on yesterday's trip to the greengrocer: that offered the first of the English asparagus for £5, and a punnet of Belgian strawberries, also for £5, I don't need to think about it; I'll have the asparagus. There will be other strawberries, but asparagus comes and goes too fast. We shared them at lunch time, six stubby little fingers, boiled for five minutes maximum, bright green and tender, with a nob of butter.

Thinking about posting this, in the middle of the night when your thoughts go off the tracks, I wanted a word for "things you buy at the greengrocer's" and couldn't think of one. You buy groceries at the grocer's, but what do you buy at the greengrocer's? Well, fruit and veg, I suppose (or maybe fruitandveg). And come to think of it, what are groceries, anyway? "the food and supplies sold by a grocer", says Merriam-Webster, which is pretty circular. Are groceries always plural, or can you buy just one grocery? I think a grocery is the shop itself, rather than, say, a single tin of beans...

I fell asleep before I reached any conclusion.

Comments

[athenais]

The urban US does not separate grocer from greengrocer, as you may have observed yourself. Thus we don't have that word since all groceries come from a grocery store (in a general sense).

[shewhomust]

Really, you don't have greengrocers at all? Here. too, the greengrocer has become a rarity: we now have to drive across town to find one: I wonder whether someone a generation younger than me would use the word. Thanks for that reminder!

[athenais]

We have supermarkets with produce departments. It's the same thing, just folded into the one stop shopping concept Americans love so much.

[shewhomust]

Oh, supermarkets dominate here, too - and pretty much everywhere O've ever been. That's why I'm so excited to find a slall, specialist shop!

I'm interested in your use of the word 'produce', though. I don't think it has the same use in UK English. How much does it cover: is it all fresh foods, or just the fruit and veg?

[athenais]

Produce means fruit and veg only.

[shewhomust]

Then it is precisely the word I was looking for. Maybe not in precisely the language I had in mind, but close!

[cellio]

In some cities, the greengrocer slot has been reclaimed by farmers' markets. The one local to me is open weekly from sometime in May to sometime in October, so it's not year-round, but I'll take partial-year local produce over none at all.

[shewhomust]

Good point: the farmers' market goes a step further in offering a restricted range of fresh goods.

And, like athenais, you use the word 'produce' - interesting!

[cellio]

I didn't realize "produce" was one of these words with regional definitions. In my experience (small midwestern US city), the word means fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs, but the "produce department" might also be where you go for some cheeses, prepackaged dried fruits, nuts, jarred minced garlic, and salad dressing. I think this is more about adjacent product placement than definitions, but I'm not sure.

What does "produce" mean for you? I'm curious to learn about variations!

[shewhomust]

It's not that 'produce' means anything different, it's just not a word I would use! Your list is quite exactly the things that my greengrocer stocks, and that I was looking for a word for - but 'produce' never occurred to me. At a stretch, I might use it as you did when you talked about 'local produce' from the farmers' market...

[cmcmck]

Our market greengrocer also keeps a certain amount of interesting deli stuff.

[shewhomust]

Ours also stocks cheese, meats and baked goods from local producers - and a tempting display of sweeties in big glass jars! But the fruit and veg are still very much in the spotlight!

[cellio]

Are groceries always plural, or can you buy just one grocery?

Oh, good question! This, uh, is probably going to keep me up tonight...