Supermarket RANT!!

[Hazel at the Hill]

I'm watching Question Time....

I stopped doing that when I noticed that however much I shouted at the TV and put my hand up, Dimbleby never took my comments on to ask the panel.....

Doesn't do your blood pressure any good!

[TPeers]

Just thought I would jump in and add my five penny worth!

When I was at school, umpy ump years ago, Cookery as a subject was frowned upon for 'higher achivers' as 'anyone can cook - you are better than that!' Got my goat somewhat as I always wanted to cook - so I learnt from Mum and Gran. My point here is that schools have made proper cooking the poor alternative, any job is better than feeding yourself and you family. All for the sake of the school ratings. Is there a case to try to push for 'domestic science' classes for all children to be part of the school time table?

Also, if we want children to be able to recognise a raw veg, would gardening clubs at shools be the answer - not all would be interested, and yes this means more work for someone, but a few might get the gardening bug and I can see a future where we have to import our gardeners and farmers because it is 'beneath' the then generation!

Agghhh! Rant over.

[bubblewrap]

I with a class mate was the first boy to do cookery at school (1964-65)
Only learnt the basics, but has kept me in good stead all my life (can stiil boil an egg )and I still enjoy cooking to this day.

[Dobby]

Where do you think your bread comes from

I was in Tesco today and the worbatans bread is now £1.03 so I siad I supose it will be on offer next week and the girl on the bread Isle siad no did you not hear all the bread has gone up cos of the drought in New Zeland all the wheat comes from there?
I thought we grow it hear in this country
also found this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6135086.stm
just thought I'd shere it with you all

[Birdie Wife]

Right on TPeers, we have to learn to cook from somewhere, and it should be either home or school. My OH's mum wouldn't let him move out of the family house until he could cook tatis piminit (sorry, NO idea of spelling!!), a Welsh dish with bacon, onions and potatoes, filling and sustaining, which he cooked for me when I first met him and is totally simple and delicious! But you can't rely on your parents being able to cook these days, so school is the obvious answer. And as many people have pointed out, kids are much more likely to eat veggies they've grown themselves. Aren't kids taught 'life skills' any more? Like how to avoid getting pregnant, what smoking does to you, that sort of thing? Isn't how to feed yourself heathily important in this context too?

[Hazel at the Hill]

.....did you not hear all the bread has gone up cos of the drought in New Zeland all the wheat comes from there?
I thought we grow it hear in this country
also found this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6135086.stm
just thought I'd shere it with you all

Good grief! I knew that the price of bread had gone up because of the price of flour, but had NO IDEA that the wheat comes from NZ !! That's Wharbartons off my shopping list! Think of the food miles!!

[Dobby]

I'm going to look at makeing my own bread again but must have a look at where its from if they say on the packet

[johnty greentoes]

I was in Tesco today and the worbatans bread is now £1.03 so I siad I supose it will be on offer next week and the girl on the bread Isle siad no did you not hear all the bread has gone up cos of the drought in New Zeland all the wheat comes from there?
I thought we grow it hear in this country
also found this
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6135086.stm
just thought I'd shere it with you all

******* unbelievable. So what is East Anglia for if it isn't wheat, or has the whole of Engalnd turned into one oilseed rape field?

I'm going to reinvigorate my thread about growing wheat.

[Waffler]

What an interesting read!

Bramble - children whose parents are claiming benefits are entitled to free school meals (though some will still bring packed lunches) others opt to pay for these as opposed to sending them with a packed lunch. The majority of the children in my reception class (4 and 5 year olds) bring a packed lunch; on the whole these aren't too bad, but I do have one child whose lunch will frequently consist of something along the lines of: crisps, 2 choc biscuits & 2 cakes (Mr Kipling-stylee).

Valmarg - about your point regarding school meals: I agree to a certain extent that children would be more likely to eat their meal if it was a case of 'take it or go hungry'. However, as mentioned above, few children in my class have school meals, and more to the point, who knows what they're eating when they get home: more than likely, when they get in from school they annouce that they're hungry and get fed junk (many are given sweets at the school gate, regardless of having eaten lunch, been good, worked well, or anything else). If they have another cooked meal in the evening, it's likely to be some turkey-twizzler style rubbish and chips.

Of course I don't mean that all families follow this pattern, but it is true for many families, and I think it's terrible.

As far as parents not being taught is concerned, I try to teach my children, with the idea of them going home and telling/educating their parents.

[johnty greentoes]

School meals at a Primary level are usually good I think - because of the limited choice on offer.

But at Secondary........... put chips and pizza in front of a 14 year old and guess what will happen?

Yesterday I offered the Y5&6 children in my class a carrot each as they left to go home. They ALL enhusiastically took one and went on their way home merrily munching them. But at lunchtimes they almost all avoid carrots. So my conclusion is that raw is better than cooked.

[Geordie]

So what is East Anglia for?

A question I've often considered as well!

[Geordie]

Yesterday I offered the Y5&6 children in my class a carrot each as they left to go home.

Do you need a hygiene certificate for that?

[TPeers]

Is this where I hold up my hand - mea culpa. I can cook, I like to think quite well. I am teaching not just my daughter but my entire pack of Brownies how not to kill themselves in a kitchen - quite a job with some of them! But Hazels packed lunch must give the school nightmares!

She regularly (not to say monotonously) has a 40g portion of cheese, a pack of crisps, a small yogurt or fromage frais, a kipling type cake slice, a kitkat and one of those twee bags of fruit flakes with a bottle of water.

If I have been baking she may have an oriental chicken bun (chicken marinaided in soy with spring onions, stuffed into bread-dough, leave to rise, then bake) but generally she won't eat a sandwich and she only gets about 20 mins to stuff herself before they get tipped out to play. (I should add that she is a very slow eater.)

Because I know that she will get a proper cooked supper I have made a choice to go for calories and quick energy foods, and correct the balance each evening - the amount of lunch-box junk food I buy, the supermarket must love me!

I suppose it has to be better that she eats that that eats nothing, which is what would happen if I tried to insist on a 'proper' sandwich, or (even worse in her view) school lunch but I am hardly teaching good habits!

Any suggestions? I'll get her to read this, it might help!

[TonyF]

This is a really good thread, not going to get into the discussion tho cos I've managed to move away from all the pressures of processed (fast) food and that sort of thing.

When I was at grammar school (late 50s/early 60s) I wanted to be a chef - parents were in that line so it seemed natural. When it came to making the course choices I told my form master who sent me to the head master for a 'talking to' because at our school, we didn't have 'that sort of boy' who wanted to do cookery.

It was an East London boy's school but was joined to a girl's school and we had to walk past the kitchens to move between lessons!

When I was doing the single parent thing, my sons both learned to cook and today, they're in their 30s and can both cook well. So they both know one end of an egg from another and now youngest son has a sprout himself, he's teaching him about food.

Girl's family different tho, 20 year old grandson thinks everything comes from the kitchen and Mum magics it from somewhere even though he worked at Sainburys - I use the term 'work' loosely, he still knows nothing about food, apart from eating me out of house and home every time he comes here, at least I make the idle little sod really work for his keep!

[Waffler]

School meals at a Primary level are usually good I think - because of the limited choice on offer.

But at Secondary........... put chips and pizza in front of a 14 year old and guess what will happen?

Yesterday I offered the Y5&6 children in my class a carrot each as they left to go home. They ALL enhusiastically took one and went on their way home merrily munching them. But at lunchtimes they almost all avoid carrots. So my conclusion is that raw is better than cooked.

Seems likely they'd prefer the raw option, given that carrots are one of the few vegetables actually better for you cooked (apparently).

What I meant to put in my earlier post is that our dinner ladies are only allowed to 'encourage' the children to eat all their meal, or eat their sandwiches rather than all the sweet stuff in their lunchboxes. I'm not suggesting they should be made to sit there until they've eaten it all (especially given the time-constraints imposed on them, as previously mentioned), but I do wonder whether we give young children too much autonomy - surely in this case the adult does actually know best.