Where do you all get your fruit and veg and do you buy fresh, frozen, canned or a mixture?
I am sad to say I get all my shopping at the supermarket, I really just don't have time to shop around, I buy mainly fresh ( and we eat LOADS of it!) but frozen peas, sweetcorn and those new soya beans and I get some tinned fruit in juice as a quick pud with yoghurt and also tinned sweetcorn cos I love it.
I am concerned that my fresh stuff has lost most of its goodness and I keep wondering if I should try out those veggie deliveries you can get, does anyone use them?
I get veggies delivered, it's great! I like having someone else choose for me, it makes me try stuff I'd never get round to buying for myself. When I go to the supermarket to buy it I always end up buying the same stuff, now I've been forced to eat stuff I told myself I "didn't like" and stuff that I do like but couldn't think of ways to use.
I also eat frozen and tinned for when it's easier and as standbys for stuff that I use a lot but don't always get in the box.
Helen (YP1) gets her veggies delivered. I have been looking at it but it just looked a bit expensive and slightly scary!
I buy most of my veggies at Waitrose ('cos I'm a snob!). I find Sainsbury's is really really rubbish with its fresh stuff, and Tesco is ok, but they're not fab and they don't tend to have stuff like figs and really odd varieties of apple and mushroom that I like!
We buy bags and bags of apples (from anywhere, but I love the Cox's they've got in Waitrose at the moment), I use tinned pears in a muffin recipe (must make that again...), I have tinned chickpeas and dried chickpeas, both of which I've never opened! I do plan on making hummous and falafel with them soon though! I buy figs from Waitrose along with cherries and berries and stuff. They seem to have more organic stuff. I love their fresh sugar snap peas and they have some GREAT organic chestnut mushrooms.
I have a bag of frozen string beans, frozen fruit and berries and some soy beans, also honey roast parsnips which probably are full of evils, but I luv 'em!
I get fair trade or organic bananas.
So yeah, like you! I think tinned and frozen are pretty healthy, it's all about variety.
There's no one website, the nice thing about the schemes is that you can get locally produced stuff from a small business rather than feeding Tesco's profits. I use an organic shop that's round the corner from where I work, and there are also farms that deliver to my area. Having said that, Abel & Cole are the one name that I know who do operate relatively nationally, they certainly deliver in my area although I don't use them. I do raid their recipe section on a regular basis though for ideas of what to do with stuff!
I have ordered from a site called Goosemoor, they are based in Wakefield which is not far from me, its £15 for an extra large veggie box and £12 for an extra large fruit one, not sure if there will be a delivery charge it said on the site it depended if you were already on a route - not sure how I pay yet, I have emailed my order so I guess they will let me know, Ooh I am all exited now, its fun not knowing what you will get, looks a nice farm though and they have named their chickens: Tikka, Foo Yung, Masala etc.. which i thought was hilarious!!
I buy mainly from the supermarket or sometimes if I am up in Shepherds Bush I go to the middle eastern grocers. I did go to the market there but the foreign men ignore me and would serve any man before me so I thought sod it I will go elsewhere. Funnily enough though the middle eastern grocers are very polite.
I have a freezer full of frozen veg - very good standby for times when 'fresh' veg doesn't look very fresh.
I have my groceries delivered (Sainsburys) and I get all my fruit from them because it keeps longer - but I'm very picky about the freshness of my veg so I only tend to get two days' of it delivered.
I love Farmers Markets for the organic produce but when I can't get to one of those I visit an organic centre in the next village which does fresh seasonal veg and my local village greengrocer is quite good for fresh veg on a Friday/Saturday. I also get given quite a lot of fresh veg.
I used Abel and Cole for ages and they're very good but a bit on the expensive side. And as I have 5 kids to feed, not so practical for me but if you're on your own or a small family, they'd be fine.
I switched to a local organic farm but their stuff was much lower quality than Abel and Cole's and the amounts were pathetic.
So we dug up a section of our lawn and we keep meaning to go up the village and get an allotment. No waiting list here, as I've seen about half of the plots are abandoned - but I heard on the radio that some cities have 9 year waiting lists for allotments.
A pound or two on a packet of tomato seeds will keep 7 of us self sufficient in tomatoes for most of the summer/autumn. Less than a quid for lettuce seeds, etc etc. A local shop sells organic and craft produce, run by a community of disabled folk, and they also sell organic seeds very cheap. We sometimes buy things like courgette plants ready grown and again, you can get a couple of plants for £1.50. Two or three will keep us in courgettes all summer so it's a cheaper option for those like us with lots of kids.
We sometimes use farm shops, or buy things like big bags of spuds straight from the farmer. I grow some of my own (digging is the most exhausting thing I know - far more so than running! Must be burning lots of calories when you're double digging in a big plot of spuds!) Also use supermarkets but there we tend to mix fresh and frozen - as some of the frozen stuff is actually 'fresher' than the fresh! I also eat some dried fruit everyday (cranberries the favourite).
Am just planting my spring onions, some spuds, and some lettuce/chinese salad greens - and we have a big herb patch, full of fresh herbs. (All our own stuff is organic). Have already got my tomato plants growing on nicely.
There are Farmer's Markets in York, which are great but I often forget it's on. We sometimes catch one somewhere else, like if we're up in the Dales at weekends.
Last edited by PhatPhoenix; 04-02-2007 at 07:14 PM.
OOh I hope I get plenty in my boxes! the staff at Goosemoor are really friendly and had great service up till now, my first delivery is coming tomorrow so i will let you know!
That sounds really good getting your fruit and veg delivered like that, i look foward to hearing how your delivery is when you get it.....
Im really boring im afraid and just get mine from Tescos as its only 5 mins up the road from me....i buy all my fruit fresh as i dont like tinned fruit at all. And i buy my veg fresh too, apart from sweetcorn which i get tinned, and peas and runner beans which i get frozen, everything else is fresh
Hi all, well my delivery came today and I am thrilled to bits!!
In my fruit box (cost £12), I got:
8 Bananas
7 Pears (not sure what type but they are reddish colour)
4 large oranges
4 clementines
1 lemon
1 grapefruit
1 pineapple
6 red apples
6 victoria plums
4 kiwi fruit
2 avocados
In my Veg one (cost £15):
Potatoes
Carrots
3 parsnips
1 savoy cabbage
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
1 punnet cherry tomatoes
1 large cucumber
1 head celery
1 head broccoli
16 spears asparagus
1 aubergine
2 globe artichokes - HELP dont know how to cook?
1 hubbard squash - As above - any suggestions?
1 large strange dark green leaf (chard?) -steamed it for tea - was nice!
We had the chard (?), some of the asparagus and some brocolli for tea with a lean steak and pepper sauce and they were all delicious, it was nice to prepare veg after cleaning the dirt off it!!
Sounds like you got a bargain! This is the easiest and, in my opinion, the nicest way of preparing globe artichokes.
I've not heard of a hubbard squash but I do eat lots of other kinds of squash - I like squash in soups - roasted with a touch of garlic instead of potatoes - stuffed then baked - casseroled with tomatoes, peppers, garlic and beans. American recipe websites are really inspiring when it comes to unusual veg. My favourite is AllRecipes - they've got loads of squash recipes.
I love chard - I like it just plain steamed with just a teaspoon of sesame oil and soy sauce drizzled over it.
Fruit and Veg Shopping
(must make that again...), I have tinned chickpeas and dried chickpeas, both of which I've never opened! I do plan on making hummous and falafel with them soon though! I buy figs from Waitrose along with cherries and berries and stuff. They seem to have more organic stuff. I love their fresh sugar snap peas and they have some GREAT organic chestnut mushrooms.
