The Prepping Thread - A Newer Beginning ;)

[Deleted User]

Has anyone else noticed that online ordering from the supermarkets has  reduced choice specially in fresh fruit and veg? it seems to be reduced choice all round but they did say they would all be cutting back the number of lines they carry in the shops earlier in the year.  We order once every couple of weeks and I find these days that around a quarter of the things I have on my list are either gone altogether or not available the day I do the order.  Is this across the country?

Even when we went physically to do the shop yesterday there was visibly reduced stock and many empty shelves in all areas.  We went at 2 in the afternoon so perhaps there would have been more stock in the morning but produce 'areas' were in much smaller blocks and not offering anything like the choice as pre-covid.  It's the first time we've done a shop ourselves and I was surprised at what I couldn't get, is it every firm that's pulled in it's horns? we were in Morrisons but usually use Tesco online.

-taff

I went to lidl last week and the fresh produce aisle or part was actually bigger than before.

Karmacat

I don't buy much fresh, I have frozen, but my stock cupboard stuff has a lot less choice to it, yes.  Asda.  Sizes are different too.

thriftwizard

I'm noticing huge price rises for the fresh produce at the market; that does usually happen as we get the first of the "New Season's" stuff in, but it usually goes back down again a couple of weeks later, and that isn't happening this year. This is for things imported from France, Spain & Morocco; local produce hasn't been so bad, but we don't grow a lot of oranges, lemons, limes & avocados. OK, I'm fine without avocados, though I do love them, but I'd really miss oranges, lemons & limes...

[Deleted User]

We'll have to get used to eating more home produced and seasonal fresh produce in the future if things are either too expensive or maybe not available, it's sad to think of there not being the choice we've all become used to and a trip to the greengrocers is to see the world laid out in technicolour on the shelves isn't it at the moment.  Back in the 1950's when I was little I can remember the excitement of nuts at Christmas and tangerines wrapped in tissue and the odd shiny wrapper  and eating what was produced in Kent where we lived as it came to market season by season.  It's not what people in 2021 are used to but we'd get used to it in the long run and the joy of 6 weeks of asparagus and the short season for cherries and strawberries would be just as enjoyable, probably more so than imports that don't taste of much anyway...we'd be OK!

Living_proof

@boazu and we were a lot slimmer back in the day! I fondly remember our greengrocers run by two elderly (40is probably) female friends who lived together, wore tweed jackets and had a morris minor van. Quite a thing in those days. I collected all the different tissue wrappers off the various fruit and veg and put them in an album when I was about 7 or 8. All the veg were dirty and therefore kept a lot longer and you chose what you wanted and then they delivered it later. You could do the same at the fishmonger next door and the butcher a little further down. The only thing I remember my mother carrying back in person was cigarettes, balls of wool and fireworks!

[Deleted User]

There certainly wasn't all the ready made food available back then was there? cakes from the bakery and occasionally a made pie or faggots from the butchers, definitely sausages from the butchers and black pudding and brawn and also cold meats from the grocer but really not the vastness of off the shelf just reheat or cook at home that we have available today but then most women stayed home when they married and were housewives and mums and ran the house and did all the cooking so perhaps there wasn't a perceived need for it whereas nowadays most folks male and female work a full week.  People were much slimmer back in the day but I'm not sure they were greatly healthier for it and certainly I know from experience that it was also all to easy to go hungry to bed.  Perhaps the best thing for humanity would be a halfway point between the two extremes of too much and not enough?

silvasava

Apparently Britons were the healthiest during the war years on rationing. 2oz of cheese a week folks? That's why many people kept chickens and grew veg to supplement their diets. Sugar and meat were on short ration too. During the 50's you rarely saw an overweight person. I remember a lot of women doing domestic work to supplement the income, my mother was a good needlewoman and often made things for other women and children. Women may have not have 'gone out to work' but lots of them were part of the cottage industry one way or another.

greenbee

My grandmother worked all through the 30s, 40s and 50s - as a GP's wife she was responsible for running the surgery and dispensary. She was also involved in making up food parcels for the poorest parishioners - many of whom found rationing meant they had better access to food than ever before. The 'healthiest' had a lot to do with eliminating malnutrition from the very poorest who now had access to more and better food (fortified with vitamins) than they'd ever had before. The rich were still able to supplement their diets via the black market/drinking their way through their cellars!

They did keep pigs (one for them, one for the government - named after their two youngest children!), grow their own fruit and veg and have chickens. While they stopped keeping pigs once rationing was over, the fruit/veg/chickens continued until the 70s, and we did the same as I grew up in a very rural location. 

I have her hand-written recipe books, and while some things (like little cheese biscuits made with strong-tasting cheese and mustard powder, or fabulous shortbread) I still make, much of the food is bland and unappealing (even into the 80s). No garlic, few herbs and spices. Many of the ingredients we take for granted weren't available, but there also wasn't the experience of flavours that we're used to now. Plus the attraction of whatever ready-make food that was available - lots of recipes using condensed chicken or mushroom soup to save effort! I think she's probably say I was mad to spend time making my own chicken stock when she wanted to get time away from the kitchen. So priorities have changed, and we've learned. If we couldn't get basil, olive oil, parmesan and pine nuts to make pesto, we might make it with wild garlic, rapeseed oil, hard goat cheese, spinach and sunflower seeds (or chard, or pumpkin seeds). While fewer people grow their own food (although last year is changing that) they also grow more variety. Asparagus is more popular both to buy and grow. There are all sorts of varieties of beans and tomatoes being grown in gardens and greenhouses, and fabulous salad leaves to make salads delicious rather than worthy. 

annieb64

One of my grandfather's  kept pigs and the other kept rabbits until about 1960. I used to refer to them as Grandad Piggy and Grandad Bunny!

I can remember  asking my father about rationing  during the war. He said he hadn't  really noticed  any difference  in his diet. The family were so poor that they lived off home grown veg, eggs and the rabbits before and during the war . They had a small orchard and kept a goat for milk. Sugar was for jam making and bottling fruit not their tea!
Clothes were hand-me-downs or from the jumble sale.
He did have 6 elder sisters so I think once troops were billeted in the village they did get a few extra sweets etc.