Yet Another Cycling Forum

Off Topic => The Pub => Food & Drink => Topic started by: Canardly on 03 February, 2017, 10:45:54 am

Title: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Canardly on 03 February, 2017, 10:45:54 am
Tesco are limiting Iceberg lettuces to three a customer due to a 'shortage'. Can't think of the last time I bought three iceberg lettuces at once. Clearly the weather has had an impact on output but are the supermarkets overstating this in order to raise prices? Anyone on the commercial side that can give informed opinion?
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Clare on 03 February, 2017, 10:53:15 am
Morrisons are limiting access to tasteless green footballs iceberg lettuce and they are also limiting broccoli (by which I think they mean calabrese) to three heads per shopper.

As any 'rationing' usually causes panic buying I think it is a ploy by the DoH to get people to eat their greens.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: fuaran on 03 February, 2017, 10:58:31 am
Apparently flooding in parts of Spain, where most of these vegetables are grown.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: chrisbainbridge on 03 February, 2017, 11:10:56 am
Interestingly with Ocado the small 80g bags of spinach are out of stock.  The English big bags are freely available.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Asterix, the former Gaul. on 03 February, 2017, 11:12:29 am
I can't remember a previous occasion when the same happened.  Makes a change from buy two get one free, anyway.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: rafletcher on 03 February, 2017, 11:50:03 am
Well last week our local Tesco had a few English butterheads, and some sweet Gems, plus the (disgusting IMO) Icebergs.  This week there were plenty of USA origin Romaine lettuces, and some Icebergs (also apparently from the USA, 'tho I didn't notice).  No policy posted on purchasing. So, a shortage of the usual Spanish suspects certainly.  Broccoli (Calabrese) was still plentiful.

As Furan says, we import a lot from Murcia (maybe 90%) and they've had a complete growing cycle wiped out by floods and frost. So, a 6 week wait for the next supply coming onstream.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Jaded on 03 February, 2017, 11:53:20 am
Buy one iceberg.

Unwrap it.
Slam it base down on the table.
Amaze those standing alongside you by removing the 'trunk' easily.
Throw the whole lot away.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 03 February, 2017, 11:58:20 am
As any 'rationing' usually causes panic buying I think it is a ploy by the DoH to get people to eat their greens.
;D
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Legs on 03 February, 2017, 12:37:25 pm
Since Brexit, we've been at the back of the European vegetable trading queue.  I'd wager Mrs Merkel sleeps on a large pile of gem lettuce, and detonates high explosives in quarries full of broccoli for fun EVERY WEEKEND.  :o
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: hellymedic on 03 February, 2017, 01:00:28 pm
'Let them eat kale'.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Mr Larrington on 03 February, 2017, 02:24:45 pm
Legs maek me dun a roffle :thumbsup:
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 03 February, 2017, 04:30:02 pm
I couldn't give a shit about the lack of lettuce as it's still winter and iceberg is pointless (in fact, the field in which I grow my fucks is as barren as the field in which they grow lettuce) but I have had to do some trekking about to get aubergines and tomatoes.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: dim on 03 February, 2017, 08:01:31 pm
it's all BS .... they are just checking the reaction to when we finally Brexit (when imported veg and fruit and meat will cost lots more)

iceburg lettuce that is supplied to the UK is not grown in the ground .... it is grown hydroponically or under cover in green houses .... weather has nothing to do with it
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Andrij on 03 February, 2017, 09:13:13 pm
Is there really a vegetable shortage, or is it just a celery cap?
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: rafletcher on 04 February, 2017, 07:22:38 pm


iceburg lettuce that is supplied to the UK is not grown in the ground .... it is grown hydroponically or under cover in green houses .... weather has nothing to do with it

Well maybe in a glorified poly tunnel. And without heating the temperature variation can damage the crop.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: geraldc on 06 February, 2017, 11:54:18 pm
If you have a small business, say a catering business, it's often cheaper to buy your stock from the supermarket than the cash and carry. In a past life, we weren't averse to going in and buying trays of stuff from the supermarkets if it was a big saving, or if they had stock and no one else did.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: LEE on 07 February, 2017, 09:27:12 am
After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Wowbagger on 07 February, 2017, 09:41:43 am
After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.

The tip of the iceberg?
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Cudzoziemiec on 07 February, 2017, 10:05:57 am
Lettuce not get carried away. Growers will respond to the carrot of higher prices and soon we'll be back on an even kale.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: citoyen on 07 February, 2017, 10:30:09 am
'Let them eat kale'.

 ;D
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: madcow on 07 February, 2017, 11:35:46 am
Lettuce not get carried away. Growers will respond to the carrot of higher prices and soon we'll be back on an even kale.

Lettuce pray that the shortages actually start to change the eating habits of the nation.
Noticed that Lidl? are now advertising U.K grown kale  as the calabrese shortage deepens.
Eventually the big supermarkets will shift some production back to U.K. and the consumer will be told that kale and purple sprouting broccoli are better for you and the environment than stuff grown in Iberia and trucked in to the U.K.
I think kale has a pretty high iron content IIRC. It is certainly very tolerant of frost, which calabrese isn't.
We all need to start eating according to the seasons of production . Airfreighting beans from Kenya or Peru is not sustainable.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Pickled Onion on 07 February, 2017, 12:52:16 pm
Is there really a vegetable shortage, or is it just a celery cap?

That is the crunch question.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: caerau on 07 February, 2017, 01:47:16 pm
If you have a small business, say a catering business, it's often cheaper to buy your stock from the supermarket than the cash and carry. In a past life, we weren't averse to going in and buying trays of stuff from the supermarkets if it was a big saving, or if they had stock and no one else did.


This is what the underlying cause (well aside from a lettuce shortage) is from what I heard.  There is a shortage and supermarkets are rationing so that restaurants and such don't just pile in and buy it all at once.


As I pointed out to my wife.  if you stick lettuce seeds in your garden, you will have. lettuce about 3-4 weeks later and lots of it.  It's gardening for kindergarten - they're about the easiest and quickest thing you can grow yourself.
Ah what imagination the nation lacks.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Wowbagger on 07 February, 2017, 04:16:13 pm
Some 25 or 30 years ago we had a large nursery/market garden nearby where we used, occasionally, to buy produce. I used to natter to the owner. He told me that their main source of income every year was their early-season lettuce. They managed to prepare it for the supermarket much earlier than most growers, so they would ask, and get, a high price.

They aren't there any more. Someone built an enormous Tesco on top of it.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: LEE on 07 February, 2017, 04:34:10 pm
After Brexit there may well be shortage of other non-seasonal produce, supplied by EU countries.

In some ways this lettuce shortage could be seen as a small issue, hiding a potentially much larger issue.

To coin a common phrase, it's just the start of something bigger.

It's like the first of many.

The tip of the iceberg?

No.  It isn't like that*


* It is like that... I was just seeing if we could hold out from using the World's most glaring Lettuce-based pun.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 08 February, 2017, 12:54:45 pm

This is what the underlying cause (well aside from a lettuce shortage) is from what I heard.  There is a shortage and supermarkets are rationing so that restaurants and such don't just pile in and buy it all at once.


As I pointed out to my wife.  if you stick lettuce seeds in your garden, you will have. lettuce about 3-4 weeks later and lots of it.  It's gardening for kindergarten - they're about the easiest and quickest thing you can grow yourself.
Ah what imagination the nation lacks.
Many of us have imagination but no gardens.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: caerau on 08 February, 2017, 01:27:26 pm
Many but not all.  They'll grow into a full size lettuce in an old boot or plant pot or whatever too - inside as well as out.  In about 3-4 weeks.


Just saying, eat kale if you like :-)


Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: rafletcher on 08 February, 2017, 01:48:35 pm
Many but not all.  They'll grow into a full size lettuce in an old boot or plant pot or whatever too - inside as well as out.  In about 3-4 weeks.


Not when it's frosty out generally. Winter varieties are tough and bitter.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Eccentrica Gallumbits on 08 February, 2017, 07:15:17 pm
Many but not all.  They'll grow into a full size lettuce in an old boot or plant pot or whatever too - inside as well as out.  In about 3-4 weeks.


Just saying, eat kale if you like :-)
I love kale.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: campagman on 08 February, 2017, 07:44:52 pm
Surely we should be eating to the season. (http://www.eattheseasons.co.uk/february.php)
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: madcow on 08 February, 2017, 09:12:00 pm
Lettuce pray that the shortages actually start to change the eating habits of the nation.
Noticed that Lidl? are now advertising U.K grown kale  as the calabrese shortage deepens.
Eventually the big supermarkets will shift some production back to U.K. and the consumer will be told that kale and purple sprouting broccoli are better for you and the environment than stuff grown in Iberia and trucked in to the U.K.
I think kale has a pretty high iron content IIRC. It is certainly very tolerant of frost, which calabrese isn't.
We all need to start eating according to the seasons of production . Airfreighting beans from Kenya or Peru is not sustainable.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: caerau on 08 February, 2017, 11:01:15 pm
Season doesn't matter if you grow it inside.  FFS I'm just saying it's piss easy to grow *anywhere* if you really miss it.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Gattopardo on 09 February, 2017, 10:37:31 am
The super soar away scum had an article that spain had over flowing shelves of the green stuff yet we are being rationed.....

Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: caerau on 09 February, 2017, 11:48:01 am
Spain has never had it so good  ::-)
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: Gattopardo on 09 February, 2017, 12:05:27 pm
If we are having rationing should everyone be happy...war spirit and all that.

Also what else are we going to leave in the bottom of the vegetable crisper to turn in to something like mush?
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: citoyen on 09 February, 2017, 04:53:45 pm
In other news: The Sun complains that the Arctic Circle is hogging all the snow.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: rafletcher on 16 February, 2017, 05:31:38 pm
Whatever they were, they seem to be over now, plenty of sweet gem lettuce from Spain in the local Tesco last evening.
Title: Re: Shortages or less plentiful?
Post by: eddyslines on 17 February, 2017, 10:20:52 am
Plenty of courgettes in Barcelona market today. Perhaps they're keeping them all to show us what it will be like post Brexit

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk