donki

one of my biggest shocks about living in New Zealand was the fact you have to seasonally shop ie one week tomatoes can be $2.00 a kilo the next week $12.00 a kilo when at the same time you can buy rump steak for $7.00 a kilo blah blah blah

teeym

I can honestly say that this is one of the things I'm looking forward to the most. I love cooking up stuff with what is available (last nights' chilli and cauliflower ratatouille concocted from the markets' bargain section was pretty hardcore ) and having a pot luck on veggies will encourage me to get a second freezer for storing soups and the like!

I'm hoping that rump steak is seasonal too!

Stormer999

Couldn't agree more The availability of mass market produced supermarket sized, coloured, near frozen imported foodstuffs give us almost flavourless and tasteless choice. So nice in the growing months to be able to stop at roadside fruit and veg stands and buy REAL food for a change.
People rant about food costs in England....yes cheap...quality yuck!

Justcol

not when a cucumber gets up to $6 you wont be

Super markets charge big bucks for veggies but they are
so much cheaper if you buy from the local fruit and veg store

Jan n Neil

I have given up trying to work out the pricing structure at the main supermarkets, they just seem to charge what they want when they want they will put 5 bux on something for a week then reduce it by 3 and say it,s on sale

Neil

mickey_d

You can do that there, Farm Shops, Markets ect. You also get the 'A' grade NZ fruit, we get 'B' & 'C'

BEVS

Ditto the above exactly.

teeym

Yes you can, but go to our local farmers market and NZ$6 for a cucumber won't seem a million miles away. Then you have to take into account that, if you are using the grading system, pretty much every British tomato I've had for a long time tastes like grade 'A' Evian.

BEVS

I grew my own toms and cucumbers in the UK. I also grew my own veg . Not on a big scale but I did grow my own & it was just another back garden .
What I do have here are two ducks and two chickens but having said that I could have had a couple of chickens back in the UK. In fact, my neighbour and I did consider colluding for this & were given the go ahead from all sides.. We were not rural . We were in Bournemouth and it was possible as we did it.
My friend back in the UK has her square patch garden ( rental flat) and pitches in for an allotment. She gets great veg and eggs. She isn't rural either. She is Bournemouth

You want to try for fruit and veg here and it is $$ & 2nd grade or less
I don't have a big problem with this but I hadn't seen the like since I was a kid to be honest.
You want fresh stuff here that you can afford and you know is good quality.. grow your own. No messing - grow your own.

Meat ! Be prepared. Be very prepared.

teeym

SWMBO is a massive greenhouse fan - the only thing that stops us growing more is we lack a spot in the garden where we get consistent enough sun for ripening, so our tomatoes tend to become green tomato chutney. That said between about April/May and September you cannot move in our house for courgettes and rhubarb, which seem to flourish.

She's a bit grumpy because this year we have held back on home growing due to house sale, but the bloody rhubarb is just refusing to go away, so crumbles will be on the cards in a few weeks.

Don't think I'd be able to stop her having her own veggie patch if I tried! And my mother bought her a book on how to keep chickens (I didn't realise it was so complicated) for Chrimbo, although that can wait until we've got a place of our own further down the line.

When you say second rate veg - is that in looks or taste? I'm really not bothered about naff looking stuff as long as it tastes good - the bland rot we have to put up with here is probably half the reason so many people live off takeaways!

BEVS

Good grief. It is both of course. Do you think I or we have eyesight or taste problems?

Do not buy F 'n V from NZ supermarkets. Urgh! Don't buy meat either. Yuk !

If you didn't get enough sun for your toms and cucumbers then, sorry, you got your angle of the dangle mucho wrongo.

We always had fresh fruit veg & salad stuff from when we were kids. My parents grew their own . My husbands parents grew their own.
I grew my own. It aint hard.

I used to buy organic packs of stuff in the UK or go to a farmers shop direct.. The stuff was good and quality. There isn't the same thing here. There is no comparison. It is one of my biggest disappointments TBH
That and the fish and seafood , apart from mussels.
The meat here is pumped full of rubbish, I do not buy it. There is no farmers shop.

Chickens are unassuming. Be nice to them and they will be nice to you, It don't matter where they live. Try it where you are.

teeym

I thought it was a sensible question - some people have a thing about looks/taste.

And it you can angle your dangle all you want, but when you have a long narrow back garden and don't fancy cutting your tall hedge down because it provides a nice barrier from the neighbouring car park then your sun time is mucho limitedo. Snappy advice on how to break the laws of physics welcome.

BEVS

Hey my love. We did this already and successfully if you read the post. We talked to the neighbour at the time. Our garden was 12 feet wide and 60 feet long. Surrounded on all sides by houses. Lovely old Victorian houses. But houses all the same. We talked to our neighbours.

I'm not sure what the problem is here. You can buy quality and more importantly , organic farm foods in the UK. Use the farm shops and organic others. They are out there. Support them.

It isn't any different here except you won't get to be so picky. You'll have to take the 2nd grade unless you grow your own & that means meat as well. .

Neither mate.
We get 2nds in the supermarkets. That is what it is. It tastes just that and it is that. Get used to that..
It doesn't taste any different to anything in a UK supermarket. It isn't any more fresh. It certainly isn't better . No where near better. If anything it is below.

It has been one of the big or biggest disappointments of my time here. The reality of the lack of quality of the produce really on offer here.

teeym

No problems - but it's very difficult to talk to your neighbour when it's a public car park if you read the post. On the other side the neighbours are great, but unfortunately due to the angle of the house and garden we don't get much sun from that side. They in turn are hemmed in on their other side by a large hedge to give them shelter from the local pub beer garden. And in a choice between slightly better salads and privacy, we're taking privacy in this case.

Just personally, I don't hold a lot of truck with organic - although I can appreciate why people do. We do use farm shops/farmers markets for meat which is absolutely , but the local shops are pretty limited on veggies and the costs are absolutely stunning.

Cheers - that's what I was really wanting to know - will be taking Colandros' tip and using the local stores where possible!

simonsi

No problem! Once we've worked out how to move the money markets to psych the £ higher we can surely manage a teensy change to earth orbit to sort out your fresh produce

Either that or come up with some glasses that turn green into red...