Cost Of Food Set To Soar

Popperwell

The average price of potatoes in Tesco's seems to be around £2-£2.49 for 2kg but no one seems to sell sacks of potatoes around here. Not even the greengrocer. Onions seem to have remained constant price wise, turnips seem expensive. The bag containing a turnip, onions and carrots has increased by 50p and now costs £1.50.

Having said that I can get quite a few meals out a bag of veg like that.

superskintmouse

A really thought provoking thread, im off to find my local farm shop and to join my local horticultural society in the hope that someone can teach me how to grow veg properly. i know they split seed packs and sell seedlings etc so im hoping someone can help me. I need to dust off my slow cooker and research some good receipes and start being a proper stay at home mum, after all my job is to look after Lo and the house, strewth if i was employed i would have sacked myself by now. Does anyone shop at their local market? mine is about 10 miles away but think the car journey may be worth the fuel if i can get better fruit and veg.

ALIBOBSY

I am lucky that where I live is semi rural-think small village on edge of small town. So we can walk out the door and within about 1-2 mins came be in open fields with trees and a river, plenty of opportunity to forage and fab for the kids to play. Plus low crime rates. We have the great farm shops and then just 10-15 mins drive to the various supermarkets. But being up north (lancs to be precise where they used to make alot of those trucks) any being lucky enough to get on the housing ladder in 1999 we didn't have to pay a fortune to live here. Mind you if any of you southerners fancy a big move you can get a 3 bed semi even now for around £120/£130 k and a 4 bed detached for around £180/£200 k. It a great family/community type area and its rare to go out without bumping into someone you know lol. There are a couple of housing association estates, but having lived in an inner city estate my OH laughs at them as being the quietest trouble free areas. Good schools etc. We do feel really lucky.

If anyone else lives in the area I can post details of the farm shops we use. The meat shop does do online orders and deliveries, but the online prices are higher than those you pay "at the gate" so to speak if anyone is interested.

Ali x

COOLTRIKERCHICK

It seems as though food/energy prices crop in in practically every conversation lately,

Even people which were classed as 'well off' locally and feeling the pinch..

I personally think the days of cheap food etc are w ell over, and it is Totally the right time to go back to basics..and realise over the decades we have been brain washed by manufacturers to buy their brand/product for ease and conveinence sp?

I love looking, reading etc about how peopled lived in previous decades, centuries..

We have as a society totally lost our natural instinct/skills when it comes to living surviving..

The amount of posts that ask 'its passed its use by/best before date is it safe to eat' shows that people are not using their instinct, sense of smell, taste etc...to work it out.

Poeple used to save their own seeds for next year's planting.

Before we had a dog ( sadly he died aged 9 in June:o) any food that was left on the kiddies plates I used to put into a bowl, and I would re-heat it for myself for another meal. When I said this on a thread ( many, many moons ago) some mse'rs thought it was disgusting that I was eating other people's left overs... ( but they were my children's )

We dont buy anywhere near the amount of 'junk':cool: food that we used to, and it is now classed as a treat( that it should have been in the first place)

[Deleted User]

nothing wrong with left overs ,especially if they are your childrens.I see no point in binning good food but then I was brought up in an era of absolutely no waste whatsoever.rationing concentrates one mind on wasted food and my old Mum god rest her would be spinning in her grave if she saw how much food is thrown away today .My DD had a small bit of the end of the beef joint leftover last week and I brought it home with me as there wasn't enough to make a meal for the 6 of them but I minced it up and added mushrooms onion,and a small handful of oats with some thick gloopy gravy made from an Oxo cube and a spoonful of bisto powder and turned the left overs into three portions of cottage pie .With mashed potato on the top I have three more dinners in my freezer My son-in-law would probably have given it to the dogs but daren't if I'm around as he would get 'The Look' :) bless him he knows what I'm like.

westcoastscot

I agree ctc prices have been kept artificially low through supermarket competition - we haven't had access to a lot of convenience food, living where we do, but I do think prices are rising so quickly even for basics that I certainly am having trouble absorbing them into my budget. I know this year the farmers have weather issues, but I do think importing most of our food leaves us vulnerable - i've been watching wartime farm on BBC2 and its amazing how much food we can produce if we want to. I'm certainly going to re-double my efforts next year - had a very poor harvest this year and am planning a small polytunnel - here in the west it's wet anyway. Does anyone have any good links to polytunnel growing and how much you can produce??? It will only be a small one!
WCS

[Deleted User]

WCS - we take the Home Farmer magazine every month and they run a what to do in your polytunnel this month article in every edition. There are books in the library too giving advice on siting and growing methods. Good sites for actual polytunnels are Citadel polytunnels, and First Tunnels with loads or advice, first has many good videos on their site with how to put up the tunnel advice etc. We have a 12 x 24 Citadel and it has given us a good 6 weeks either side of the normal growing season and I am still picking french beans and tomatoes now. Hope that helps, Cheers Lyn x.

westcoastscot

Thanks Lyn. I've a really small garden but the chickens have cleared a space in a really sunny spot where there used to be bushes. It'll only take a tunnel a third the size of yours, but 6 weeks extra on the growing season either side will double ours!!!! Will look at those two sites for purchase, and check out Home Farmer magazine. In the loft I have most of the Self Sufficiency/Home Farm magazines from the 70's/80's - keep meaning to get them out again - they were very useful when we had the croft! It was similar growing conditions but when you're growing on a large scale it's easier somehow.

sb44

We have a wholesale butcher who advertises on the local radio.

Today he was saying what bargains he had steak wise but then said he had some nice bacon on offer and to get the freezer stocked up with bacon as it was going to be going up in price.

The cold weather is on its way, perhaps we should get stocked up with this
too..........

GreyQueen

Just had a chinwag with the parentals who buy potatoes in a village that they pass through each weekend om the way to visit with Nan.

The 25kg sack of white spuds is now £6 but was £5 last year. Dad ( ex farmboy) reckons they look like Class 2 spuds, in that they have a few blemished where the growing potato pushed against a stone etc, nothing which effects edibility.

Be interesting to see how prices go. I now have the last of my h.g. tatties fetched down from the allotment shed into the bike shed to avoid any possibility of frost damage. They are in a basket and a cardboard box, covered with newspapers and can have an old blanket put over them for extra protection although they are on an inner wall and on shelving 3 feet above the ground.