shopping the supermarkets

[Eden]

We have a website for the village I live in, someone wrote a message saying they were thinking of opening a new chemist. A lot of us said No! We've already got one that's fine, how about a quality fruit and veg shop from local farmers, you wouldn't believe what numbskulls replied, how ugly 'organic' food was, how they just couldn't be bothered to wash and prepare it. It makes my stomach turn if I wander into the local Sainsburys, all the veg peeled, washed, cut, pricked, poked and made to look oh so unveggy like. Please bring back the good old days, butchers, bakers ('candlestick makers' jibes my daughter!). I'm only 36 but I really don't like the way things are these days, hummpphhh!

[Eden]

Just wondering, what will I be after a 'Germinator' and when do I get there? Too much wine I think....

[Snadger]

Just wondering, what will I be after a 'Germinator' and when do I get there? Too much wine I think....

You will either 'damp off' or become a sprouter I think!

[Eden]

I think after a bottle of home-made cherry wine, damping off looks pretty certain!!!

[johnty greentoes]

Do be brief! The only part of the normal comunity which has no voice is the middle class, middle of the road, native white Englishman.

Which planet are you on? As if having a voice was important when the government has no ears to hear.

You may feel disempowered - but that goes for all of us, black, white, rich, poor. The problem is capitalism. It doesn't listen to voices it listens to money - in which case middle class white Englishmen have a very loud say indeed!

[johnty greentoes]

Sorry, but the one thing Supermarkets deliver on is price.

Yes but a time is coming when the consumer will want delivery on ethics as well.

[johnty greentoes]

I remember doing a summer job aged 17. Picking cucumbers all day in very hot greenhouses. Not allowed to take water in to the greenhouses (contamination risk).

I reckon 50% of the produce was dumped because the cucumbers were not straight enough. HUge pile of rotting cucumbers.

And the buyer ... Marks and Spencer ... not just any old cucumber obviously.

[Tyto Alba]

I always think that ugly fruit and veg tastes better on the whole.

Supermakets may deliver on price, but they fail on quality.....and on sustainability and ethics as Johnty says.

Forgive me for sounding sentimental or stating the obvious, but in this mad consumer society, almost everything you buy exploits somebody somewhere along the line. Nothing is pure.

Think about the allotment. You get healthy digging and cultivating, you get mentally healthy being aware of the seasons and how things really grow and then you get to eat fresh healthy, tasty produce.

At the end of the day, the deal you get with nature is that you bury the seeds and they simply multiply! Where else can you get a deal like that? That is the real truth.

OK I've had too much wine (not homemade btw) I'll shut up now.

[Snadger]

Took some spring cabbage home for the OH to use in the evening meal. She rang me at allotment to say " There are snails in the cabbage"!!! To which I replied " They're organic produce, what the hell do you expect"

Bloody Tesco's have a lot to answer for!!!!

[Don Vincenzo]

Took some spring cabbage home for the OH to use in the evening meal. She rang me at allotment to say " There are snails in the cabbage"!!! To which I replied " They're organic produce, what the hell do you expect"

Bloody Tesco's have a lot to answer for!!!!

Hello Snadger

Once I took home some still warm freshly laid organic free range eggs. They taste too eggy....( My wife comment ). I still remember at my grandfather farm collecting freshly laid eggs, making a small hole at each end and sucking the content. I say no more!!
Regards
Don Vincenzo

[Nicos]

Agree with your serenity! I sort of knew this kind of thing was going on - but now - I'll buy my milk from my milkman! Its shamefull what the supermarkets do to normal, law abiding farmers and veg producers! Bernie aka Dexterdog

I've always supported our local milkman, but it does cost 50p a pint!
Looks like you have to pay to have standards!

[jaykay]

Hello everyone

Just like to add that supporting your local milkman can mean using glass bottles which are recycled. We swapped to milk delivery a couple of months ago and opted for the 1 pint bottle. It's made a huge difference to the volume of waste in the wheely bin - no more large plastic containers (we have 4 children so use a lot of milk). The price matches Tesco's for organic milk too!

[bubblewrap]

Jaykay Don't you recycle. All our plastic bottles tins glass paper & card + other things we recycle we also compost egg boxes & most kitchen waste.
Egg shells are broken up spread on lottie to deter slugs.
Our wheelie bin and recycle bins are emptied on alternate weeks and the system works!
Pop bottles can be recycled or cut up (various ways) and used on the garden/allotment.

[TPeers]

Our dear delightful council won't take plastics as recycling! They want only white paper, and no window envelopes, they dislike brown glass and they hate cardboard!

So if I am to be 'good' I have to take plastics to my Dad (different county, different rules) Shred and compost 'unacceptable' paper. Heaven knows what I'm 'supposed' to do with any brown glass, fortunatly I don't get much. and cardboard I reuse where possible and burn the rest!

Very eco friendly - not!

[bubblewrap]

Our council is running an experiament using a special bin to compost "cooked" kitchen waste including meat.
PS I have two compost bins one at home and one on my allotment.