Re: Cucumber News
 

Neither do I Hazlenut. Neither do I.

One time I will remember to take my life in my hands and stop on our Route60 to take photo evidence of the ma-hoossive greenhouses hereabouts all housing mythical salad items........for export.

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Which seems to translate as we are paying the going rate or why export?

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Now you have all planted your cucumbers in garden tubs or the flower garden I thought this would fascinate you (to cope with the imminent glut)

SO MUCH MORE THAN A CUCUMBER

Uses for your cucumbers:
-Rubbing a cucumber slice over your bathroom mirror eliminates the fogging up.
-Place a few slices in a small aluminium pie tin to repel bugs and slugs. Apparently the cucumber and aluminium give off a scent that makes pests flee the area.
-Fight the afternoon or evening snack craving by eating cucumber. They are a good energy restorer and beat that coffee or tea caffeine fix, lasting for several hours.
-Avoid a hangover or headache by eating a few slices before going to bed. The sugar, B vitamins and electrolytes replenish the nutrients your body needs.
-Give your shoes a quick polish with a slice of cucumber. Provides a great shine that also repels water.
-Fix a squeaky hinge by rubbing it with a cucumber slice.
-Eliminate bad breath by pressing a slice of cucumber to the roof of your mouth for 30 seconds.
-Clean taps, sinks and stainless steel with a slice of cucumber. Apparently it even removes tarnish and leaves no streaks.
-Run the outside of a cucumber over pen, crayon or marker writing. It will slowly remove those adorable scribbles made by kids on your walls.

Re: Cucumber News
 

Or paying an inflated rate as there are no import costs. One of the things that might inflate the prices would be heating costs.

I'm not planting until the frosts have gone. My glass house is not heated.

Good tips for cucumber use. Not a naughty suggestion among them. :sneaky:

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All this talk about cucumbers made me wonder about polytunnels.

A quick search suggests that such things are available in NZ, however it wouldn't take much space to bring a new one across.

Anyone here using a polytunnel to grow cucumbers (or even the dreaded tomato)?

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Depends where you intend to live (and the space you have). Up north (Kerikeri) you dont really need one. My tomato/cucumber plants went in the garden a few weeks ago and are growing fine - along with the lettuce/beans/silverbeet. A few plants will meet most couples needs so a proper polytunnel would be overkill - down south a coldframe or a cheapo small pvc m² greenhouse with a heating pad or cable would bring your plants along nicely.

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I was looking to extend the season a bit at both ends; perhaps even make my fortune selling midwinter cucumbers.:p

Not sure where we are heading at the moment, apart from probably North Island probably no further south than Tauranga.

Our short term planning is on hold at the moment after it finally sank in that if we get all the paperwork done by around October 2017 we don't actually HAVE to move until early 2020 (after nipping across a.s.ap in 2017 to activate our visas).

So our future is a bit uncertain and relies on things like exchange rates and how long our ageing cats survive. They are 20 years old this year and vary between looking as though they won't last the week out and looking good for another 5 years.

Anyway, this doesn't stop us thinking about what we might like to do, and what to bring with us.:cool:

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I still monitor cucumber prices daily down here in Dunedin, my old mum says it's good to have a hobby. Keeps me out of mischief.

It's about 3 months ago since Cucumbers hit their eye watering peak of $5.99 each, now they're down to a slightly less unaffordable $3.29, still way outside of the budget of the Barnsleymat household. When I see them sat on the Countdown shelf shimmering over in the salad section I sometimes just stand and stare at them, very similar to when I see one of those huge curved TV's in the window of Harvey Normans. Like the curved TV's they look look so tempting but sadly out of reach to a commoner like me.

When I leave these shores I promise not to just leave Cucumber News to die, I plan to take it international.

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I'm paying under $2 for cucumbers here in the wops of Canterbury ... you're being well ripped off in Dunedin.

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Cucumbers were $2.49 each at my usual supermarket in Auckland last weekend so I had started to think that I might treat myself to two of them next weekend.

I was in there today though and the price was back up to $3.29 each so the idea of having two cucumbers remains a pipe-dream.

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I had to go and ask Mr Google if there was any significance in dreaming about cucumbers.

Apparently;

To see of eating a cucumber in your dream indicates that by paying your long term debt as soon as possible, you will reach relief with a small effort in a shorter time.

To see a fresh cucumber in a dream signifies debt which will be paid quickly. If you see a soft cucumber in your dream, it refers to debt which will be paid by having trouble. :rofl:

Dream Meaning of Cucumber | Dream Interpretation - DreamInterpretation.co

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We're both being ripped off but us in Dunedin are being ripped off much more.

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Yup, still only 42p in Tescos in the middle of October.

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We've grown them in the past in the greenhouse, I've already got my tomato and chilli plants on the go so I might just stick a few cucumber plants in next weekend. They're not hard to grow. We'll be awash with salad stuff by the end of summer.
I've also got my japanese radishes and other salad and veg crops planted or sown in the garden cos I love a bit of fresh crunchy stuff with my meals.

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You will know that you are in trouble when they start putting security tags on the cucumbers.

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I've been checking cucumber prices on our travels, here are my findings.

Australia (Aldi) AUS$1
Australia (Coles) AUS$2
Hong Kong (M&S) £1.50 - imported from Spain
Hong Kong (Supermarket) £2
UK (Asda) 42p

Dunedin whopping NZ$5.99 (£3.43) is going to take some beating.

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Countdown today $2.79 or two for $5 so your figures are incorrect. Do you work for the polling industry :-)

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$5.99 was the highest price and the lowest we saw before leaving Dunedin was $3.29.

For a cucumber!!!!!! One bloody cucumber.

Comes to something when a notoriously over priced British shop in a notoriously expensive city with possibly the highest rents in the world can fly cucumbers over from Spain and still have them cheaper than NZ cucumbers in NZ.

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So do you always go to the extreme when exaggerating differences - if Harrods sells cucumbers bet they are £5 each :-)

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$3.29 is the cheapest cucumbers I saw before leaving Dunedin, I'm not sure what you want me to report. I can lie if you want but then Cucumber News loses it's reputation of being the number one place to get the latest news on Cucumbers.

It's almost winter here in Yorkshire and cucumbers are £0.42 and in the winter in Dunedin they're priced at $5.99 (£3.42). That's over 8 times more expensive.

Don't get me started on peppers.......

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:lol: Karma for making me laugh this non-shaky morning.
I loves you I does.

Cue the defenders of the NZ cucumber prices. :eek:

You do know they will be considered almost 'in season' as it's nearly summer now ( except for the weather which is pants ) so we should consider ourselves lucky they've gone down a couple of dollars .

Oh well. Soon the slightly squishy ones that aren't selling coz of the price will be 2 for a $5 :flypig:

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I've worked in one of those massive greenhouses that grow commercially in the past and they're heated for a big part of the year at least on the South Island. Every year everything is pulled out and replanted. The one I worked in was growing tomatoes and towards the end of a growing season the tomatoes get smaller and the vines get more and more disease ridden so the quality isn't really what they consider supermarket standard. There's about 8 weeks where the new plants are replanted and then constantly pruned and fixed with clips onto wires suspended from the ceiling and then picking begins again of the fruit but it doesn't matter how much you heat the glasshouses as sometimes there's just not enough sunlight to make the plants produce all year long and I imagine the same would go for cucumbers.
So what I'm saying is maybe that's why cucumbers are more expensive here and I wouldn't really want to buy a cucumber flown in from another country like they do in the UK as there's a massive carbon footprint.
Just one of the many useless pieces of information I have going around in my head.

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Reckon you're being ripped off in Oz bro - Raeward Marshlands today!

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I'd happily buy a freighted in cucumber it was half the price. There's a carbon footprint on SI cucumber grown in a big greenhouse too. I don't see a problem with year round sourcing, some things will never be grown in NZ or the UK like bananas no matter how much global warming there is.
Also Spain is as near to the UK and nearer, than most parts of Australia is to NZ.

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Breaking News.

Aldi cucumbers are 39p.

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2 telegraph cucumbers for $2.49 in New World, Whangaparaoa. I only wanted one :unsure:

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:eek::eek:

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My Wife is in Auckland at the moment and we were comparing some prices and at the moment she saw 3 Avocados (large) for $4 where as tescos were doing 1 large for £1 so cheaper in NZ ....wow! god job I like Avocados :lol:

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Like most things here you will find relatively cheap in season but heaven forbid if you find yourself wanting an avocado in middle of winter; you'll either be paying $5 each or trying to source some black market contraband. :rofl:

Sky high avocado prices drive black market | Stuff.co.nz

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Or for Xmas, strawberries and avocados skyrocket in price approx the week leading up to Xmas day.

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I know I'm going to sound like a right old bore but I don't think we should see 39p cucumbers as a good thing, no more than $6 ones! I don't want food to be produced as cheaply as possible, just a fair price. I also think it's sensible that in a small geographically isolated country fresh produce is seasonally priced.

Having said that, I am loving the greater selection of fruit and vegetables (among other groceries) for lower cost here in Oz. It tickles me to buy "locally grown" pineapples, figs, mangos etc from the Farmer's Market. Can't afford the feijoas though :( :( :(

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Agree - but if you lived in Kerikeri you could add persimmons, kiwifruit, tamarillos, passionfruit..... and even cheap feijoas and avocados - unfortunately not pineapples though :-(

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Although it is stunningly beautiful and has a lovely cast-away feel, Northland has never appealed to me, other than as a tourist destination, because it rains more than I care for, floods more than I care for, has more tourists in summer than I care for, is more humid in summer, is too parochial, and to get anywhere else in NZ you have to go through Auckland.

I'd love the cheap feijoas though!

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Don't do that . It is misleading. For one thing the UK is going into winter and NZ is hopefully approaching summer. I have to say that $1.75 for an avocado at the end of a UK autumn is a rather good price.

They will be shortly virtually giving away avocados here as they don't keep ,
whereas a few weeks ago they were many $$ each and that drove an illicit black market.

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We have a passion fruit vine growing against the house .... I know! in the wops of Canterbury on very free draining land!
I don't know even when I bought it, it must have either been given to me or I bought it as a mystery plant from a market or something.
When it first produced fruit I didn't know what they were, I guessed they were kiwi fruit but after feeding most of them to the goats I realised once ripened they were passionfruit!
The thing fruits prolifically and the flowers are gorgeous :thumbsup:

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99c huge healthy cucumber specimens at Pak n Save Papamoa... far better looking / tasting than the Aldi 39/49p hobbies... We are embracing the seasonal thing and trying not lament the off season prices four/five months in advance.

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Seems the cucumbers around here must have peaked too early and gone back into hibernation; back to $1.50 each in our Pak n Save today.

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Not unlike the sun we saw last week that has gone back into hiding these past few days, I know cucumbers are a seasonal beast but if they are sticking to the proverbial '4 seasons in one day' then cucumber lovers all over NZ are in big trouble... they will be 99c at 9am $2.50 at lunch time $5 between 2pm and 3pm and back to 99c by dinner time :rofl:

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Still $4.49 at my local 4 square this morning

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I reckon that's how it must work - they were 2 for $2 on Friday evening in the same shop and now $1.99 each or 2 for $3.