My bag of mixed perennials has arrived - accompanied by their EU plant passport, which is presumably why they took 10 days rather than the promised 24 hours.
My bag of mixed perennials has arrived - accompanied by their EU plant passport, which is presumably why they took 10 days rather than the promised 24 hours.
My bag of mixed perennials has arrived - accompanied by their EU plant passport, which is presumably why they took 10 days rather than the promised 24 hours.
Have they survived the experience?
Not sure. One pack had spots of mould, one was sprouting wildly, one was so dessicated it was hard to distinguish the plants at all. I have buried them all and watered their graves.
Speaking of plants, we visited our favourite nursery yesterday evening after work. It was very noticeable that stocks of many things they would normally have at this time of year were low or non-existent. It seems that the big boys have all turned to UK suppliers as they can no longer get supplies from Europe, and because the margins are so low (next time you buy a chrysanthemum in a pot from the supermarket, bear in mind that the grower who has nurtured it for months to get it perfectly ready to be all in bloom at once the moment it hits the supermarket shelf will make about 2p profit on that plant!) the suppliers have very little choice but to deal with the big orders and the little guys - in this case a long-established family business - lose.
Our local Co-Op has been devoid of Marmite for weeks now...happily, I presciently bought a jar before the calamity occurred.
Although I am a proud member of the Co-Op (and managed, when CRS and the CWS merged, to be a member twice at once) I have noticed over the years that stock control is not their strong point (example - back when they ran superstores, my local one would be a fabulous place to get quality English wine - but it did have a tendency to run out of bread, milk and washing powder halfway through the week). Given that Costco has plenty of tubs of Marmite and when I glanced at the relevant shelf in Tesco that seemed well-stocked, I suspect that the problem isn't down to Brexit or Covid. It's down to the Co-Op's buyers being a bunch of incompetent clowns.
As boogie says, the Great Marmite Shortage, of which I am another sufferer (managed to get some tiddly little jars in one of our lovely corner shops the other day), is a COVID problem.
Not sure if it's covid or Brexit but Lidl very empty again today, (even with a bonus loo roll aisle), and worse and ironically seems to have stopped selling herring
My Lidl has no beans whatsoever (and hasn't for about a month now). Which, if you're a vegetarian, is a bit of a bummer.
Hmm. I can see this could be a problem - but are there other places where the beans you require can be obtained?
BTW, I was in Tesco's today, and can report that Marmite was available, along with T's own brand of similar Stuff. I wonder how similar it is to the Real Thing?
Many years ago, My father had a B vitamin deficiency for which the doctor said he should take a little Marmite each day (he hated the stuff). One Christmas, a present arrived from a relative who ran a café - a gift wrapped 7lb catering tin of Marmite!
I made an absolute boss of a curry the other week from a tin of chickpeas, a cauliflower, an onion and a carton of pasatta. I think we're out of chickpeas now, and I was reduced to buying baked beans in Sainbury's, of all places.
You think canned carrots are bad. Try asparagus. Ew.
I once went to a diner and ordered an asparagus omelet which they made with said canned veggies. I called later to politely advise them that it really wasn't a good choice. The manager got really defensive, so I just said okay, goodbye and rang off.
And then I went a little Karen and told my story on Yelp! without embellishments or name-calling.
Frozen veg is often better than fresh, vitamin wise. Unless you are picking your veg from the garden and eating it straight away.
Any out of season fruit and veg destined to be shipped long distances are usually picked before they are ripe, which gives them less time to develop a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals.
You think canned carrots are bad. Try asparagus. Ew.
I once went to a diner and ordered an asparagus omelet which they made with said canned veggies. I called later to politely advise them that it really wasn't a good choice. The manager got really defensive, so I just said okay, goodbye and rang off.
And then I went a little Karen and told my story on Yelp! without embellishments or name-calling.
Yuk and yuk again; for sheer soggy horror canned asparagus is unbeatable. My dear departed MIL used to dish it up as a treat...🙀
Just back from Aldi, which supplied all the human frame requires - or at any rate chocolate, champagne and those little mini fondues. Also fresh carrots and asparagus. The only slight oddity was fruit juice only in 2L cartons.
I might be wrong but I'd be surprised if a shortage of tinned goods in supermarkets was caused by Brexit - AIUI the problem is with fresh food that comes on the back of a lorry via Dover, because even a minute's delay for customs formalities can have horrible knock-on effects - whereas tins are more likely to come in unaccompanied containers, and the process of unloading a container ship is already so cumbersome that adding customs formalities doesn't make much difference.
(You used to see a parade of Brexiteers saying 'Look! My company imports widgets from India through Felixstowe and customs delays don't impact us at all!', which would then lead the morons in the Mail and the Express to conclude that customs would make no difference to lorries coming through Dover either, even though that is a completely different mode of unloading.)
The Riverford newsletter last week had a piece by one of their growers at the Riverford farm in the Vendée, the penultimate paragraph says:
As you can imagine, Brexit brings some further complications with customs paperwork and bureaucracy. This adds extra work, but it is manageable. One of the biggest challenges is because we have to declare what we are going to export 24 hours in advance, there's little flexibility. Even if there is produce ready to be picked and Riverford want us to send more, there's no going back after declaring the paperwork. If there are two extra pallets of vegetables, they simply stay here with us in Vendée. The system is very rigid.
They then go on to say that the produce left behind does not reach the same prices as they get from the contract. This whole system, I suspect, is going to raise prices here and glut the local markets.
(Riverford have calculated that the carbon cost of driving a load up from the Vendée once a week, particularly using a low carbon fuel, was cheaper than running heated tunnels in the UK, so have farms in the south of Europe.)
Who would have thought this could possibly happen?
O the irony - Bozzie & Chums (not to mention the owners themselves, of course) are desperate to get the pubs and restaurants open, and there's not enough staff coming from the EU!
Who would have thought this could possibly happen?
O the irony - Bozzie & Chums (not to mention the owners themselves, of course) are desperate to get the pubs and restaurants open, and there's not enough staff coming from the EU!
I seem to remember ( but of course am not prepared to make the effort to check) that this was sold as one of the benefits of Brexit - that Europeans wouldn't come over and take the entry level jobs (hospitality and the like): a shortage of supply would bid up the wages and Brits would take the jobs. What I don't seem to remember is anyone commenting on what this would do to the costs and profitability of running a hospitality business, or how raised costs would run through into more expensive food and drinks.
I seem to remember ( but of course am not prepared to make the effort to check) that this was sold as one of the benefits of Brexit - that Europeans wouldn't come over and take the entry level jobs (hospitality and the like): a shortage of supply would bid up the wages and Brits would take the jobs. What I don't seem to remember is anyone commenting on what this would do to the costs and profitability of running a hospitality business, or how raised costs would run through into more expensive food and drinks.
The horror. People who eat out more will have to pay more so their serving staff can eat at all.
A business is not some sort of hobby for capitalists. Either the pay and conditions are enough to induce someone to exchange their labour for them, or they have to raise them until they are.
Anyone want to bet that UK immigration policy ends up with so many exemptions for specific industries with shortages that we end up with just as much Eastern European migration as we had before Brexit, but in a much more bureaucratic and state-driven way?
Comments
...lack of any evidence of any form of thought at all...
What an appropriate epitaph for Bozzie & The Chumocrats.
I just hope that they all have their blue passports ready.
Have they survived the experience?
I wonder how many of those affected voted Leave?
54% of Swindon voted Leave. Given that you're probably looking at least at a 3-4x multiplier of jobs lost, then potentially a great many of them.
Not sure. One pack had spots of mould, one was sprouting wildly, one was so dessicated it was hard to distinguish the plants at all. I have buried them all and watered their graves.
A certain South American river has been known to supply catering tubs of the sticky black stuff if necessary.
Yes, and normal sized pots ~ but it’s expensive. 🤔
Although I am a proud member of the Co-Op (and managed, when CRS and the CWS merged, to be a member twice at once) I have noticed over the years that stock control is not their strong point (example - back when they ran superstores, my local one would be a fabulous place to get quality English wine - but it did have a tendency to run out of bread, milk and washing powder halfway through the week). Given that Costco has plenty of tubs of Marmite and when I glanced at the relevant shelf in Tesco that seemed well-stocked, I suspect that the problem isn't down to Brexit or Covid. It's down to the Co-Op's buyers being a bunch of incompetent clowns.
MMM
£7.20 for a 600g tub, slightly more expensive than tesco but not by a lot (we have it on subscribe and save now)
You either love it or hate it.
I hoped someone would come up with that...
Hmm. I can see this could be a problem - but are there other places where the beans you require can be obtained?
BTW, I was in Tesco's today, and can report that Marmite was available, along with T's own brand of similar Stuff. I wonder how similar it is to the Real Thing?
You could always put some used industrial lubricant on your toast instead. Looks the same, texture the same, probably tastes better.
You may think that. I couldn't possibly comment.
The Emergency is over, as supplies of Marmite are available in shops other than the Co-Op. God is good...
I mean, yes, but it also means going to a different shop, potentially on a different day, and therefore leaving the house.
I though I was getting used to Lidl's 'idiosyncratic' stocking policy, but beans, come on...
Ah - I see. I didn't realise you were relying on delivery. Point taken.
I put a can of chick peas (US: garbanzos?) in my veggie curries but Lidl hasn't had any for many, many weeks here.
That's a blessing really. They don't can well.
You think canned carrots are bad. Try asparagus. Ew.
I once went to a diner and ordered an asparagus omelet which they made with said canned veggies. I called later to politely advise them that it really wasn't a good choice. The manager got really defensive, so I just said okay, goodbye and rang off.
And then I went a little Karen and told my story on Yelp! without embellishments or name-calling.
Any out of season fruit and veg destined to be shipped long distances are usually picked before they are ripe, which gives them less time to develop a full spectrum of vitamins and minerals.
Yuk and yuk again; for sheer soggy horror canned asparagus is unbeatable. My dear departed MIL used to dish it up as a treat...🙀
(You used to see a parade of Brexiteers saying 'Look! My company imports widgets from India through Felixstowe and customs delays don't impact us at all!', which would then lead the morons in the Mail and the Express to conclude that customs would make no difference to lorries coming through Dover either, even though that is a completely different mode of unloading.)
They then go on to say that the produce left behind does not reach the same prices as they get from the contract. This whole system, I suspect, is going to raise prices here and glut the local markets.
(Riverford have calculated that the carbon cost of driving a load up from the Vendée once a week, particularly using a low carbon fuel, was cheaper than running heated tunnels in the UK, so have farms in the south of Europe.)
https://theguardian.com/business/2021/may/01/uk-restaurants-pubs-brexit-staff-covid
Who would have thought this could possibly happen?
O the irony - Bozzie & Chums (not to mention the owners themselves, of course) are desperate to get the pubs and restaurants open, and there's not enough staff coming from the EU!
I seem to remember ( but of course am not prepared to make the effort to check) that this was sold as one of the benefits of Brexit - that Europeans wouldn't come over and take the entry level jobs (hospitality and the like): a shortage of supply would bid up the wages and Brits would take the jobs. What I don't seem to remember is anyone commenting on what this would do to the costs and profitability of running a hospitality business, or how raised costs would run through into more expensive food and drinks.
The horror. People who eat out more will have to pay more so their serving staff can eat at all.
A business is not some sort of hobby for capitalists. Either the pay and conditions are enough to induce someone to exchange their labour for them, or they have to raise them until they are.