Poor quality fruit & veg. What's yours like?

[Mick P]

Sad. The Clyde Valley here used to be full of tomato growers (decades ago). The product was excellent, albeit with a short season. An ex-grower told me it was the cost of energy that put them out of business and makes a return unlikely. The previous small-holdings are all garden-centres now. Full of white haired old farts buying patio tat and pest-control products.

I socialise with the Manager of a local garden centre chain. According to him the big spenders in garden centres are couples in their early 50s. The garden centres sell the upmarket stuff whilst the DIY shops sell the tat.
Also "white haired old farts" tend to spend their money on bird feeding stuff after treating themselves to a cheap lunch in the garden cafe.

 

[dweezil]

The staff do try to buy local ;-)

Been on local strawbs and raspberries for a few weeks now, picked every morning and delivered to the village shop minutes later. They're amazingly tasty and keep fresh for ages if required.

 

[Yank]

I can't find Braeburn apples anymore, I haven't seen any since the onset of the plague.

 

[mandryka]

Looking through this, I want to say that the quality of supermarket summer fruits has always been variable, it depends so much on the variety. I also want to say that it's not surprising that apples and pears are not so good in Britain in July.

At the moment I think Morrisons apricots and white flesh nectarines are nice enough to buy again. Tesco had a good strawberry a week ago but now they've changed variety and they're horrid,

 

[wulbert]

I socialise with the Manager of a local garden centre chain. According to him the big spenders in garden centres are couples in their early 50s. The garden centres sell the upmarket stuff whilst the DIY shops sell the tat.
Also "white haired old farts" tend to spend their money on bird feeding stuff after treating themselves to a cheap lunch in the garden cafe.

My comment was spontaneous and off the cuff. Not that serious or in-depth analysis. Apologies if it offended you. I was lazily comparing the social usefulness of a home-grown vegetable industry to selling old people "stuff" to pass their leisure time. Garden centres generate jobs & income, so do have some utility. (what cost the various imported plant diseases they have brought here though?)

My son worked in a local garden centre for two summers. We could not believe the prices charged for the shoddy patio-related tat they sold (he often had the job of assembling it) Many returns, when items broke. He also noted vast amounts of pest control (insecticide) products being sold. Not living in a wealthy part of the UK, it's possible that the product range is different in various parts of the country? But yeah, bird seed too.

In fact, this has reminded my that in my youth "garden centres" were often a smaller adjunct to a market garden/plant nursery. I've read that small, local market gardens are a more cost-effective way to produce food than large-scale agri-business once the real costs of storage and transport are factored in. A government that was genuinely concerned with our "security" would pump massive investment/incentives into small-scale, sustainable, distributed and diverse food-growing network.

 

[wulbert]

Looking through this, I want to say that the quality of supermarket summer fruits has always been variable, it depends so much on the variety. I also want to say that it's not surprising that apples and pears are not so good in Britain in July.

At the moment I think Morrisons apricots and white flesh nectarines are nice enough to buy again. Tesco had a good strawberry a week ago but now they've changed variety and they're horrid,

I think that's right. You've always needed to shop carefully; smell, look, assess. However I've noticed that this summer it is particularly poor. We have not had a single piece of "exotic" (for us) fruit that has been nice. It has all been rubbish across several outlets. This is unusual.

Back to tatties and kale.

 

[Bodhi]

Unfortunately I don't have the room to grow food in my smal courtyard. But If I lived in a proper house with a decent size back yard (preferaby in the country), I'd have a biodynamic/organic garden and green house & grow my own food using filtered rain water, electroculture and other natural approaches.

 

[wulbert]

Dried out, tiny ginger stems, the size of fingers and thumbs in local Sainsburys today. (garlic was the same, tiny & dry)
Empty shelves in local Coop. No cauliflower in either store.

 

[Copperjacket]

Dried out, tiny ginger stems, the size of fingers and thumbs in local Sainsburys today. (garlic was the same, tiny & dry)
Empty shelves in local Coop. No cauliflower in either store.

All too familiar I’m afraid.

 

[dweezil]

Dried out, tiny ginger stems, the size of fingers and thumbs in local Sainsburys today. (garlic was the same, tiny & dry)
Empty shelves in local Coop. No cauliflower in either store.

Garlic shouldn't be too long now, this is our first, bit of a runt but the others will soon be ready.