Department of Mad Marketing

Thinking about punnets of strawberries yesterday reminded me of the time my father and I were going to visit his sister, a woman for whom the word 'redoubtable' was invented.

Ten minutes from her house, it suddenly occurred to my father that we should not arrive empty handed. Seeing a sign by the side of the road, advertising strawberries for sale, he swerved into the lay-by where someone had set up a stall.

There was nobody there when we arrived, except a rather unkempt looking woman standing behind a makeshift counter. The only thing on the counter was a black tin cash box.

'Hello,' said my father, 'I'd like four punnets of strawberries - I need a present for my sister.'

'We've got no more strawberries,' the woman answered, 'but we've got plenty of potatoes - I could put a couple in a punnet and you could take her them instead.'