STROUD is a wacky place isn’t it? A recent visitor who took some photos at the market then added a fairly lengthy critique of the town on Facebook pointed out all those ugly bits that most of us just ignore while we look at all that beauty around us. Visitors don’t see it like we do it seems. When you see a person, you can’t see their heart and I guess our town is like that too; what is so amazing about it isn’t immediately apparent perhaps?

To add to this wackiness we have Forest Green Rovers, who are home to the first meat-free menu at any football stadium! I mention this because I heard this week that Funky Falafel, at the market every Saturday, have recently started delivering hot wraps, just like the ones they sell at the market, to the FGR training sessions for the players’ lunchtime snacks. Fabulous! Funky Falafel produces an excellent hot wrap with hummus, falafel and salads at the market every week, for which the queue rarely dies down, but they also have pots of hummus (several flavours), their new range of jars (sweet harissa, black olive tapenade, aioli and muhammara) and this week forced their latest product on me; Laffa crisps! Regulars will have noticed that one of the defining factors in their wraps is the excellent quality of the wraps themselves. they are fresh and locally baked and have excellent texture and flavour. So these Laffa Crisps were a bit of a surprise. Basically the breads are smothered in olive oil and spices and then baked in the oven to produce a crispy, wonderfully tasty snack. They have only started on one flavour at the moment, Za’attar, which is a lovely Arabic blend. not overpowering but very moreish! I have also found that a bag of mixed loose falafel balls (they usually have four different flavours) is also an excellent snack; moist and tasty and very healthy and cheap!

Elsewhere this week Days’ Cottage have announced the end of the eating apples so the time for pies, crumbles and cake are upon us as they will still have cooking apples for a few weeks.