Supermarket RANT!!

[Alison]

They sell coconuts in Morrisons wrapped in clingfilm for protection...............

[nick the grief]

We reecently bought some hand held computers at work & wen for the ruggedised version as they are to be used in the feild - literally-

The company wen to great lengths to tell us each one was dropped 3m on to concrete to test them they arrived in boxxes about 15" sqaure surrounded by polystyrene packaging !!!

[angie loves veg]

(Except for my Dad, who keeps the clingfilm off things like mushrooms and uses it again! He is truly conscientious!)

and there was me thinking my Dad was the only person who did that....

[Earthbabe]

. If you get your chicken home and do not want to eat it straight away then take it out of the packaging. As long as it is not sitting on one of those absorbant pads and wrapped in shrinkwrap, it should last a lot longer. How long would you want one of those pads sitting under your meat.

Thanks brewer-again. Will take note.

[Earthbabe]

and there was me thinking my Dad was the only person who did that....

That's the sort of thing my mother has always done and it has kind of rubbed off. We have piles of stuff hanging around to be reused. It's no wonder I need more shelves.

Re farm eggs. We started buying them from the activity farm we take Miss E to, you know the sort of place where the kids can collect the eggs and feed the ducks/goats, calves, etc. They are now only open at weekends but Mr E was told if we want eggs they will be in the small handling area and you just walk in and pay. They are changed daily. Not bad, 70p a half-dozen hens and 80p half dozen ducks. Ok probably not organic but as was said earlier, at least I've seen the birds and in some cases fed them!

[Waffler]

I have now tried said free-range eggs, and whilst they tasted fine, I wasn't sure of their freshness: I poached them and the whites didn't hold together as well as they should have for fresh. However, I think they're ok generally, so I shall continue to buy from there - except when I'm over visiting my old farm shop, then I shall buy their double-yolkers!

[valmarg]

Waffler, I'm sorry you can't get any decent eggs locally. Tomorrow at the Bakewell Farmers' Market there will be a stall which sells free range eggs, and I shall buy a tray (30 eggs). When I get there the label will say 'laid this morning' and they are really fresh. I have two or three left from last month, and they are still fresher than anything you can buy in a supermarket

When you poach eggs, do you put any salt in the water? This breaks down the egg whites. To poach eggs you should only use water and a smidge of vinegar. (Hope I'm not teaching granny to poach, rather than suck!!)

You don't say what part of the country you live, so can't advise re anything local to your area.

NickTG - Chatsworth Farm Shop is a delight. Nothing is too much trouble. Also at Bakewell is a stall 'The Traditional and Rare Breed Meat Company'. The sausages are superb. As you say, Nick, it's sad that the best way to preserve rare breeds is to eat them, but at least they have had a free roaming life, as opposed to being in a cage. We do our best to try to ensure that the meat we eat has not been produced in an inhumane way.

Just as an aside - does anyone on this thread buy supermarket ready-meals?

We prefer to make our meals from that magic substance 'scratch'. In the meals we provide for ourselves the worst sin we commit is to use a stock cube. Apart from that fresh meat, fresh veg and fresh fruit.

valmarg

[Mrs Dobby]

Dont get me started on Supermarket Ready Meals Valmarg, I could rant on about them all night! Mr D used to buy some before I met him, but after showing him how easy it is to make most of them, and how much better they taste when home made, and how much cheaper he doesnt buy them anymore! He's even beginning to try cooking meals from scratch now, tho his Korma last night was a bit of a disaster, but gotta love him for trying! lol! Fortunately it was salvageable and his pancakes for afters more than made up for the Korma!

[Earthbabe]

I confess it has happened occasionally, although the last time was several months ago and the last one is still in the freezer and will probably stay there. The only thing that does occasionally get bought (by Mr E though) is pizza usually when I am working late. If I am going to be in I make pizza from scratch to get a decent gluten-free base.

Otherwise the most processed it gets is the stock powder (Marigold) and the occasional tin of baked beans usually because I haven't done the soaking and boiling thing and am running out of time.

With a child around cakes and biscuits are more fun made than bought and can be done on impulse, bread is made in the breadmaker and sauce is cooked from scratch. I do buy chopped toms and passata in tins/cartons for use when the fresh ones have run out.

Not quite ideal but working on it.

[Waffler]

Waffler, I'm sorry you can't get any decent eggs locally. Tomorrow at the Bakewell Farmers' Market there will be a stall which sells free range eggs, and I shall buy a tray (30 eggs). When I get there the label will say 'laid this morning' and they are really fresh. I have two or three left from last month, and they are still fresher than anything you can buy in a supermarket

When you poach eggs, do you put any salt in the water? This breaks down the egg whites. To poach eggs you should only use water and a smidge of vinegar. (Hope I'm not teaching granny to poach, rather than suck!!)

You don't say what part of the country you live, so can't advise re anything local to your area.

NickTG - Chatsworth Farm Shop is a delight. Nothing is too much trouble. Also at Bakewell is a stall 'The Traditional and Rare Breed Meat Company'. The sausages are superb. As you say, Nick, it's sad that the best way to preserve rare breeds is to eat them, but at least they have had a free roaming life, as opposed to being in a cage. We do our best to try to ensure that the meat we eat has not been produced in an inhumane way.

Just as an aside - does anyone on this thread buy supermarket ready-meals?

We prefer to make our meals from that magic substance 'scratch'. In the meals we provide for ourselves the worst sin we commit is to use a stock cube. Apart from that fresh meat, fresh veg and fresh fruit.

valmarg

No, I don't put salt in the water, but then I don't put vinegar in the water either.
I'm in North Wiltshire, if anyone knows of any great places to get eggs.
I confess to buying the occasional supermarket readymeal . It's out of sheer laziness or lack of time (though we all know Hugh showed us this isn't an excuse!) and we're always disappointed with them. It really is only occasional though, as we also prefer to cook from scratch. However... I rarely use stock cubes as they have so much salt in them!

[Alison]

Haven't bought a proper ready meal in years but like EB above, do use tins of tomatoes and the odd on of beans etc if I haven't got time to soak. Don't think this is too bad as it's not like the processed rubbish you can buy in the cooler sections. Oh yeah and occaisionally buy a pie or something at the farmers market but am not too worried about that either. Am pleased that we've not bought any bread since we bought our bread machine too.

My brother in law doesn't really eat anything that you can't ping and is getting a right gut on him, has bad skin and is always suffering with some complaint or other. OK, probably unfair to put this totally down to his diet (he doesn't do any exercise either) but it really can't help. You only have to look at the ingredients to make you worry and goodness only knows what they put in them to make them keep "fresh" for so long. And finally, if that's not enough, any I've tried tasted foul also! Sorry about the rant, it's one of my pet subjects.

[Mrs Dobby]

Took a look at where the Value Butter comes from in Tesco's the other day, its shipped all the way from New Zealand! Thats about 12000 food miles just for 500g of butter! Noticed that they do do an English Butter for a few pennies more, so I know which we will be buying in future!

[Hazel at the Hill]

How utterly disappointing - I've just spent 15mins composing a well thought out contribution to this debate - went to post and found I'd gone offline - logged on and my post is no-where to be seen.

[valmarg]

Waffler,

The best supermarket eggs I have bought are Clarence Court free range eggs, which went under the grand title of 'Mabel Pearman's Burford Browns'. They are sold with a 'taste' guarantee - fantastic taste - or your money back'. I bought them from Waitrose in Lichfield. They really were delicious. I certainly noticed a difference in taste. If you have a Waitrose near you, you should be able to get them, otherwise try the web site www.clarencecourt.co.uk, to find your nearest stockist.

valmarg

[pigletwillie]

We eat ready meals quite often.

However they are home made meals with as much home grown stuff in as possible. We have a freezer in the home that is full of tubs of "pick and mix items". For example we can pull out a lamb stew, a celeriac mash and a mixed veg, or a chicken jalfrezi a pilau rice and a spicy potato to make up a meal.

Down in the workshop are two more freezers, one of which is full of home grown food with "value added", such as pasta sauces, quiches, pies etc and the other is a meat freezer which also has in it unprocesed home grown food such as fruits and veg.

Batch cooking is very saisfying and uses up our homegrown stuff as it is harvested preventing gluts and now having a pressure canner and a dehydrator, a whole new world of home made ready meals is opening up.