Ciao, amici! It certainly looks the part. There are displays of mouthwatering pasta and prosciutto in the window, glimpses of preserves, farro, cheese, wine and olive oil inside.
But this is no ordinary Italian deli. It turns out there's quite a story behind the Italian Farmers shop. This is an Italian grocery with knobs (of parmigiano) on - a shop dedicated to aggressively 'real' country farm food from Italy, proper Italian produce, and to trouncing the British habit of accepting fake or contraband 'Italian' grub. It's a smack in the face for the food fraudsters. And it's the only shop of its kind in Britain.
It's an outlet for a chain of Italian 'farmers direct'-type producers, run by one of the biggest Italian farming cooperatives, Coldiretti, under the slogans 'Campagna Amica' and 'Made in Italy'. Campagna Amica has scores of shops and farmers markets all over Italy supplied by the thousands of Coldiretti small farmers, and the watchword is authentic food straight from the farm, ecologically sound, and with minimal food miles.
Coldiretti is well known and highly-esteemed in Italy. This is their first and only shop in Britain - it might be the only one anywhere outside Italy. And why choose Britain? That's interesting - apparently this country is the world leader in 'fake Italian' food, from spaghetti to Bolognese sauce, Parmesan and 'Italian wine' kits. Internet sites describe a massive recent hike in as 'contraband food' (prodotti taroccati) which is claimed as Italian, but actually made somewhere else like Tunisia, Spain or here in the UK.
I know this is a big problem with 'Italian olive oil - hence this web site. Overall, food fraud is a lucrative racket that (unsurprisingly) the Italian mafia has infiltrated, but big international food companies from every part of the world are also guilty, by mis-stating the true origin of their products and often mislabelling them, all in the name of profit. As usual, it's the bottom line that counts, not quality.
Coldiretti's mission is to counter this with genuine, authentic Italian produce straight from the farm gate. And they have chosen Stroud Green to begin their campaign in Britain, apparently, because this is a hub of the Italian community in London - and it's close to Arsenal stadium.
Italian Farmers is not cheap. Expect to pay two or even three times as much for some of the products here compared with what might seem an equivalent in the supermarket or another deli. Artichokes in oil, for example, cost more than £7, compared with a supermarket brand for under £3. But these are not the usual and familar brand names and products to the UK High Street. This is the real thing, from small Italian producers, not a massive food combine.
So there - no longer any need to zip over to the Campagna Amica farmer's market at the Circus Maximus in Rome (though admittedly, at these eye-watering prices, it might be cheaper to do so.) Good luck to them: cosmopolitan and authentic Stroud Green should be proud to welcome such an original and authentic store in the mix. Good luck, ragazzi! Support this shop if you can.
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