Vernon Mascarenhas, Commercial Director of Thornicrofts, has revamped the Market firm’s Instagram output, with a renewed focus on the grower end of the supply chain.

Thornicrofts describes itself as “a greengrocer for the fine dining sector” and works closely with growers, both in the UK and overseas, to provide its clients with consistently top quality, seasonal fresh fruit and vegetables throughout the year.

“I want [the posts] to explain to people more about where the produce is coming from,” Vernon said. “What we need to do as a generation is to understand more about the fruit and vegetables we are eating. Of course, fresh produce turns up in the market, gets sold to restaurants and turned into meals, but it’s the element before the market that I don’t think gets enough attention.

“I'm aiming for more people to be aware of what we need to do in terms of supporting food production. Seasonality is a very easy thing to say, but the reality is on a day like this there’s still someone out there trying to harvest your purple sprouting [broccoli]” he said. It was a freezing and wet day, by the way!

For his part, Vernon, who also does some consultancy in the restaurant industry, works entirely exclusively with Thornicrofts with his fruit and vegetable hat on. “I’ve tried to completely change their views on, and approach to British produce in particular,” he said. “It really does matter and it should never be a case of ‘it’s 2p cheaper from Spain so we’ll switch’ for instance. The chefs and the punters want that too.”

It's a year-round job though and the early insta posts in the new series have featured Kentish potatoes, Medjoul dates, Sicilian blood oranges, Catalan onions and Yorkshire forced rhubarb. They have not yet mentioned growers by name, partly due to commercial sensitivities, but Vernon added that if growers do want to be highlighted in future, that is a route Thornicrofts will happily go down. “Some growers supply us exclusively and others also supply other firms in the market,” he added. “There is still a sensitivity in the market around that.”

To see more of the new social media approach – go to instagram and search for @thornicroftsveg