What to ask (and what the answer tells you)
You do not need to interrogate anybody. Two or three well-aimed questions tell you everything you need, and on top of that you make the day of someone who has been at this for forty years.
«When did you cut it?»
The question that gives the most information per word. From whoever grows it the answer is an hour or a particular day. Whoever resells it answers with a week, or changes the subject.
«Is this yours?»
At a market this is the key question. Nobody who grows takes offence: it is usually the moment they get their phone out to show you the farm.
«What is best this week?»
You take home what is genuinely at its point and you let them know you trust their judgement. It is the question that turns a purchase into a relationship.
«Which variety is it?»
This is where the field parts company with the warehouse. A local variety name in the mouth of whoever sows it comes with a story behind it: why that one and not another, how long it keeps, what dish it is for.
«How long will it keep at home?»
Nobody knows better how long their own produce lasts. Two days' difference changes how much you buy.
«How many generations have you been at it?»
When a farm says so, this site takes it down as it stands and shows it on their page — 8 farms in the directory say in their own words which generation runs it. We never work it out ourselves: if they do not say it, it does not appear.
«Can I come back for more to preserve?»
Buying twenty kilos of tomatoes to bottle in August is the best deal for both of you: it costs you half price and it clears their picking in one go.
What you do not need to ask
Do not ask about marks or certificates. This site does not use them, does not ask for them and does not show them, and plenty of people who have worked clean for generations have no use for the paperwork. Ask what they put on it and what they do not, and listen to the answer.
Carry on here
This page is also in Castellano