He does look a bit skanky but he has an impressive range of fruit and vegetables on his stall. So shiny you can see your face in them, so bushy and green and irregular in shape, they whisper 'organic'.
He's not there every day but, in a half-arsed attempt to withhold money from the coffers of the supermarket giants, I'm quite keen to buy fresh produce from him whenever I can. Which isn't as easy as it sounds - you need to catch him actually working.
I did once ask him what his days/times were because that seemed like a sensible option. He's more elusive than the Scarlet Pimpernel. But he was very vague. Said sometimes he was there every day. Which sounded a lot like sometimes he isn't.
Wanting to make the most of this rare sighting, I kept him on his toes with a long list of seasonal leafy things, which one by one, he carefully flipped into brown paper bags for me. At the end of the transaction, an afterthought really, I asked:
"Do you have any herbs?"
"Sure," he replied and leaned in conspiratorially, "What you looking for? An eighth? Some skunk?"
"No" I say slowly, as if speaking to a child, "I was thinking more along the lines of coriander and basil"
I think I might have an idea why he has such a sporadic approach to his market presence. Sainsbury's can rest easy.
