273. Wallet empty? Why not try bartering?

Trying to be self-sufficient in fruit and vegetables means that we have periods of scarcity and periods of excess. The plum harvest for example can be 100 kilos and all comes within a few weeks. Similarly, we can be inundated with rhubarb or eggs. On the other hand May can be a hungry month, stored apples having being eaten and new veg still struggling.

Freezing stuff helps. But while I was having my haircut the other day I had another idea.

Bartering.

Bartering is thought to have originated in 6000BC with the trading of both good and services including food, weapons and tea. Although money now dominates, bartering and other alternatives such as gifting, LETS (Local Exchange Trading System) and local currencies such as the Totnes pound have developed and become surprisingly popular.

Why not, I thought as the barber chipped away at my fringe, try it in Glossop? And, no time like the present, I began to steer the conversation.

As it turned out, the barber was thinking about planting a fruit tree or two.

Five minutes later I was done. My hair was cut and payment was to be an unfeathered maiden. Or in other words an apple tree, one that I had grafted a year earlier.

A few days later I returned with the tree.


The only problem is that I will have hair as long as Rapunzel if I have to wait until he wants another one. 

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