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Tea is grown in England - Tregothnan in Cornwall; it costs more than PG or Yorkshire tea which are nothing more permeable bags filled with tea dust.
Turning to tomatoes, monkeyboy is right in saying that they are available - farm shops local to me are evidence of that; I'll be in one of them tomorrow and expect to find toms, peppers and cucumbers all available.
Has anyone blamed the Anti Growth Coalition yet?
I'm pretty sure it's the left-wing financial establishment
Independents like me can adjust instantly and keep stock level consistency, but not price.
That explains why all the independent shops near me always have stock. I'm over the supermarkets tbh, overpriced and crappy produce sold in a really depressing environment
I hope this doesn't affect the price of ketchup.
Heinz have been rapidly putting prices up this year - price marked bottles of ketchup have already gone up by 50p, was 2.29 in 2022, £2.79 in 2023
I live in North Portugal and there were plenty of tomatoes on the shelves in our local Intermarche this afternoon .....
Can’t stand ketchup
Oddly enough, I can't stand tomatoes.
Sssh Moe… we don’t speak of the outside world, and the pointing and the laughing.
Tregothnan in Cornwall; it costs more than PG or Yorkshire tea
The stuff actually grown in Cornwall is not just more expensive than the big brands, it’s ludicrously expensive.
The stuff Tregothnan sells in shops tends to be Indian with some Cornish mixed in… and then sold to us “buy British” mugs for a quid a teabag.
Many areas of the UK are perfect for growing tea… it’s not the climate that makes us dependent on imports.
I much refer Tregothnan - pure or blended - to the mass produced bags of black dust which are presented as 'tea'.
High quality teas - mainly in loose leaf form - can be re-infused upto 3 times with the flavour deepening and improving each time so the notional £1/tea bag is a meaningless reference.
I currently have 8 different types of tea in the cupboard so have some understanding of what I'm referring to.
There are few areas - not many - of the UK which are suitable for growing tea.
Get a cast iron Japanese teapot, a variety of leaf teas, a functional kettle and you have the basis for real tea.
I could give you the full 'work study' requirements for making tea but assume - possibly wrongly - that isn't required.
👆 If I was a member, I'd LIKE that comment! 👍😁
Frank, as long as you know Tregothan are mostly selling Indian tea that's only homepathically Cornish. Their marketing is deliberately wooly in my opinion... lots of PR about their estate tea... and then get Indian tea on the shelf for a big premium.
You'll be horrified to hear that the only loose leaf tea I have in at the moment is Earl Grey.... which to connoisseurs like yourself is the equivalent of flavoured coffee beans to the coffeeheads.
Tomatoes in Spain.
Spoke to a mate in Germany. No shortage of tomatoes there, either....
Plenty here in Spain, too, funnily enough. Not that they have much flavour at this time of year!
Not being funny, but who the hell buys more than a couple of cucumbers in winter, or a couple of packs of tomatoes. That's plenty for a week ? It's the nobbers who will by handfuls, for them all to go off as they can't possibly eat them all. It's the new loo roll !
Cucumbers for a party? [ I mean cucumber sandwiches and G&Ts... nothing dirty ]
Tomatoes are easier to explain. Hard to believe this, but there are people who actually cook with them! Imagine that! And they need loads. Tins and jars for me.
I eat fresh tomatoes pretty much every day, at least six days out of seven. I don't eat less in winter.
And although they can obviously go off tomatoes keep fresh for a reasonable time. There shouldn't be any reason for them to go manky before having the chance to eat them.
Cucumbers seem a bit pointless to me.
Healthy!
Healthy!
French-Italian cultural upbringing innit.
Tomato ketchup was one hundred percent banned in my house when I was a child, as was baked beans.
I had to experience English culinary delights away from home. I remember that momentous occasion when I purchased a saveloy from chip shop for the first time, I was about 17 and had no idea what it was.
I have salad with most meals, we'll go through loads of tomatoes and a couple of cucumbers a week. There's meant to be a lettuce shortage as well!!!!!
Ooh, I've not had a saveloy in years. Used to love them as a kid.
I have no idea what it was either…
Best described as very large circumcised Frankfurter, in appearance at least.
I’m sure I read that the Chinese have done testing and found cucumber to reduce the chance of cancer. I eat cucumber everyday too.
This one?
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6384961/
Not very exciting...
https://fullfact.org/online/cucumber-cancer/
We always have a cucumber on the go... at least one of us is eating it everyday. Same goes for tomatoes. Well, 'till this week.
Marmite and cucumber on toast is my favourite fix for munchies. Hungry just thinking about it.
Blimey, found those links quickly!
Well, I obviously thought it was bollocks, but I’m sure they don’t do any harm 😊
Was talking to a Spanish colleague who is based in Germany. The fruit and veg shortage was news to him.
I’m on the border with Almeria,it has been a tad chilly recently so productions down a bit but er it’s just easier to flog it locally in the eu than to you.
Bloody BBC has finally caught on to this now. Reported on Breakfast to encourage a bit of panic buying 😖
dude - it's another brexit benefit; the gift that keeps on giving.
Ha!
Be a long wait for the UK orange season
it peaks around the 12th of July and is strongest in NI and West Central Scotland. It comes with a bitter taste that might not appeal to all palettes though!
We have just been for the weekly shop in Sainsburys and they seem to have normal quantities of fruit and veg.
On the news this morning the Britsh Boris Corporation was showing empty shelves. There might be less veg than normal in some shops but the BBC news won't be happy until they cause a panic. Wonderful!
@Bruce - like I keep saying there is definitely a shortage of supply, this could be weather related or it could be import difficulty or both, but it has cirtainly increased costs.
Sainsbury's probably have a contract with a supplier/s at a curtain cost. The supermarkets, like Sainsbury's will be in constant negotiations for new supply and cost.
It could be that your lucky enough to live in an area which Sainsbury's had dedicated a priority for fruit and veg, where a high proportion of customers will have fruit and veg in baskets, so they will use distribution to prioritise your local store - alternatively at a national level Sainsbury's may have decided that selling some items (tomatoes and salad veg) as loss leaders would be beneficial, maintaining stock levels and price for customers to get one up on the competition.
On the news this morning the Britsh Boris Corporation was showing empty shelves. There might be less veg than normal in some shops but the BBC news won’t be happy until they cause a panic. Wonderful!
You don't seem very impressed with BBC news, might it be time to start watching ITV news?
I bet there is loads of tomatoes on ITV news.
I tried a different lunch yesterday, with just a couple of toms - pasta, pinenut and pesto salad. It made me feel ill. Could taste the garlic the rest of the day. Hopefully the local M&S can keep me supplied in cherry toms in spite of BBC induced stockpiling by the great British public.
Very few salad items in my local Morrisons. I did manage to get my Pink Lady apples and a bunch of bananas though !
People will panic buy cucumbers etc and it will go off before they can eat them. I'll just pop to the local greengrocer for mine this week.
Plenty of tomatoes in the local greengrocer. I'm pleased that I don't have to find a new sauce.
Plenty of tomatoes in M&S yesterday, and various sizes and shapes of peppers plus every other sort of vegetable you could possibly want to eat and also kale. Clearly panic buying hasn't reached the home counties yet.
Can't comment on the availability of cucumbers as I can think of no sensible reason why anyone would want to buy one so I didn't look.
I’m pleased that I don’t have to find a new sauce.
👏🏼
Ah it’s just a distraction from the gas bill, DoDMum was a bit surprised at her 800quid gas bill.
Tomatoes are so last year. Turnips are the thing. Great for salads, pizzas, bolognese sauce.