I discovered something new this weekend- cheap fresh fruit and veg stalls.

Large impersonal supermarkets have been my hiding place too long, I've come of age and can now talk to a market seller and buy things.

I've made it to my advanced age of 26 without fully understanding weights and measurements, and as stupid as that sounds it has always put me off going to markets.

If there's a sign saying, 1 kilo of apples for £1 for example- how many apples is that?

And is that good value? Or is it so cheap there must be something wrong with them?

Not to mention, sometimes I'm not sure what the food is I'm looking at.

In the supermarket, they always have labels next to everything with the prices.

But what if I was to go up to a market seller and say: "Could I have two of those cucumbers please?"

And get the reply: "Those are courgettes."

If I had made that mistake in the supermarket and picked up the wrong thing, no one would have known my veg ignorance shame.

My other concern is, do I pick up food I want then give it to those at the stall to weigh?

Or do I point vaguely and say: "Can I have a kilo of potatoes please."

It's a bit like when you go into a cafe/restaurant for the first time and you're not sure if you just choose a table and sit down or wait to be seated.

It's those few awkward moments when people around you will realise you don't know what you're doing and some imperious voice will say: "Uhh, we're not seating people there right now."

This is an embarrassing admission, but shopping at fresh food stalls seemed too much bother.

Better to go to a large impersonal supermarket and just wander round picking up things and putting them into a trolley.

At the end of your trip, you'll pay at the till- no chat necessary to procure your items.

After this long diatribe of why I have always been a supermarket shopper, I can now triumphantly say- I bought loads of fresh fruit and veg all by myself from the market.

It was so cheap!

I've got LOADS, plastic bags full of the stuff, because I can only really do a big shop for fresh food once a week due to being at work all day.

My concern now is that because this veg has not been frozen by supermarkets to near suspended animation, it may go off quickly- rendering it an inefficient way of buying food for one.

Time will tell.