Food

[JerryRtilt]

We are very lucky, my dad still grows a lot of fruit and veg at the age of 89, as he has all his adult life. How he found the time and energy while running a business is a mystery to me, also i think its not just time as such but getting things done when they need doing, and not just when you fancy doing a bit in the garden.
Most weekends i come away with something from his garden and also try and use local farm shops, and although they are more expensive than supermarkets and i'd happily pay the extra anyway, when we do have veg from a supermarket so much of it goes off before its eaten and gets thrown away it doesn't make it cheap at all. A bag of potatoes from a supermarket start sprouting in days but my dad can store a sack of his potatoes for months and they are fine ?

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

We are very lucky, my dad still grows a lot of fruit and veg at the age of 89, as he has all his adult life. How he found the time and energy while running a business is a mystery to me, also i think its not just time as such but getting things done when they need doing, and not just when you fancy doing a bit in the garden.
Most weekends i come away with something from his garden and also try and use local farm shops, and although they are more expensive than supermarkets and i'd happily pay the extra anyway, when we do have veg from a supermarket so much of it goes off before its eaten and gets thrown away it doesn't make it cheap at all. A bag of potatoes from a supermarket start sprouting in days but my dad can store a sack of his potatoes for months and they are fine ?

You are so right, I remember my Mum and Dad getting a CWT sack of potatoes, and they were as good at the bottom as when delivered months before! All that tells me is the forced growth potatoes have either been in storage or transit for a long time, or what ever they feed them with doesn’t last 5 minutes!

 

[V8Druid]

You are so right, I remember my Mum and Dad getting a CWT sack of potatoes, and they were as good at the bottom as when delivered months before! All that tells me is the forced growth potatoes have either been in storage or transit for a long time, or what ever they feed them with doesn’t last 5 minutes!

yeh - we always had a sack of spuds sat when I was a kid and always fine to the bottom of the bag

 

[Jimbo69]

You are so right, I remember my Mum and Dad getting a CWT sack of potatoes, and they were as good at the bottom as when delivered months before! All that tells me is the forced growth potatoes have either been in storage or transit for a long time, or what ever they feed them with doesn’t last 5 minutes!

I think it might be something to do with them being washed, carrots are the same, but if you get them direct from the farm with earth still on them they seem to last ages.

 

[Grahams]

I think it might be something to do with them being washed, carrots are the same, but if you get them direct from the farm with earth still on them they seem to last ages.

A lot of fruit and veg is cold stored, so when it gets warmed up in the supermarket/peoples houses it kick starts the going off process. Also it is not in the retailers or supply chains interest for stuff to last. Much better you throw loads out and buy more.

 

[LKSF]

Potatoes are sprayed with a retarder and chilled to prevent them from sprouting early, this spoils the taste and texture a bit. It comes down to us wanting the same foods all year round rather than eating seasonal veg.
If you're eating English large maincrop potatoes (as opposed to first earlies or new potatoes as we call them) at the back end of Summer and into Autumn then they're not far off a year old. That's the only time they're ever fresh, in Autumn.
Sorry to be blunt, but you can't really blame anyone but yourself for eating out of season veg. Once you look at it that way it helps understand sometimes why things are like that. I'm currently eating tasteless tomatoes from Morocco, but well that's my fault for buying them, nobody else's. Proper decent fresh tomatoes are a luxury and i'll have to wait until late Summer for some.

Often foods are stored incorrectly by people too, a lot don't realise fridges are driers so they'll suck the moisture out of veg to leave it dull and rubbery quite quickly unless it's in a sealed container. We store biscuits and crackers in the fridge with the packet open, they never go soft.
I've found that packet Supermarket radish last for ages and stay crisp, I don't think they even sell unsealed bags, if they do they'll be like rubber balls. I think that's a little bit down to variety, but mainly the gas.

If you get decent carrots from a farm Jimbo it's possible they were recently pulled out of the ground which helps. You can store carrots in the ground until needed and they stay fresh.
A lot of Supermarket veg is bagged in gas, that's why it lasts so long (in the bag). Once it's released from that it degrades, but some of it seems to degrade slower than that which is fresh and not been sat in gas.
I noticed when shopping that in the boxes of carrots they were in big sealed polythene bags, on them was written in big letters; DO NOT OPEN UNTIL THE DAY OF SALE ^ that's why.

 

[Lancs Lad]

don’t know how far up in lancashire you are, but if you get down this way give https://www.thegreencow.co.uk/ a visit. Andy & lyndsey are great people who do their own cattle and pigs. Best bacon I’ve had form anywhere & the beef is always perfect.
They do mail order as well if anyone else wants to try them.

Been past that place I'm sure. Thanks I'll give em a try sometime not that far

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

Yeah and thanks to all the soil left in the spud sack I got into Tonka toys, the rest is history as they say!

 

[bobthebuilder]

yeh - we always had a sack of spuds sat when I was a kid and always fine to the bottom of the bag

with 3 brothers ,we had spuds every day ,no pasta ,rice etc so abag of spuds didnt last too long

 

[6feetdown]

with 3 brothers ,we had spuds every day ,no pasta ,rice etc so abag of spuds didnt last too long

Tbf potatoes are nice in most forms

 

[Quattromike]

yeh - we always had a sack of spuds sat when I was a kid and always fine to the bottom of the bag

Houses were colder back then, mostly all central heating nowadays unless your posh enough to have a chilled larder room in the house. Which was every room back in the day

 

[6feetdown]

Houses were colder back then, mostly all central heating nowadays unless your posh enough to have a chilled larder room in the house. Which was every room back in the day

Welcome to my house

 

[Grahams]

Houses were colder back then, mostly all central heating nowadays unless your posh enough to have a chilled larder room in the house. Which was every room back in the day

Waking up to ice on the inside of the windows - they were the good old days.

 

[V8Druid]

Waking up to ice on the inside of the windows - they were the good old days.

but that was winter time Gra ..... we had three other proper seasons back then too

 

[Canal Navvy]

Waking up to ice on the inside of the windows - they were the good old days.

In the good old days the glass of water on your bedroom window cill used to ice over ❄ ❄

 

[V8Druid]

my old man always used to buy a landrover, end of Sept./Oct. ready for the winter when we were kids ... and often had to use it for work, as the patrol cars couldn't get out and about

this was my old primary school ....... the little pine end in the centre of the pic., facing the road, used to have the old school bell in a small turret on the ridge ... (gone now )

in '62/'63 we went up around there for a shufty - I'd've been 5, going 6 ...... the bell turret was the only thing visible of the whole school .... completely buried for months in one huge drift ..... don't know how he managed to get us there, but he did ... one of my enduring memories of that winter

 

[Lancs Lad]

my old man always used to buy a landrover, end of Sept./Oct. ready for the winter when we were kids ... and often had to use it for work, as the patrol cars couldn't get out and about

this was my old primary school ....... the little pine end in the centre of the pic., facing the road, used to have the old school bell in a small turret on the ridge ... (gone now )
View attachment 55749
in '62/'63 we went up around there for a shufty - I'd've been 5, going 6 ...... the bell turret was the only thing visible of the whole school .... completely buried for months in one huge drift ..... don't know how he managed to get us there, but he did ... one of my enduring memories of that winter

I'm guessing it's occurred to you...if the temp was to drop a few degrees and this precipitation continues we could be in for a big un...

 

[bobthebuilder]

I'm guessing it's occurred to you...if the temp was to drop a few degrees and this precipitation continues we could be in for a big un...

needs the gulf stream to move,and recently it moves to far north to allow rain / snow in from the atlantic ,just lets the cold dry in from the north

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

but that was winter time Gra ..... we had three other proper seasons back then too

School holidays started with sun and ended with sun as I remember!

 

[Mick-the-fitter]

62/63 we opened our kitchen door and the snow was half way up it, but we still had milk delivered and post!