Veg Availability (split from Podilia's thread)

[Ian123]

Therese Coffey eating a Swede? Highly unpalatable vision.

Ulrika didn’t object to eating a Swede

 

[philipm]

Shock horror ITV Wales reporting tonight there may be a shortage of leeks for St Davids day.Good job we've got a freezer full think the wife may have done me an injury if I'd pulled up any more.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Shock horror ITV Wales reporting tonight there may be a shortage of leeks for St Davids day.Good job we've got a freezer full think the wife may have done me an injury if I'd pulled up any more.

How do you freeze leeks?

 

[Bryang]

How do you freeze leeks?

We just cut them up into small pieces than but them in the freezer. we do the same with onions.. DO NOT "cook" them first.

 

[pargyle]

We just cut them up into small pieces than but them in the freezer. we do the same with onions.. DO NOT "cook" them first.

I cut them across the stem into lengths of about 1" and freeze them on a tray then vacuum bag them. No pre-cooking cooking. They freeze well and roast or stew from frozen. No problem.

 

[Erichalfbee]

We just cut them up into small pieces than but them in the freezer. we do the same with onions.. DO NOT "cook" them first.

Thanks. That’s how I freeze onions. They get strung up normally but if any start sprouting they get frozen.

 

[Mabee]

Dont belielve all the crap coming from the media they always try to panic people into buying more just to cause a shortage .This time of year there is always a problem with veg its out of season so has to be imported.I spoke to my cousin in Ukraine yesterday she said things had gone up in price and there seems to be a shortage of onions but they get on with life not like us a bunch of moaners.I think we need to grow up.

While I agree the media is often not to be believed, this has been gradually happening for a while now with many products. Our supermarkets ran out of tomatoes around the same time I started seeing other people say the same on social media, before the actual media (?) got hold of the story.

I’m just back from a holiday in Tenerife and I was blown away with the amount of stock in the supermarkets, something I wouldn’t have even thought about a few years ago, how our supermarkets used to look.

 

[JamezF]

While I agree the media is often not to be believed, this has been gradually happening for a while now with many products. Our supermarkets ran out of tomatoes around the same time I started seeing other people say the same on social media, before the actual media (?) got hold of the story.

I'd agree. I noticed shortages of tomatoes probably a month or more back.

My parents have just come back from a cruise around north Africa and Spain/Portugal and the weather there still seems to be poor. They couldn't make a couple of their scheduled stops because it was too stormy for the ship to get into the ports safely. I'd not be surprised if shortages of fruit and veg grown in that area last for a while yet.

James

 

[Mabee]

I'd agree. I noticed shortages of tomatoes probably a month or more back.

My parents have just come back from a cruise around north Africa and Spain/Portugal and the weather there still seems to be poor. They couldn't make a couple of their scheduled stops because it was too stormy for the ship to get into the ports safely. I'd not be surprised if shortages of fruit and veg grown in that area last for a while yet.

James

Exactly. Our supermarket shelves, while they mostly have food, it’s not to the same extent as before (B).

Most of the tomato crop is grown under cover in Spain so not really affected by the weather. The point is i’ve seen first hand that food shortages are not an issue elsewhere, but that actually there is an abundance of food elsewhere in Europe.

The media and government are making excuses, thinking we’re stupid enough to fall for it!

 

[JamezF]

I'm still storing my leeks outdoors...

James

 

[roche]

Exactly. Our supermarket shelves, while they mostly have food, it’s not to the same extent as before (B).

Most of the tomato crop is grown under cover in Spain so not really affected by the weather. The point is i’ve seen first hand that food shortages are not an issue elsewhere, but that actually there is an abundance of food elsewhere in Europe.

The media and government are making excuses, thinking we’re stupid enough to fall for it!

Quite. If you are going to ship something, are you going to ship to a destination that requires paperwork, or somewhere that does not?

 

[Bettenham]

I'm still storing my leeks outdoors...

James

Crikey James - if I grew mine as close together as that it would be a great big pile of rust!
How do you do it?

 

[JamezF]

Crikey James - if I grew mine as close together as that it would be a great big pile of rust!
How do you do it?

I've never had problems with rust on leeks to be honest, even though last year it absolutely hammered my outdoor garlic. Those in the photo are growing in a space that I used for onions in the first half of the season, as it happens.

I sow leeks in mid-April-ish four seeds to a cell in module trays in the greenhouse (onions too, but they are sown in the first half of February). They get planted out after a crop that matures relatively early in the year (onions, peas, first early potatoes, my first outdoor planting of salad leaves, that sort of thing) is over and the ground it occupied is cleared, at around 25 to 30cm spacing. Probably late June/early July depending on how things are going. I don't thin them at all -- whatever germinates in the module tray gets planted, though if I have a few "singles" then I might plant them together.

James

 

[Bettenham]

I've never had problems with rust on leeks to be honest, even though last year it absolutely hammered my outdoor garlic. Those in the photo are growing in a space that I used for onions in the first half of the season, as it happens.

I sow leeks in mid-April-ish four seeds to a cell in module trays in the greenhouse (onions too, but they are sown in the first half of February). They get planted out after a crop that matures relatively early in the year (onions, peas, first early potatoes, my first outdoor planting of salad leaves, that sort of thing) is over and the ground it occupied is cleared, at around 25 to 30cm spacing. Probably late June/early July depending on how things are going. I don't thin them at all -- whatever germinates in the module tray gets planted, though if I have a few "singles" then I might plant them together.

James

Ok, you plant a bit later than me - I was thinking of this weekend as it happens. So maybe I'll try later and as you say can go in the early potato space. I will be sowing the early greenhouse tomatoes this weekend - just in time for the cold snap! It is a bit of a battle to keep them warm enough to survive but not make them too leggy. We still have some passata from last year in the freezer but not much now. Harvesting our own tomatoes seems a long way off still!

 

[Gilberdyke John]

I'd agree. I noticed shortages of tomatoes probably a month or more back.

My parents have just come back from a cruise around north Africa and Spain/Portugal and the weather there still seems to be poor. They couldn't make a couple of their scheduled stops because it was too stormy for the ship to get into the ports safely. I'd not be surprised if shortages of fruit and veg grown in that area last for a while yet.

James

Lidl in Goole had shelves of tomatoes, other vegetables and the meat section was well stocked as I passed on the way to the middle of lidl shelves this morning. I browsed the boys toys but found I already had many of the tools on offer. Came away with just a couple of packs of glue, a twin tube of epoxy resin and a cheap lever arch file from the oops section. I was tempted by a cordless impact driver but my other cordless tools are from Aldi so my batteries wouldn't be compatible.

 

[JamezF]

Ok, you plant a bit later than me - I was thinking of this weekend as it happens. So maybe I'll try later and as you say can go in the early potato space. I will be sowing the early greenhouse tomatoes this weekend - just in time for the cold snap! It is a bit of a battle to keep them warm enough to survive but not make them too leggy. We still have some passata from last year in the freezer but not much now. Harvesting our own tomatoes seems a long way off still!

Sowing tomatoes is on my list for next weekend

I also have quite a few tomato plants that I overwintered in the house. They're quite leggy now and about two feet tall, but my intention is to take some shoots from them and replant them in compost to see if they'll take, then plant them out when it's a bit warmer. It's all a bit of an experiment to see how reliably it works. If it goes ok then I'll probably never buy F1 tomato seed ever again. I also have some saved seed from non-F1 plants to see how that does.

Sowing parsnips was on my list for this weekend, but thanks to the drop in temperature and the icy north-easterly winds we've had recently the ground is really cold at the moment so I can't see the point. Doesn't look like there's going to be much change there for a while, either.

James

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

While I agree the media is often not to be believed, this has been gradually happening for a while now with many products. Our supermarkets ran out of tomatoes around the same time I started seeing other people say the same on social media, before the actual media (?) got hold of the story.

I’m just back from a holiday in Tenerife and I was blown away with the amount of stock in the supermarkets, something I wouldn’t have even thought about a few years ago, how our supermarkets used to look.

SWMBO commented a good while ago that fresh veg shopping in any of our local supermarkets gas been very much a matter of pot luck and often returns home with different vegetables than the ones she planned to cook. Someone I know is out in Spain with family at the moment and there seems to be no shortage of any fresh veg

 

[B_north]

Exactly. Our supermarket shelves, while they mostly have food, it’s not to the same extent as before (B).

Most of the tomato crop is grown under cover in Spain so not really affected by the weather. The point is i’ve seen first hand that food shortages are not an issue elsewhere, but that actually there is an abundance of food elsewhere in Europe.

The media and government are making excuses, thinking we’re stupid enough to fall for it!

That might be your reality there but over here we see a rotation of shortages and prices skyrocket. Not our govt. or media's fault since our largest grocery chain Loblaws has recorded record profits and forecasts that in 2023 their profits will grow faster than their sales.

Loblaw’s markup over base costs in 2010 was 32.5 per cent, by 2019 it was 44.3 per cent and in 2022 it was 46.7 per cent.

Loblaw forecasts profits will grow faster than sales in 2023 as revenue up

Price gouging anyone????

 

[WoodenBeam]

Quite. If you are going to ship something, are you going to ship to a destination that requires paperwork, or somewhere that does not?

In some ways I’m quite pleased about this tomato & cucumber malarkey. Shipping products around the globe to satisfy consumer demand is all about profit, in the main, for big supermarkets. I know there’s a lot of press about turnips but equally so, there’s a lot to be said for local and seasonal.

 

[Ian123]

There’s obviously a shortage of supply at the moment some are blaming weather in the area, some growers are cutting back due to heating costs. A lot of suppliers even the bigger 1s in Europe buy on spot price so will pay a higher price for the product and get it! Even in the UK trade markets paying the higher spot price have supply. The supermarkets buying at low prices are bottom of the list and rightly so