It's getting tough out there. Feeling the pinch?

OrkneyStar

Re the person who suggested saying 'no' - this is generally my approach too, though sometimes I say 'yes' as a treat because I think that my son only has one childhood and if we can afford the odd ice cream or whatever then I do let him have one! If we say 'yes' all the time then it's less of a treat, so mostly saying 'no' makes the occasional treat feel even more like a treat. I hope that makes sense!

OrkneyStar

Slinky said:

London_1 said:

I love sweet potatoes plus the fact they seem to last a whole lot longer than ordinary ones. I know a couple of sweet potatoes seem to be in the veg rack and are still in good condition for far longer than the supermarket ones that start to sprout within a week

Years ago when you would buy your spuds (usually King Edwards on a market stall complete with bits of mud on them) I seem to remember they too lasted a lot longer.

Perhaps its our obcession with having them minus the earthy bits that gives them a shorter shelf life.

On Tuesday at coffee morning we were talking about potatoes (we are a weird bunch I know )and were saying how we used to be so pleased years ago when the Cyprus spuds came in season onto the market and when the Jersey Royals came as tiny button sized ones in late spring.
But back then things were eaten in season, now unless its fruit, very little is seasonable.

Jersey Royals are still seasonal. They can only be grown in Jersey.

I grew up in Lanarkshire, and I always remember what a treat it was when the shops got the Ayrshire tatties in. My sister always said they 'tasted of mud' but I thought they tasted amazing.  A plate of them with a wee knob of butter, some cabbage and some slices of corned beef - absolute bliss!

Gers

OrkneyStar said:

Slinky said:

London_1 said:

I love sweet potatoes plus the fact they seem to last a whole lot longer than ordinary ones. I know a couple of sweet potatoes seem to be in the veg rack and are still in good condition for far longer than the supermarket ones that start to sprout within a week

Years ago when you would buy your spuds (usually King Edwards on a market stall complete with bits of mud on them) I seem to remember they too lasted a lot longer.

Perhaps its our obcession with having them minus the earthy bits that gives them a shorter shelf life.

On Tuesday at coffee morning we were talking about potatoes (we are a weird bunch I know )and were saying how we used to be so pleased years ago when the Cyprus spuds came in season onto the market and when the Jersey Royals came as tiny button sized ones in late spring.
But back then things were eaten in season, now unless its fruit, very little is seasonable.

Jersey Royals are still seasonal. They can only be grown in Jersey.

I grew up in Lanarkshire, and I always remember what a treat it was when the shops got the Ayrshire tatties in. My sister always said they 'tasted of mud' but I thought they tasted amazing.  A plate of them with a wee knob of butter, some cabbage and some slices of corned beef - absolute bliss!

Me too...loved Ayrshires, all that fluffy skin which just rubbed off.  And I remember my DM driving with me down the Clyde Valley to pick raspberries from the various farms along the road, all in proper raspberry season.  I also remember watching the road as Lanarkshire had red tarmac whilst neighbouring counties had black.  Small memories mean a lot.

zcrat41

Woolsery said:

tooldle said:

Woolsery said:

tooldle said:

Woolsery said:

tooldle said:

Rosa_Damascena said:

Shell is creaming it off with a 43% jump in profits to £7.2 billion. If that's not the worked definition of profiteering at the expense of those with little, I don't know what is.

This is only part of the story. Without knowing the percentage reinvestment and indeed what the reinvestment is for, it is impossible to judge. Basically you need a fuller picture. Net zero is a very expensive ask for such companies. 

It's also a very expensive ask for us too! Impossible in some cases.

We'll have to keep nuclear and some fossil fuel capacity for the foreseeable future or the lights will go out, but it's not PC to say that. What we do is pretty small beer anyway compared with China and India.

I'm not arguing against the need to protect our environment, but there will have to be some hard choices to reach goals still not universally agreed.

Personally, I think  those choices have been made, just not made clear. Turkeys don't vote for Christmas.

We may be small beer in comparison now but we (the UK) have been emitting for far longer than most.

Yes, I know, but does that mean we should be given extra hardship now to atone for past profligacy? Or what?

I notice one method of getting people's support for something is to lay a guilt trip on them. Classic gaslighting, as practiced by certain leaders, who haven't always done as they preached.

Your mission is drifting. I'm simply explaining a fuller picture is needed before a reasonable judgement can be made on whether or not a company is profiteering. I have referenced an example on how a profit may be used to address challenges currently facing the industry concerned. There are lots of ways to compare and contrast emissions data and to draw meaning. 

Please don't think I'm having a go at you. What you say makes sense, and you have specialist knowledge. If the "emitting longer than most" means it's harder to turn things around, I can see that.

Edited to add: In my own sector everyone's agreed that organic or close to it is the best solution for the planet, but it can't be 'best' for some of the people posting here without huge changes, because of the way the bulk of UK farming is now set-up. It would take many years to turn things around and keep us all properly fed.

Farmer here. Completely agree with your last paragraph. I'd love to farm organically. It's just not feasible at the moment though. 

My sector has already seen a dramatic drop in people purchasing organic and downgrading their items. 

I do think we'd all have to get used to s very very different way of eating. 

zcrat41

Also, I do find it slightly ridiculous that the most profitable thing I do on my farm is renewable energy and what the government pay me to do it. 

And that's with me selling the electric at 6p a unit when they are charging businesss around 40p these days. 

otb666

i am shopping less as well iceland, butchers and aldi once a month each rather than weekly shops. My veg box lasts 2 weeks. (i leae it in box and put under the sink in the dark) I sat in the garden all afternoon reading a book to de stress (fell asleep as well) Had a stressful morning with my MIL+FIL at vaccination center.  I thought FIL was going to have a melt  down as he gets so angry now.  Managed to get them sorted in end but he is 90 years old So he is not perfect now and its all very stressful.  In the town they live in they had 5 deaths from covid at weekend so its worth getting jabbed

OrkneyStar

Gers said:

OrkneyStar said:

Slinky said:

London_1 said:

I love sweet potatoes plus the fact they seem to last a whole lot longer than ordinary ones. I know a couple of sweet potatoes seem to be in the veg rack and are still in good condition for far longer than the supermarket ones that start to sprout within a week

Years ago when you would buy your spuds (usually King Edwards on a market stall complete with bits of mud on them) I seem to remember they too lasted a lot longer.

Perhaps its our obcession with having them minus the earthy bits that gives them a shorter shelf life.

On Tuesday at coffee morning we were talking about potatoes (we are a weird bunch I know )and were saying how we used to be so pleased years ago when the Cyprus spuds came in season onto the market and when the Jersey Royals came as tiny button sized ones in late spring.
But back then things were eaten in season, now unless its fruit, very little is seasonable.

Jersey Royals are still seasonal. They can only be grown in Jersey.

I grew up in Lanarkshire, and I always remember what a treat it was when the shops got the Ayrshire tatties in. My sister always said they 'tasted of mud' but I thought they tasted amazing.  A plate of them with a wee knob of butter, some cabbage and some slices of corned beef - absolute bliss!

Me too...loved Ayrshires, all that fluffy skin which just rubbed off.  And I remember my DM driving with me down the Clyde Valley to pick raspberries from the various farms along the road, all in proper raspberry season.  I also remember watching the road as Lanarkshire had red tarmac whilst neighbouring counties had black.  Small memories mean a lot.

Oh yes, the red roads of Lanarkshire - I don't think there are many left now. I remember the 'Clydeside' tomatoes too, so lovely! My mum used to make us tomato sandwiches when we went out for the day, and we loved how they made the bread all mushy - sometimes mum would make them up in the morning, even if we weren't going anywhere, but we'd have a picnic on the living room carpet with our sandwiches. I can still remember the old lunch box we used. It reminds me so much of my dad, who passed away when I was only in my teens. I hope my son remembers some of the 'silly' things like that we did when he was younger, as it really is this sort of thing we remember as we get older. Thanks for reminding me of all this!  

Woolsery

zcrat41 said:

Also, I do find it slightly ridiculous that the most profitable thing I do on my farm is renewable energy and what the government pay me to do it. 

And that's with me selling the electric at 6p a unit when they are charging businesss around 40p these days. 

Ours is only a small acreage and not shaped well for mechanisation. Together with an immediate neighbour and a farmer a mile away we're still producing traditionally with minimal chemical inputs, but all around us where the good land is everything's contract farmed in large fields. Machinery now operates way into the evenings and it's a far cry from farming as most people imagine it. I believe a very high proportion of the crops here go to a bio gas plant 10 miles away, and not necessarily to feed people or animals.

When we came here we weren't much inclined to support wind turbines, but as we got to know a couple of dairy farmers we began to understand how important the generation aspect is in just contining to be viable.

QueenJess

OrkneyStar said:

Oh yes, the red roads of Lanarkshire - I don't think there are many left now. I remember the 'Clydeside' tomatoes too, so lovely! My mum used to make us tomato sandwiches when we went out for the day, and we loved how they made the bread all mushy - sometimes mum would make them up in the morning, even if we weren't going anywhere, but we'd have a picnic on the living room carpet with our sandwiches. I can still remember the old lunch box we used. It reminds me so much of my dad, who passed away when I was only in my teens. I hope my son remembers some of the 'silly' things like that we did when he was younger, as it really is this sort of thing we remember as we get older. Thanks for reminding me of all this!  

I sometimes do carpet picnics as a treat for the kids.  They find them really exciting when I throw down a picnic blanket and get them sandwiches to eat on the blanket!

London_1

My late Mum was a canny wee 'wedgie' and when we were children grew a lot of fruit and veg as we had a very large garden Every summer if we had a glut of tomatoes she would sometimes cut them up into pieces and sprinkle some sugar over them .My two brothers and I used to call them 'Scotch Strawberries' as the tomato season lasted a lot longer than the strawberry season, I can remember rows of sometime green tomatoes on the window ledge ripening off in the sun as she diidn't want them all red at the same time and one of my jobs was to check them and turn them when they stsarted to turn red 

JackieO xx