The rising cost of fruit and veg

Edwardia

Just bought biodegradable cow pat pots and a runner bean bag with the intention of growing more of my own veg this year even though garden is small.

Posh_Nosh

If you go to your local M&S supermarket at 1:30ish pm, there is usually a lovely staff member reducing the fruit & veg, quality products at sensible prices (& you don't have to dispose of the packaging before going back to the office, simply remove the reduced labels!). The produce somehow always tastes better when I know I've got it cheaper

fionajbanana

I do wonder if we ever going to get the perfect spring and summer for fruit and veg to grow and it produces more than expected, will we see the prices going down?

Thought not.

lindseykim13

http://www.pan-uk.org/archive/Projects/Food/index.htm

uk version of the pesticides in food tests, would be nice if there was a more up to date version though

Edwardia

Thanks for that lindseykim13 :T I didn't know that flour was the worst TBH. I low carb for my diabetes so don't eat flour, bread, potatoes or apples. I eat the rest, but always organic. OH eats all of them organic but does have some non organic bread I'm surprised that carrots weren't on the list.

I know a lot of people will say that organic is too expensive. On Saturday I was in Morrisons. All types of organic mushrooms were £1 (NOT reduced or an offer), 2 organic garlic bulbs 59p, organic cucumber 1.25, 2 organic courgettes for £1.

Lidl sells a bunch of organic Fairtrade bananas for £1, organic carrots £1, organic onions 67p. Also organic semi-skimmed milk 2 pints/1.136 ltr 99p and has had offers recently on Rachel's organic yogurt and Fresh Meadow organic Farmhouse Cheddar.

Fire_Fox

lindseykim13 wrote: »

http://www.pan-uk.org/archive/Projects/Food/index.htm

uk version of the pesticides in food tests, would be nice if there was a more up to date version though

How funny you posted that, I was looking at it just last week! It's a confusing site - actually two sites main and archive - there are multiple versions of the list. This is the one I saved on my smartphone, it seemed the most helpful to refer to in store and it goes up to 2008
http://www.pan-uk.org/food/what-are-the-best-and-worst-foods-for-pesticide-residues

Also useful for geeks
http://www.pesticides.gov.uk/guidance/industries/pesticides/advisory-groups/PRiF/PRiF_Results_and_Reports/index-to-results-by-food-pesticide-residues.htm
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/3130.pdf
http://www.efsa.europa.eu/en/efsajournal/doc/3130ax3.pdf

Trolley_Dolley

Edwardia wrote: »

Poundland and 99p Stores stock seeds, spuds and grow your own stuff. If you Google growing potatoes in a bag there are lots of How to articles. Spuds are a good first crop on an allotment to break up soil.

Well said Edwardia, I was only thinking the same thing whilst reading all these posts. We are all a bit fed up of supermarkets dictating what we can buy, more often than not they won`t sell any uk produce which does annoy me. They are putting our farmers out of business thus making it more difficult for us to support them.
I was thinking i might try to find a local farm for my basics such as potatoes, onions, carrots, cabbage as it will be fresher and no doubt cheaper. Also as you suggested I have just bought some seeds to grow my own tomatoes, spring onions, rocket and herbs.
These are what I buy a lot of that cost a lot in the supermarkets.

Maybe we should all think about trying to grow some of our own things like they did after the war, far healthier and cheaper.

Edwardia

I'm buying a bag of rocket for the price of a packet of seeds and I would get way more rocket from the seeds.

Getting my OH to assemble the mini greenhouses this weekend which I bought two years ago in Wilkinsons sale :mad:

I found this idea in the Evening Standard in 2011.. length of plastic guttering end stop on each end, drill a drainage hole or two in the end stops if you get a lot of rain and put up on a wall with the plastic gutter clips. Then sow your seeds in compost for salad stuff. I've got one under my kitchen window

Posted details of grow your own kits for tomatoes, strawberries, chives, herbs on organic thread from 99p Stores and Poundland. if you look at websites you'll also find seed potatoes and fruit bushes.

seonaid21

I recently done a search around the top supermarkets and found that unless the fruit+veg were on a week or weekend special our local FILCO shop were cheaper and better quality
even cheaper than lidl+aldi except as i said the specials
the only thing in thier shops that were not on spwcial but still cheaper than FILCO was bananas
so look for a FILCO and try them
:T

TravellingAbuela

My DD bought me a hanging tomato planter at Christmas and I am off to Aldi next Thursday to buy some of their "Special Buy" mini plum tomato plug plants to put in it. £1.99 a pack (offer also includes lettuce, peppers, cauli, chilli peppers and cherry tomatoes) Quicker than waiting for seeds to germinate!