When is a seaweed not a seaweed?

One thing I have realised over the years is that you never stop learning. J Sainsbury’s pack of Crispy Seaweed has been around for some time and I always thought it was the real deal. But it was only this week, as I looked at the small print on the packaging, I finally realised it is in fact “fried spring cabbage sprinkled with toasted almonds”.

In my defence, I have covered stories of Bretons collecting a range of genuine edible algae delicacies fresh from their beaches. They go down well in Rungis, but I had a feeling that the idea never really caught on when the UK was targeted.

So, fried spring cabbage may not fit in with the growing selection of exotic salads and vegetables which continue to arrive, but Somerfield has found that customers have a liking for tatsoi, which only a couple of years ago would have hardly been recognised on the shelf. Strongly identified on the 100g bag and priced at a modest 99p, alongside red batavia, escarole and endive, it shows how tastes have expanded.

Other uses are also being found elsewhere for some of our traditional favourites. Being a keen trout fisherman I was intrigued to hear that carrots can be turned into a substance that is ideal - and I assume cheaper than carbon fibre - for making fly rods.

I wonder whether this applies to Chantenay carrots. Some excellent marketing has lifted this variety above the norm in consumers’ eyes and turned it into a multi-purpose premium product. With the exception of potatoes I cannot think of another root crop, which has gained from distinguishing varieties in this way.

Meanwhile, Marks & Spencer is pressing home its environmental message with Chantenay grown by Max Howard in Lincolnshire and priced at 89p for 350g packaged in a biodegradable corn-starch over-wrapped tray.

And looking at fruit in the same store, I am intrigued to note just how far and wide the net is cast when it comes to providing us with figs. Adding up those which are described as black, brown and green, my reference books point to no fewer than 19 countries over the year, including figs from a once little known source, Peru, currently on offer for £2.99 for four.

One of the things which always intrigued me on the wholesale market was fruit sizes. In my time, apples were recognised more by count size than diameter, in a complicated framework which had to be learned by a young salesmen. With different wooden - and then cardboard - 40lb or 42lb cartons and then half cartons, there was little standardisation.

Australia, for example, packed differently to New Zealand and South Africa packed differently to the UK. Today everything is judged in millimetres which makes things easier, but when it gets into store what does Extra Large, for example, really mean?