I have a complaint. It is Bank Holiday here, so, in need of provisions and with a sudden desire for apricots, I was obliged to go to the supermarket. I don’t do it often. It depresses me. But that isn’t the complaint…
I really didn’t need much; it was mainly the dog who needed supplies, but I thought I would grab some fresh stuff while I was there…you know, a few vegetables, some fruit…nothing out of the ordinary. Wandering round the produce section, the temperature began to rise.
I live alone and, in spite of the recalcitrant waistline, I eat very little. There are only so many portions of anything that I can eat and many summer fruits and vegetables do not keep well. I learned to shop for fresh produce in France, where ingredients are taken seriously and shopping is a tactile exercise. I can feel ripeness and readiness from avocado to zucchini.
Except, now, I can’t.
Apparently.
It is bad enough that, as a single person, I am condemned to eat the same vegetables four meals in a row because they are all now packed for an average sized family. I, personally, am not an average sized family. Or that I must buy a pack of several when I want only one. Quite apart from the unnecessary use of plastic in which they wrap the stuff, this just encourages food waste when things do not get used… or indeed, bought. Instead of disposing of one pepper past its best, the supermarkets throw out the whole pack when the sell-by date has gone by. Not that sell-by dates have any relevance to the useability of the food; they are there only to keep the displays looking fresh.
That is a long-time grouse. I’ve never been happy about it and much prefer to shop at the greengrocery …of which we now have none at all…or the market…which is no longer much good around here. The supermarkets are cheaper and their food is all clean and shiny, nicely packed in the ubiquitous plastic, and apparently no-one wants to wash or peel food any more. And who brought in that idea? The supermarkets.
But I digress.
The thing that set me steaming was the plastic pot in which, apparently, all soft fruits are now sold. They have used them for years for mushrooms and strawberries. I can understand that. Mushrooms are what they are… strawberries are always pot luck unless you can taste them first, although you can, at least, see when they are ripe. Not so with apricots. Or peaches, nectarines and plums.
The apricots, for which I’d had the sudden craving, came packed in a strawberry-type punnet, with a sealed plastic lid. On further investigation, I found that all the stone-fruit did so. There is thus no way at all you can check if they are ripe or still iron-hard teeth-breakers.
I can understand that the supermarket finds this better as it prevents a certain amount of wastage to bruising, and gets both punter and punnet through the self-service checkouts far quicker, thus saving money on wages too. Even though the punnets that remain unsold past their sell-by dates will be thrown out anyway, regardless of ripeness or otherwise and completely ignoring the fact that we, the customers, are paying for that process.
Well, me, this customer, does not wish to be charged for unnecessary plastics or economic waste. All I wanted was a couple of apricots that I knew were ripe.
What really gets to me though is the way that the food giants are divorcing us from our food. We are dictated to at every turn and forced, through lack of choice, to accept what we are given as the norm. I want to be involved with my food enough to know what I am eating. I would like our children and grandchildren to realise that a steak is a slice of cow, and that it doesn’t come out of some magic machine neatly packed in plastic. I want to be grateful for what I eat, recognising that, lettuce or lamb, my food once had a life of its own, even if that life was different from mine. And I don’t want to encourage food waste when so many go hungry.
It is a matter of respect.
And that, it seems, is something the supermarkets do not have in stock.
Sue Vincent's Daily Echo 
Is the supermarket open then? Might go round – something to do….
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If it isn’t Christmas Day, they are.
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Yeah I went and it was the same as normal 😦
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Yep, nightmare…
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indeed
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For me, there is nothing better than walking to our garden and picking fresh produce. I love it!
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I don’t have anything much growing in the new garden yet, but I will…
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I hear you, Sue. All the plastic wrapping infuriates me. I hate not being able to feel and smell the fruit and veg I might buy. They even shrink wrap turnips! I mean, a turnip is not a vegetable which bruises easily no matter how many people handle it. And the hypocrisy is staggering. The government wants to reduce the amount of plastic in our landfills so slap a 5p charge on a plastic carrier bag, which the supermarkets maintain goes to charity, but fail to do anything to stop the mania for wrapping all the produce in plastic. I would still wash my fruit and veg however it is packaged. We’re lucky to still have a greengrocer in our town. I also object to things being packaged for a family of four – we are two people. And being told the fresh orange juice must be consumed within a certain number of days after opening. I’m the only one who drinks it. The bottle contains five portions so that’s one a day BUT says I must drink it within three days! I think I’ll write to the manufacturer and ask what exactly is going to happen to the orange juice on day four!
Oooh, you’ve set me off and I should be working.
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Turnips, like bananas, onions, potatoes… not only would we wash them but they are already perfectly packaged by nature and need peeling… why waste money by wrapping them in plastic and polystyrene? Grrr..
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Well said Sue!
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The supermarkets here still sell fruit individually, and let you touch them. Yes, if you can buy pre-bagged, but I rarely do. Same with many vegetables (not carrots). I hope the trend doesn’t catch on here! If so, I guess I’ll have to drive the extra miles and spend the extra money to buy at the organic markets.
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Some vegetables and friut are still sold individually, but not enough here these days. The markets have been badly hit by the price and convenience… let alone the farmers…
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I am now grateful that my supermarket has not lowered itself to denying me the right to feel the fruit. We are descended from innumerable generations of fruit eaters and personal examination for ripeness and freshness is in our DNA. So sorry you have been betrayed.
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It does rather feel that way Bob. I now own eight unripe apricots too…
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Hah! I’ve often wondered about their definition of ripe. I don’t know when I last bought apricots in supermarket – they were always like stones.
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Well, I have some in ripening with the bananas…though I may have to wait a week or two 😉
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Reblogged this on cabbagesandkings524 and commented:
Sue has been betrayed by her grocer.
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The thought of shrink-wrapped fruit and vegies horrifies me as much as seeing pre-sliced mushrooms and chopped coleslaw. Our supermarket still supplies a paper bag for storing mushrooms correctly. We can buy unwashed spuds if we want and prod most of our fruit. Farmers’ markets are becoming popular in our area (Victoria, Australia) 🙂
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Unwashed spuds? I haven’t seen those for many years here. I honestly think we are encouraging eople to become over-finicky about food.
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Some of the plastic used is probably that stuff prolonging freshness of food. I buy a lot of frozen mixed vegies – figuring they are will be more nutritious than the ones languishing in my crisper for a week.
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I don’t have a freezer for frozen stuff…and nowhere to put one, so I buy fresh. But I agree, yo are more likely to get the full benefit of the veg when it is frozen.
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We just bought a small freezer so we can take better advantage of specials in the frozen section. My fridge freezer is always too full and I hate passing up half-price frozen fish! My plan is to only shop weekly, once we are no longer in town every other day for work.
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I work seven days a week in town, so that won’t happen around here for a while, sadly!
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I share this grouse in spades. Now living on my own for the first time in 20 years, I’m getting so angry about it, I might just explode. We’re discriminated against if we live on our own and/or are disabled. I’m furious about the minimum purchase for home delivery which is what I have to do until I can see and drive a car again. So much waste. Mind you, I was able to buy 1 baking potato from Sainsbury’s in yesterday’s delivery. The trouble with that was that I obviously clicked the wrong button and received 1 new potato (very small). It made me laugh but oh boy. Luckily, we do have a greengrocer’s here but I can’t always get up to the village in my mob scooter, particularly in the rain. Yours in deep empathy!
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Nick had one small vegetable delivered too… we laughed, but only because I could go and get what he needed. With so many people living alone, especially older people on pensions and tight budgets, having to buy in bulk is not always an option and I know that I very often eat badly rather than buy what will be wasted.
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I wrote a huge screed because it’s a personal bete noir. Perhaps it’s got caught in spam! I don’t think I can remember enough or have the energy to do it again! Suffice to say, I’m with you all the way!
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Found it, Sarah.
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I know exactly what you mean. We had similar problems on the boat, no space, and way of buying small portions/single meal sizes. I got round the meat OK but fruit was another matter. Bananas tend to go stringy despite being green, and punnets of plums had at least one over ripe one which was turning the rest. Our larger supermarket still sells some fruit and veg loose, so I can pick my own. It may work out a bit more expensive than the pre packed stuff, but if I don’t have to throw half of it away, it pays for itself. Looking forward to buying in bulk and freezing it again. As for apricots, although they equate to one syn each, I buy the dried variety.
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I love dried apricots.. and dates…and try not to buy them as they go straight to the hips 😉
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Fresh and frozen fruit is all free, but tinned and dried attract syns with SW.
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I’m not with any programme, but the sugar content is so much igher in dried.
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I know, which is why I have to be careful with apricots if I have them because I could eat a whole bag in one sitting!
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Me too. Which is why I seldom buy them 🙂
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I agree with you, Sue. It is a terrible thing that there is so much waste in a world where there would be enough to go around if our food was handled better. I also don’t like the packaging as that too creates waste and problems for mankind. It is all about greed and money.
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We seem to be moving further away from common sense every day.
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Supermarket abuse of fruit and veg is a pet hate of mine – so much so that it has inspired my current WIP!
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Any time you would like to come over and talk abut that in a guest post, you are welcome, Annabelle.
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Thank you! I will definitely bear that in mind. 🙂
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You would be most welcome 🙂
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Agreed. This whole post is spot on. I absolutely love that last paragraph. “I want to be grateful for what I eat, recognising that, lettuce or lamb, my food once had a life of its own, even if that life was different from mine. And I don’t want to encourage food waste when so many go hungry.” ❤️
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Thanks, Sarah. I feel rather strongly about this.
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It’s really expensive buying for one and I agree about the packaging. Luckily here (SA) we can still get loose fruits and vegetables, and so can choose our own amounts and freshness, but the over-packaged samples are creeping in.
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It does seem as though the service element of the food industry is being ditched ever more forcibly in favour of profit.
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Absolutely.
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Wow. All that packaging is ridiculous (and underhanded given that you don’t know what’s hiding at the bottom). Perhaps if the environmental laws were tougher and they had to take back all that packaging, they would stop.
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Get them to dispose of it? At their cost? I like that idea…
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Oh! I do agree, the supermarket chains, over wrap our produce using too much plastic and cardboard! They also add extra sugar and additives to our food making food unhealthy!
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I prefer to eat and cook fresh, where possible…that way I have some chance of knowing what I eat, but they don’t always make that easy either!
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No I know it’s the Hidden additives that get us !
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True.
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Packaging is a pain and I hear your indignation as a single eater being ignored. Your post makes me grateful that we can still buy bulk fruit for the most part. Plus during the summer months there are many local farms that offer fresh produce – how I appreciate them!
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We have very few small sellers in this area, apart from the occasional coooperative Farm Shop and they tend to be miles away and expensive. You try to do the right things by buying local and reducing plastics and waste, but the big guys don’t make it easy.
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That is so true. Agribusiness in the US is monstrous! I’m lucky to live in a little farming valley where farmers are supported by the local consumers.
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There is little of that kind of small farming in my area any more…again, the supermarkets have a lot to answer for.
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I agree with your assessment of the wastefulness of that practice. It not only wastes plastic but food. And consumers get very irate when most of what’s in the bottom of those small bins is either too ripe, damaged, or not ripe enough..
The grocery stores where I live have fruit where you can pick out one at a time.There are areas of the produce department that offer pre-packaged for people who want to buy in bulk. Every check out counter has a scale built into it. It seems to make more sense doing it that way.
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The scales and most vegetables re the same here, but the attack on choice bothers me most.
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Reblogged this on Anita Dawes & Jaye Marie.
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Respect is obviously not a saleable commodity or something most people even recognise anymore. Sad place, our planet…
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No…I won’t go with that. It is only a small portion of humanity that causes that sadness 😉
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I wonder if the plastic-wrapping of everything appears only in the UK. In the States (at least where I live in the Midwest), you can buy fruit or vegetables by the piece and feel them.
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No doubt you still can here too, but not so much in the supermarkets. and we have few small shops any more.
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I hate the fact that greengrocers are now a thing of the past. We still had one up till about 10 years ago and Tara and I would go shopping for Mum with her wicker basket and come home with wonderful things because you could see, smell and buy just one if you wanted. Brown paper bags, not a plastic wrap in sight. We are going backward instead of forwards, Sue. xxx
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I agree, Adele, and very much miss shopping in small, independent shops or a decent market. xx
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I hear you, Sue. My poor husband has to listen to that same rant every time I come back from the grocery.
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It really does get frustrating..
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Brilliant post Sue. You’re so right. It seems many choices in life that used to be our own have gone to the wayside and the almighty dollar (pound) is behind every decision. 🙂 xx
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That’s the bottom line, DEbby… and I thought that in retail, the customer was always right…
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Ya, that’s old school thinking now isn’t it? 😦
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Sometimes the old ones are the best 😉
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You can say that again. 🙂
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Heh 😉
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It’s just a business, Sue, only a business. Grocers no doubt just think in marketing terms. It’s a shame, though. —- Suzanne
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I know…but the longer term implications of losing sight of our food-sources worry me.
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Oh I can undersstand where you are coming from here, Sue. I also like apricots and often have them for a lunchtime snack along with other fruits like plums, grapes and occasionally satsumas. Every day is a surprise as I never know whether the fruit is going to be juicy and sweet or sharp enough to cut your tongue on!
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I love fruit and was so disappointed by the tasteless woodiness of these apricots 😦
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They sound very unappetising.
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They were. 😦
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