I've noticed a significant rise in the price of bread - from 89pence to £1.05 in some cases. The price of ordinary plain flour has also gone from 19pence (Sainsbury's Basic range, 2kg bag) to 31pence, almost double in price.

Trying to buy sugar yesterday for jam making purposes, the supermarket was bereft of any but specialist sugars (caster, brown, pectin added jam sugar), and they were slightly more expensive than the last time I bought sugar a few months ago.

It has been a fairly crappy harvest in the UK for wheat, but our soft fruits have done remarkably well - 10.lbs of sloes from just one picking and that was by two short people. If we'd had a tall person, a hooked stick, wellies or a step ladder, we'd have cleared 20lbs and not got half of the fruit available.

LTS