Birthday Vegetable Hamper

Dad is a really difficult person to buy Christmas and birthday presents for.
Traditionally, I always buy him a pack of coaltar soap at Christmas time along with obligatory wine accessories, novelty socks and smellies. Birthdays are harder, and over the past couple of years I've baked him cakes or bought him, err... umm... more socks??
Not this year! My parents have been through quite a hard time recently having just moved out of a pub and now trying to find work all over again. They've been away on holiday and come back fat and brown (and happy), so Mum warned me off my initial idea of buying something sweet, stating that they are both back on diets as of last week.
I went into town today to have a look for things. In B&M they sell a lot of odd food items in amongst all the homeware, toys and kitchenware, and I found a big himilayan pink salt grinder for a bargain price of £2. It suddenly occurred to me that Dad might get more out of a 'useful' gift that will double up as a motivator towards him losing weight.

And so the idea of a hamper seemed the best shout!

Hemel has started hosting a diverse range of fruit and veg stalls three days a week, and some of them are really good for picking up more exotic items for a reasonable price. Dad's really into his cooking and trying out new recipes and ingredients, so I picked some more usual things whilst I put together the hamper items.

As well as the pink salt, I found a cinnamon and sugar grinder and a jar of garlic and rosemary in olive oil in B&M. I can't recommend this shop enough for things like this - all three items were cheap as chips, and they were things I hadn't seen in bigger supermarkets.
One market stall were selling bowls of veg and fruit for £1, so I picked up some oyster mushrooms for Dad to maybe make a nice risotto or mushrooms on ciabatta. Figs are a favourite of my Mum's, and I know she enjoys these with cheese particularly.

Butternut squash - a staple in my own kitchen, as it's incredibly versatile and goes a long, long way. I use it for soups quite often, but it's brilliant roasted too with spices and olive oil
The hedgerows lining our driveway are thick with blackberries at this time of year, and they don't come better than freshly picked and put into this box of treasure... would make an awesome crumble, especially with some of the sugar cinnamon ground on it!

The veg stall had HUGE peppers, so one yellow one and also a bowl of those long, pointy red peppers add a shot of colour in the box, which looks so pretty.
My landlady also gave me two garlic bulbs grown in her own garden to add to it. I also put in a couple of Sainbury's recipe cards. Look out for these; they release new, seasonal cards at the entrance to the store every 3 months with simple, tasty recipe ideas on them. I put a recipe for peppers, mushrooms, crumble and butternut squash in the box for inspiration.

Dad was, thankfully, chuffed! My best friend told me once that her grandmother gives her a hamper of toiletries for her birthday each year. Nothing fancy, just what she uses daily, but it's one less expense she has to pay out for and it's nice to give gifts that actually have a use sometimes.

What would be in your dream hamper? Something useful? Something pretty?

BBxx