a month without supermarket - new challenge for 2011 starts at post 1013

COOLTRIKERCHICK

thriftylady.....what treasures we have lost over the last few years......

i can remeber the largest shop around us was the co-op... and by todays standards its like a little corner shop... but it had 5 people working in there.... and my mother had an account... that she paid at the end of the week when she had her money.....

then on a saturday the whole family used to go the local town....neath.... and go to m&s for nice cakes..... then to the local indoor market for meat..... and then to a old shop that sold fruit and veg..... you had to go there early as he allways sold out.... on a staturday..... the ques were out the door ..as the fruit/veg sold out soooo quickly he just used to sell it straight from the boxes......the shop has long gone now.... and there is a tescos opened on the otherside of the street....

if i could go back to that time (in the 70'S) and know what i know now about hw the supermarkets.....behave.....etc....

i would have never used and supported them....

it really does make a lump in my throat... when i hear about how villages/towns/cities have been practically wiped out of all this nostalga....which it is......

if i won the lottery ( i really wish) i would give a mse site a huge donation..... for all the support and help i get....and becasue of all the friends i have made on-line.....

then the normal ones.. family and true friends.....

buy our bike club and club house...:D

and then have a traditional grocer shop in the middle of swansea....just like arkwrights...:D open all hours...

my mther got an old fashioned till in the basement of her shop.... so all i would have to do is make sure it acted like the one in the series....

or an old fashioned traditional sweet shop...:D

the thing is like everything else... you dont realise what you have lose until its gone.......

maybe our farm shop are the ones that need the support now and lets hope that they are not just a fashion fad...

spiddy100

thriftlady wrote: »

Spiddy, have you checked your farmshop for dairy produce ? Mine sells 4 pint cartons of milk for £1.05 - cheaper than any supermarket, and locally produced. I buy all my milk for the week as it usually has a week's worth of sell-by date on it. We drink about 16 pints a week.

The farmshop has lots of local cheese and yogurt too although not big chunks of Cheddar.

I make my own yogurt using UHt milk (no need to heat it first) and dried milk, but I can only buy them in a supermarket :rolleyes:

Thanks Thriftlady. We have a number of farm shops here, the one I go to for meat is quite a journey so we only go there every now and again. I just thought though (so thank you for the reminder) there is a local-ish one which I tried once and didn't go back as they had a very limited range (lots of HM ice cream etc which we don't eat), but I will ring them to ask about the milk. They may know a supplier even if they don't sell it themselves. They are close enough to make it worth visiting once a week.

kscour

thriftlady wrote: »

I love reading it, but it makes me sad for a vanished world.

I felt like this the other week when I went into one town centre and found it wasn't there anymore.

I stood on the pavement and looked at the shops on the opposite side of the road and remembered how it was when I was 12 so 25 years ago (not that long) apart from the post office and hall everything had changed. I felt quite weepy remembering the shops and the people who ran them & worked in them - it was like part of my life had been ripped away.

The lovely lady in the bookshop who used to lend me her books to read because my mum spent far too much buying books for me (I was a real bookworm!) - don't get that in Waterstones or WHSmiths! The cafe where they not only wanted to fatten you up and gave you extra pieces of toast etc. but they knew exactly who you were, who your parents were, and if you were allowed fizzy pop and chocolate or not!

What memories will my DD's have? Some person saying "would you like help with your packing?" At least now they are out there meeting real people in real shops, perhaps one day they'll be stood there and they'll look at the row of shops and think "I can remember when there was nothing there and look at it now - all full of lovely little shops" - I hope so, I really, really do

reverie

Sorry, I haven't read this whole thread but have been skimming and following as much as possible. First, well done all of you :T

I buy fruit and veg grown a couple of miles away from a farm shop and eggs come from MIL's happy chickens. I do feel really lucky to be able to do this and feel really lucky that we have great range of farm shops where we live. I think most people don't see any alternative to supermarkets, due to constraints of life, time and so on and so forth.

I have just joined Friends of Local Foods and I thought some of you might be interested too:-

We made local foods...

FARMA launches a new campaign this month encouraging shoppers at farm-direct sales outlets - farm shops, farmers' markets, PYO's and box schemes - to actively get involved with supporting the local foods agenda and the outlets you enjoy shopping at. Thousands of leaflets have been printed to be distributed to FARMA members and will be given away to shoppers all across the country in an effort to get a real push from the (up to) 30% of the population who shop at direct-sales outlets*

The leaflets contain postcards made out to both FARMA (for further correspondence) and to Lord Rooker at DEFRA, urging him and his department to take note of farmers’ markets and farm shops, pick-your-own farms and box schemes.

These outlets are where you buy local food now. We made local foods available first, and we make the local foods, not the supermarkets. Now the supermarkets want a slice of the action – and if their past behaviour is anything to learn from, they really want the whole cake.

It is especially important that we take action now and ask for your support. There is a strong and sustainable local foods network existing already, providing thousands of jobs and keeping cash in the rural and local sector. Yet it is fragile. Since the Curry Report of 2002, the music getting to the government’s ears has been from the supermarkets – and how they must get local foods on the shelves. Overlooking our important sector – without which there would be no ‘local foods’ – puts thousands of livelihoods across the country on the line, would badly impact the local economy (supermarkets do not benefit the local economy as well as local reinvestment**), reduces the shopper’s choice and, importantly, food experience.

If you want to have continuing choice about where you do your food shopping; if you value your farmers’ market and the stallholders who come from local communities; if you want there to be a growing artisan and local food culture based on small craft businesses – then support our FRIENDS OF LOCAL FOODS CAMPAIGN. We need you! If we lose local foods direct from the producer, everyone will be the poorer.

Click here to complete your details. You will get a regular e-newsletter, a guide to direct sales outlets – and the satisfaction that you, like us, are standing up for local food retailing in the community.

The website is http://www.farma.org.uk/ and you have to scroll down quite far to find the link.

Keep up the good work all :j

COOLTRIKERCHICK

right i have sourced some venison....from country aprk which is quite near......

they cull and sell surplus animals..... they also do wild boar around christmas time....

the thing is they only sell the whole animal....

and this is the last week until begining of october... when they start culling again....

the meat is on offer at mo... at £1.65kg instead of £3.85 kg...

as they are small ones now it will cost about £33. for a whole animal...

but its not cut up.....

i have phoned my local butcher and he would charge me £20 to put into joints.....etc....

so is it worth taking it to my butcher to do.. or is it easy to do ourselves....

and as we have never tasted venison before.... would does it honestly taste like....

here's where its coming from

http://www.neath-porttalbot.gov.uk/margampark/venison_sales.cfm

so it is local.... free range.... in beautifull area.. plus more or less organic....

piratess

I have read this thread from the start over the last couple of days and i have found it amazing and throughaly inspiring, i remember shopping with my mum in the 80s we used to have an axe store for washing powders etc and the she always used the butchers and the fruit man and my dad got his fish from a mate! ..
id love to follow suit i have a family of 5 and was wondering what meals you have been making over the month and have you found you are often eating the same type of thing over and over?
this week im going to be buying my fruit and veg from the market and then plan my meat for next week

thanks for all the wonderful ideas and a trip down memory lane to!

kscour

piratess wrote: »

I have read this thread from the start over the last couple of days and i have found it amazing and throughaly inspiring, i remember shopping with my mum in the 80s we used to have an axe store for washing powders etc and the she always used the butchers and the fruit man and my dad got his fish from a mate! ..
id love to follow suit i have a family of 5 and was wondering what meals you have been making over the month and have you found you are often eating the same type of thing over and over?
this week im going to be buying my fruit and veg from the market and then plan my meat for next week

thanks for all the wonderful ideas and a trip down memory lane to!

Well I was already using local butcher for meat so that may make a difference but I don't think we've changed what we eat too much except for when we've gone to other butchers and been tempted by their rolled breast of lamb or pies.:D Best way is to take your time, I've been doing this for nearly 5 weeks and I'm still finding places, and just eat the same stuff unless you get sidetracked by all the goodies you find!
Better ask CTC for a rebel number as well!

CTC - sorry not keen on venison so I can't really describe the taste. Looking at site though if its coming as one big lump I would be tempted to pay the butcher. I've split joints up and boned breasts of lamb & pork etc but I think for a deer I'd be having to mutilate on kitchen table and I wouldn't fancy that - don't think my DD1 would be too keen either:D

dianadors

My best shopping memory was the Greengrocer who used to come around our village on Mon, Wed and Friday in the 60's. He had a Horse and Cart and sold local and seasonal Fruit and Veg. I remember wishing that we could have strawberries all the time and not just for 4 weeks of the year - now that we can, they dont taste like strawberries at all!! If his horse did a whoopsy, one of the kids would run and tell my grandad, who would poop and scoop it around his roses. Looking back now, its all very "Cider with Rosie" but it was convenient (it came to you) it was very enviromentally friendly and it all tasted delicious. Also - my treat was a packet of SunPak raisins as he didnt sell sweets. Its a wondeful memory, but I bet it was Asda opening up nearby that put him out of business.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

kscour wrote: »

CTC - sorry not keen on venison so I can't really describe the taste. Looking at site though if its coming as one big lump I would be tempted to pay the butcher. I've split joints up and boned breasts of lamb & pork etc but I think for a deer I'd be having to mutilate on kitchen table and I wouldn't fancy that - don't think my DD1 would be too keen either:D

good thinking batman.......:rolleyes: didnt think of it like that the whole lot on my little work top.....

once you said it.. i had visions of hubby with his chainsaw...:eek: and the dog chewing the ends of the legs...:eek:

i think i better find somewhere on line where i can just buy a joint or something... to try.... and if we like it....wait until october to buy a whole one..... and the a wild boar in december....

anyone tried wild boar.???? is it a tastier version of pork?

HI.. PIRATESS:hello: ....


glad you have found this thread inspiring......i must admit.... it has really kept me on track.....

as for meals etc....i am now finding i am more adventureous with my cooking.....and going through my old cook books that were collecting dust on the shelf....only used for decoration purposes;)

i know this might sound a bit silly but buying from the butcher.....fruit and veg stall ....etc.... as been the best source of inspiration.....

as when you go to the butchers.....with no particular joint of meat in mind....and then see... what he's got.....you do starting fancying....and start thinking of diff dishes....

baby steps.......and you will find once you start using the butcher ..etc..... you are eager to go to another local independant.....

give it ago .....and keep us all updated....

kscour

COOLTRIKERCHICK wrote: »

anyone tried wild boar.???? is it a tastier version of pork?

QUOTE]

Had wild boar sausages and yes it was just like a really nice pork (which it is when you think about it - it's just a big pig that's got to live it's life roaming around eating what it fancies) I think its similar to the difference between the taste of a battery hen and a free range chicken, the same thing but much much nicer.