A glimpse into the barter-based economy of post-collapse Britain is being offered by the New Inn pub in the UK, which is currently letting locals swap their unwanted homegrown produce for some of the cheaper alcoholic beverages.
A bunch of rhubarb, for example, may be swapped for one pint of low strength beer, with the more exotic and harder to grow crop of asparagus earning the trader two pints, seeing as they may then be whacked on the side of an evening meal costing $24 so everyone’s a winner. Anyone with a glut of new potatoes, cauliflower or some nice over-wintered broccoli may pop in to trade, until someone arrives with 12 mates and a van load of Aldi veg they’ve sprinkled a bit of soil on and ruins it for everyone.
Manager Lewis Phillips said: “There are no set amounts – that’s where the bartering comes in. But if someone comes in with too little, we will send them back to pick some more produce. We also have another board in our dining area which lets our guests know what we’ve used their produce for. Right now we have rhubarb crumble on there.”