Kitchen Garden Forum

There are times of the year when we have to buy produce from the supermarket or shop and obviously fruit that doesn't grow in this country
ànd I've been noticing the huge difference in the quality, tenderness and flavour of home grown compared to the coarse, flavourless, often bruised fruit and veg in the shops.

I'm not saying it is always bad, but often it is damaged by poor handling by the shop staff who don't seem to grasp the fact that if they throw it about it gets bruised. I was looking for a bag of spinach the other day and it was so crushed it looked more like seaweed in the bottom of the bag.

We are so lucky to have such a huge range of seed varieties to choose from and be able to grow flavours we like and plants that do well in our part of the country. Also home grown doesn't have to be tough to withstand transportation and flavour wins over uniformity every time.

I was looking to buy some Oranges in 3 different shops in the past week(I have planted seeds for citrus trees, but it might be a while before I get enough for Christmas), these were in string bags, not loose, in all the shops, every single bag had a fruit going rotten, not a coincidence in my opinion, there wasn't a bag with two dodgy ones, just one in each, I came away thinking they were(the suppliers who bagged them) getting rid of poor quality stock one at a time. I am buying less and less from supermarkets and eating more and more, food that is in season only(not always British).

Child was playing with the loose peppers, which I politely pointed out to mum who was talking to another person.

I've had to buy a bag of frozen berries for my smoothies, as I've used up all my own. The taste is completely bland and unsweet compared to my own berries. Not enjoying the smoothie at all. Might have to add maple or agave syrup.

All down to price wars and profits I'm afraid....the only thing we can do is support farmers markets and small shops but, if only it was that simple......

When we are/were in Spain I would go to the Orange farms and buy ten kilos of oranges , nothing special just ordinary oranges, most of them I would press in the morning I love fresh orange juice first thing, five oranges gives me one pint of juice usually dead on a pint, I came home the other year and thought I would buy some oranges and press them for the juice five oranges gave me very little juice not even half a pint I have not bothered since

We have a wee farmers market (about 4 stalls) on a Friday & it is cost prohibitive. Small round loaf of sourdough £5, small bags of kale £4 - why the bags - why not just cut it & put in a box? They still are growing salads in their tunnels but some slimey bits & pieces in the bags. Not just the supermarkets it would appear. It is a big farm that also supplies supermarkets so not quite the quant image that it conjures up & I think they have 3 of the 4 stalls but focus on different stuff so the unworldly think all are different smallholders! The give away is they all go to the same van to top up the produce.

BTW the sourdough loaf is lush, but I would eat the whole loaf with a bowl of soup as it really is dinky!

We are lucky to be in the middle of three towns who all have farmers markets, Forfar is the biggest and is inside, so this time of year it's very busy, but we get most of our meat from there. Rare breed Hairy Coo, Pork and game, hope to get a Pheasant next weekend, prices are not un reasonable.

A friend of mine lived next to a farm, in Cheshire, but when they decided to open a farm shop he was awakened on many a night by the artics delivering veg etc.

There was a bit on the radio the other day when they said that farmers' markets have proved if you cut out the middlemen and the shop overheads you can charge a lot more for everything. I think you have to be very careful as Gerry says, citrus in a farmers' market?
We buy very little fruit and veg from supermarkets, mainly because I try (but usually fail) to get it that we only shop once a month so it wouldn't be practical though we still get caught by one bad lemon in a bag. We buy a newspaper on a Saturday and near that shop is a veg market stall that we use sometimes. It will be a shock when my eating apples run out and I have to buy my daily tasteless apple.