Organic food in supermarkets

dasophster

Tried ocado again and they seem to have semi redeemed themselves, driver was friendly and had no problem finding our place and he came a bit early but phoned beforehand. Still cautious though but think I will get my next online shop from them as well, getting rather ticked off with Sainsbury's and their not-so-stealth price rises. Anyway from Ocado I decided to give their fruit, veg and salad box another go as it was on offer and worked out much cheaper than buying even non-organic stuff seperately. I was very pleasantly surprised as in the past the box has been so-so quality wise, everything thrown in without a bag, and half empty so nowhere near enough for a family of six. This time everything was super fresh, really well packed, the box was jammed full and I had trouble fitting it all in my cupboards and fridge! It had purslane which is not something I have come across before IRL, luckily my Mennonite recipe books do have at least one purslane recipe xx

rufydoofyM

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Does anyone know anything about organic honey? I am trying to figure out if it's worth opting for the organic, whats the difference?

We have tried various organic and non organic honey. We drink a lot of milk and honey and lemon and honey and find it varies a lot on taste.
If you opt for local honey it's great if you suffer allergies or hayfever, but its not organic. We live within an area where the agricultural pesticides are a real concern and so buy mainly organic now. As said by others Waitrose and Ocado have a 3 for 2 offer on which makes them cheaper than the other supermarkets.

Best value is at Waitrose, Tropical rainforest honey, 454g £3.99, works out £2.66 a jar compared to Asda and Tosco at £2.89 for only 340g.

We became concerned about honey after reading the label and finding so much was blended and the cheaper stuff was from china :eek:
Have now added honey to my Waitrose list so thanks for bringing this up.

Kirri A while back several people on A&C fb page had problems with burst bc pots in their deliveries or fridges so it's not a one off. Personally we've had no probs and the blueberry is a regular on our order. I have also discovered that the response is better if you post on fb compared to calling them. hth

TanH_2

Kirri wrote: »

I've got no yoghurt now though, too late for my order tomorrow so may have to venture into a supermarket :eek: Will see if Asda have any on offer as passing there tomorrow or if not will wait and go in Waitrose on Monday as will be passing there (and prefer it).


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Waitrose have the 450g Yeo Valley pots of yoghurt for £1.50 or 2 for £2, and Rachel's Thick and Creamy 150g pots 65p each or 2 for £1.
HTH x

Edwardia

Kirri - last Brown Cow yogurts I bought for OH were in Feb as I got Rachel's for him when on offer in Lidl and Sainsbury's and Yeo Valley when on offer at Sainsbury's. Was the problem just this month ?

I remembered I had one busted Yeo Valley pot from A&C, the milk had fallen on it in transit, but was refunded straight away.

dasophster - I use the purslane instead of spinach in an Iranian dish called borani esfanaj. In the medium veg and salad box I got yesterday there was a recipe for aubergine and purslane salad.

Got the Grandiol organic liquid fertiliser from Lidl, 1.49. Looked for the organic yogurts seen mentioned on the thread before, no sign of them.

Nipped into Wilkinson and found the Ecover multisurface trigger spray reduced from 2.25 to 1.50. Also bought some Heinz organic gingerbread biscotti only 3.9g carbs each. Ginger very subtle, I like them. OH thinks not gingery enough compared to the Goodies ones.

Picked up the Wilkolife catalog for wilko.com and OMG wooden chicken coop and run £220 and Mr Johnson's Natural Layers Pellets for free range birds 5kg for 5.49. Also loads of stuff for making own jam. Must hide from my mother eek :eek:

OH is loving the Pimhill muesli but it's muesli island in a milk lake He got through 4 litres of A&C milk in 4 days :eek:

Luckily ASDA is doing 2 x 4 pints organic whole milk for £3 but it's homogenised

Hi and welcome to the thread to lindseykim13 and TanH

Edwardia

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/60129369#Comment_60129369

Edwardia

Bought this organic vegan pate from Holland and Barrett and we both like it. Spreads easily, visible bits in, lovely colour, not too hot but def spicy.

Certified to EU and Comite Agricultura Biologica Valenciana standards but I'm unsure about the ingredients..

Tofu* (24%) (water, soybeans*, coagulant Nigari), non-hydrogenated palm fat*, tomatoes*(15%), water, red pepper* (15%), onions*(7%), potato starch*, emulsifier soy lecithin, soy flour*, non-hydrogenated sunflower oil*, tomato concentrate*(2%), sea salt, dehydrated onion* (0.5%), apple vinegar*, spices*, garlic*

* = organic

Nutritionally, 100g provides 5.21g protein, 23g fat, 4.61g carbs and 252 calories.

My concerns are the soy lecithin and potato starch plus coagulant Nigari aka magnesium chloride extracted from seawater:( but what do y'all think ?

Kirri

rufydoofyM wrote: »

If you opt for local honey it's great if you suffer allergies or hayfever, but its not organic. We live within an area where the agricultural pesticides are a real concern and so buy mainly organic now.

We became concerned about honey after reading the label and finding so much was blended and the cheaper stuff was from china :eek:

Kirri A while back several people on A&C fb page had problems with burst bc pots in their deliveries or fridges so it's not a one off. Personally we've had no probs and the blueberry is a regular on our order. I have also discovered that the response is better if you post on fb compared to calling them. hth

Certainly would not want Chinese honey ^ I hate blended honey too just because you don't know where it's come from.

I usually only buy local honey - though it is non org as I tend to buy from whatever local farmer's market I'm at so had Surrey Honey, Kent Honey and Sussex Honey in the last year.

However, although I would never buy non UK honey I did win some Ogilvy's Balkan Lindan honey a few months ago so am just using that.

The last time I looked in Sainsbury's they had no UK honey at all, shocking. Best they had was Scottish.

Very interesting about the BC yog problems, I hadn't seen about that and they didn't mention any other problems.. my pots had blown lids and had started seeping.. do hate throwing food but no choice. They've said they do have a short shelf life and short life post opening but these were in date and not opened. I wonder what the difference is to YV/Rachel's as they have reasonably long dates.

TanH wrote: »

Waitrose have the 450g Yeo Valley pots of yoghurt for £1.50 or 2 for £2, and Rachel's Thick and Creamy 150g pots 65p each or 2 for £1.
HTH x

Fantastic, thank you, will go to Waitrose :T

Edwardia wrote: »

Kirri - last Brown Cow yogurts I bought for OH were in Feb as I got Rachel's for him when on offer in Lidl and Sainsbury's and Yeo Valley when on offer at Sainsbury's. Was the problem just this month ?

Yes just the last two orders in the last couple of weeks.

Just logged into my account and they've refunded the money and also there is a free milk showing on my delivery, not sure if that is a random freebie or part of the apology for the yogs, but nice of them, can't complain Fantastic customer service so that makes me continue using a company.


Oops I added a comment on the purslane, doesn't seem to have attached to this - to add that I didn't know what it was when it arrived in the Riverford salad pack but been eating it in the salad and the g/pigs love it too.

lindseykim13

Ok so my plan is to try out the different delivery companies and i'd like to compare with what others get for their money.
My order did come today-there was a note saying some usual stuff was oos so i got replacements-

I got 3 reasonable sized leaks 570g
Biggish cauliflour 1kg
100g of rocket (not sure thats a veg!)
6 small bananas
big brocoli 580g
carrots 1kg
green beans 600g
8 vine toms 600g
2 red peppers 200g
5 pears 1kg
celery 500g
apples x5 600g
oranges x5 1kg
onions x6 700g

I paid £18.99 for which is a large box. So how does that compare to the others?

rufydoofyM

lindseykim13 wrote: »

Ok so my plan is to try out the different delivery companies and i'd like to compare with what others get for their money.
My order did come today-there was a note saying some usual stuff was oos so i got replacements-

I got 3 reasonable sized leaks 570g
Biggish cauliflour 1kg
100g of rocket (not sure thats a veg!)
6 small bananas
big brocoli 580g
carrots 1kg
green beans 600g
8 vine toms 600g
2 red peppers 200g
5 pears 1kg
celery 500g
apples x5 600g
oranges x5 1kg
onions x6 700g

I paid £18.99 for which is a large box. So how does that compare to the others?

Hi,
Out of interest I costed this up for organic and non organic at Tosco and Ocado based on equivalent/weights amounts etc.

Organic
Tosco £27.61, Ocado £29.03

Non organic
Tosco £18.63, Ocado £20.34

By buying value produce and utilising offers you may save a bit more at Ts but I'd say you got value.
Ocado has an offer on their boxes and the large box is currently £17.60

Ooops just realised I forgot the bananas so those costs exclude them.:o

Kirri

Edwardia wrote: »

Nipped into Wilkinson and found the Ecover multisurface trigger spray reduced from 2.25 to 1.50.

Thanks for this ^ just been in and got one myself, good price.
Also the small box of washing powder is on offer for £2.50 and the fabric conditioner is still £1.25 - I had a free ish £5 voucher too so extra bargain for me as I paid 25p for the lot

They also had washing up liquid for £1 for the small bottle but I still have a spare. Shame they don't stock more of the range.

Waiting for A&C delivery now ...