Less is more?

gravitytolls

Yep, yep,
the butcher will happily advise how much you need for a specified number of tums.

Actually Morrisons sells breast of lamb... can't recall who posted that query.

They don't however, sell faggots, which I'm very fond of.

The co op offer fair trade and British farmed foods aplenty, and should be very proud of themselves for doing so.

I live in the country, so have the advantage of using local farms for meat and veg, however, I would have to suggest theat they are hideously expensive.

It's a sad fact that with 7 children, I feed us the best I can as cheaply as I can. That is not to say I use value cuts, I don't, they don't taste good, but I buy one get one free where possible, I home cook everything, we don't eat take aways (except chips on the pier) and I don't worry about chemicals unduly, as the home is full of chemicals in practically everything we use and take for granted in every day life, the air is highly polluted, water ditto etc.

Enjoy your food, buy the best you can, support local suppliers where possible and try lots of new recipes - don't get hung up on it, just do your best

Badgergal

I don't eat meat so its not really an issue but the veg thing worries me a bit. The idea of organic boxes appeals but I always thought they were really expensive? Being on a tight budget I'm not sure I could afford it, plus I would be worried about waste if I got something I didn't like (I really don't like courgettes for example, ugh!) And what if you particularly want a certain thing and you don't get it? I don't understand how it works...

Can anyone recommend someone who delivers in the London area who has a website I could check out, and suggest possible prices for a small box for a person living pretty much on their own? I'm not sure I can afford but its nice to know I've visited all the options at least.

Curry_Queen

Does anyone know of a way of checking out the suppliers to butchers, apart from speaking directly to them of course, to find out where they source their meat and under what conditions they are produced?

My local butcher uses several suppliers in the area but they appear to be commercial companies rather than your local farmer type and I'd like to find out a bit more about these companies if I can, covertly of course

Loadsabob

Pal wrote:

Organic itself does not necessarily mean that it would taste noticeably nicer. It is free range that generally makes it taste better because the animals grow slower, eat more grass instead of reconstituted animals, and get more fat on them. They also have to be hardier breeds that are not simply meat machines producing bland, flabby tasteless meat.

This from the Soil Association website:

"Q: Are organic meat and poultry also free-range?

Yes. The Soil Association’s standards reflect concerns about animal welfare and include regulations about housing and stocking densities. Our organic standards represent significantly better conditions for many animals than basic free-range conditions provide for."

Though their standards may not be as free-range as some people may like (I don't know how the Soil Association's standards on free-roaming animals compare with my own!), it seems that if you buy Soil Association approved meat, you are also ensuring free range? I guess the same doesn't work in reverse - free range isn't always going to be organic.

squeaky

Badgergal wrote:

I don't eat meat so its not really an issue but the veg thing worries me a bit. The idea of organic boxes appeals but I always thought they were really expensive? Being on a tight budget I'm not sure I could afford it, plus I would be worried about waste if I got something I didn't like (I really don't like courgettes for example, ugh!) And what if you particularly want a certain thing and you don't get it? I don't understand how it works...

Can anyone recommend someone who delivers in the London area who has a website I could check out, and suggest possible prices for a small box for a person living pretty much on their own? I'm not sure I can afford but its nice to know I've visited all the options at least.

Hiya,

If you click on the "Collections" in my signature below you'll find a section with links to a number of threads about organic foods which mention sources and discuss value etc.

squeaky

Curry_Queen wrote:

Does anyone know of a way of checking out the suppliers to butchers, apart from speaking directly to them of course, to find out where they source their meat and under what conditions they are produced?

My local butcher uses several suppliers in the area but they appear to be commercial companies rather than your local farmer type and I'd like to find out a bit more about these companies if I can, covertly of course

Would any of these companies show up if you put your post code into www.bigbarn.co.uk? I know that I found a list of local companies while googling for something in SUFFOLK once, and of course I'm sure you know about googling for them by name if you know them It all depends on how many pages you want to work through

Loadsabob

Somehow I missed this thread originally, but I really identified with the first two posts, and didn't find them critical of people here.

My experience of old stylers is that they tend to balance quality with thrift, living well as well as frugally...that seems to be what it's all about. As we've seen you can get four Tesco Value shepherds pies for 62p (I'm still reeling from that!), I don't think anyone here would consider that good moneysaving.

I agree that most people can afford to eat good food. I appreciate the varying financial situations of all of us on this board, and understand that sometimes people have to sacrifice quality a little in order to feed a family. However, I think what CAN be said of everyone here is that thought is put into budgeting and spending, and good food / cooking from scratch is an ongoing priority.

Like Pal, I am wary of some MSE threads that simply look for the cheapest supermarket foods. To me, that's not good living. Using vouchers, fine, taking advantage of BOGOFs, all make sense...but some cheap food really is cheap for a reason, as has been said in this thread.

I don't eat meat, but if I did, I'd prefer to have good meat occasionally than poor quality meat daily. I think a lot of people here have achieved the balance - using cheaper cuts of good meat, and making it go further.

I really get angry at people I come across (in real life and on TV), who claim they can't afford to eat good food, fruit & veg or cook from scratch. I have known families who have four children, two cars, two foreign holidays per year, play stations, a TV in each room, Sky TV, and yet they protest that fruit is too expensive. It's just not a priority. It's not out of their budget, they just think it is, because it's the last thing their spending is directed at. It really makes me angry. I lived well on less that £10 a week when I was a student..I always ate proper food, cooked from scratch.

However, I don't sense any such people here - thank goodness!

I hate this culture in which we expect everything to be cheap. As a nation we're really losing track of value. Food may NOT be cheap. Food is either cheap because it comes from somewhere nearby, is in season and plentiful (which enables farmers to sell at a reasonable price and still make a living), OR, because it's been mass produced by machines with sub-standard ingredients, OR, UK producers have been forced to sell for a pittance as they're at the mercy of supermarkets, OR, it's been imported over thousands of miles, produced by people earning a pittance for their trouble.

The first possibility is the one under which I would be happy with "cheap" food.

And I guess there are two definitions of "cheap" - the financial one and the "quality" one.

Off the food issue, I was shocked to find, when looking for a new mouse for my computer, that one can be purchased for about 70p!!!!!!!!!! I don't think things should be that cheap, it makes them TOO disposable! I know I'm living in an ideal world, but honestly, if a mouse can be sold for 70p, what are people being paid to manufacture them?? Even if it's just efficient mass factory production, I still hate that everything is so quickly replaced these days...

I am a grumpy old man, what can I say?! (even if I am a 28 yo female!)

Curry_Queen

squeaky wrote:

Would any of these companies show up if you put your post code into www.bigbarn.co.uk? I know that I found a list of local companies while googling for something in SUFFOLK once, and of course I'm sure you know about googling for them by name if you know them It all depends on how many pages you want to work through

I couldn't find anything on that site, presumably as it's wholesalers I'm looking for rather than retail producers, but I did find a very interesting site while googling which may be of benefit to those of us in the Anglia region here, which lists a lot of producers, some of which I recognised, but also all the farmer's markets that take place too!


I was getting rather excited when I spotted Diaper Poultry on the list as they produce organic and free range, until I discovered that it's not exclusive :doh: I somehow doubt the butcher would specifically order organic chickens just for me and I don't have the freezer space to store the quantities he'd probably need to order in

Curry_Queen

Loadsabob wrote:

As we've seen you can get four Tesco Value shepherds pies for 62p (I'm still reeling from that!), I don't think anyone here would consider that good moneysaving.

I agree and couldn't believe my eyes when I read that :eek:

I really get angry at people I come across (in real life and on TV), who claim they can't afford to eat good food, fruit & veg or cook from scratch. I have known families who have four children, two cars, two foreign holidays per year, play stations, a TV in each room, Sky TV, and yet they protest that fruit is too expensive. It's just not a priority. It's not out of their budget, they just think it is, because it's the last thing their spending is directed at.

This was the point I was trying to make in my original post (I'm going off memory now as I haven't read back through this thread, so hope I got it right) but sometimes I'm a bit cr@p in explaining what I mean

It seems incredible that people on benefits can afford all the luxuries you mention above, yet resort to buying all the value crap processed foods that were mentioned previously because they claim they can't afford "real" food :wall:

Like you, I'm not targetting anyone on this board as I've not seen any evidence of that here at all, and purely going by tv programmes and documentaries, plus people I know/have known. Like I said before, I think it's down to lack of education (foodwise) and the whole social structure, or lack of it, that we have in society these days.


Just as an aside, and apologies to those of you who don't watch BB, but I've just been listening to them compiling their weekly shopping budget and it makes me wanna SCREAM!!!! :wall:

Galtizz

They're the same as the ones that don't have time to cook food from scratch because they're too busy - going to yoga classes and the like because they want to be 'healthy' :wall:
Well said Loadsabob and Curry_Queen, it's all about priorities :T in days gone by food was the first thing out of every budget (no matter how small the budget) now it's often the last thing (after the Sky, Playstation etc. etc.)