0-waste Shopping In Brighton

I write this from my shared hostel room in Hove. Brighton and Hove used to be and still in a way are 2 separate places, but because they're so close together Bighton and Hove are now apparently merged into 1 city. I was in Brighton itself for a week and loved the fact that Purezza and Infitiny Foods were practically on the door-step or only a few minutes' walk away. I got to Hove a couple of days ago and am here until 25th June, so during this time I've been doing as much 0-waste shopping as I can. I wrote a review of Infinity Foods on https://www.happycow.net/ and might have mentioned it on here, likewise with Purezza (the vegan and plant-based pizza restaurant. My username on the happy cow website is harmonyln7 if anyone wants to look me up on there. I'm pleased to see that Infinity foods are starting to do more 0-waste products like oats and other suchcereals. The staff tell me they're in the process of expanding the shop so will have more soon. I did get some lovely apple and cinnamon jam during the week though. I think it's fantastic on tost! The slices of pizza they do are also pretty big, so for once I don't mind so much paying 2.85 GBP per slice. They also have things like vegan scones and sausage rolls. I was pleased but not surprised to see they also sell reuseable containers like flasks and food containers etc. In hove there are a couple of places I want to mention and one I find sort of annoying. The one I find annoying is Kernel of Hove. I like the fact they have organic fruit and vegetables as far as they can, but at the same time don't appreciate the fact they have absolutely no loose dried ingredients. The people who work in and run the store are nice enough, but all the Infinity Foods range they stock is packaged. As a result I refused to buy anything other tthan some fruid from them. They did recommend Harriot of Hove though which is a 0-waste shop a couple of streets away. On the way me and a guy who's staying at the hostel and came with me met a guy selling more fruit and I think vegetables. The interesting thing I found about that tall was that although the strawberries are sold in plastic containers, he's perfectly happy if I was to bring my own container to put the said strawberries in my own container and reuse the plastic one later. So onto Harriot of Hove. I could totally spend all day at that store! They hae everything from loose pasta, rice, teas to loose driedd fruit and i think nuts. They even have loose vegan chocolate buttons that are also fair-trade! Yay for fair-trade vegan things! You have to take your own containers, which I would be perfectly happy to do. I got some mint tea, some dried appricots and even a lttle reuseable teabag. I've been using the little bag a lot today and yesterday, because the cups here are kind of smaller than my tea-strainer. I think it'll also be useful for making tea in my flask. I managed to get a nice loafof bread too. Today I sadly had to spend more money getting a set of knifes because utensils in the kitchen here are a bit thin on the ground. I wanted to get a bigger loaf of bread, but then realized we don't have a freezer here, so had to get the smaller loaf. My original thinking was great I'll get a big loaf and freeze half of it. Another thing I appreciate about Harriot of Hove is the fact that with the jams and nut butters, you can buy a jar of it and take it back the next time. So when you buy a new jar of jam, they take the old one and send it back to the company that makes it and you get 20p off your new jar of jam or nut butter. I could be mistaken about the nut butter, but I know it applies to the jam. I'm also told it applies to the apple cider vinegar. The bread I got was a sour dough loaf and I thought it was pretty good when it's not toasted. Not sure if I like it toastedd or not - maybe I should put the toaster on a slightly lower temperature tomorrow. I managed to get all the fruit with no packaging yesterday (although I payed more than I would have liked as apples aren't in season and bananas and avocados don't grow in England) and was able to use my own bag. I also was able to use my own containers for the tea and apricots. I got the bread in a paper bag, but paper composts really easily anyway so that's all right. I'll probably pay Harriot of Hove another visit and get some jam. Tonight though I think I'll see what raw vegan recipes I can find or one-pot type things, because apparently there are only 2 working rings on the hob in the kitchen or 2 rings altogether (something along that line) and I don't like using the microwave if I can help it. There are enough microwaves around already.