Broccoli head from Spain priced 20p in supermarket.

[mudsticks]

@Pat "5mph"

I recall you saying that you would be interested to join in a discussion about food production, availability, sourcing, and pricing if one was started in

"The Other Place".

I'm reminded that that did already happen some time back ...

The thread is called

"The Economics of Staying Fed"

Cheers

 

[simongt]

make is lemon or orange curd. I love both, but just don't eat enough to make it worthwhile

About forty five years ago my then wife did some home made lemon curd. Whilst it tasted much better than the shop bought variety, she'd made so much that I was having on toast at brekky time for several weeks - !

 

[Reynard]

About forty five years ago my then wife did some home made lemon curd. Whilst it tasted much better than the shop bought variety, she'd made so much that I was having on toast at brekky time for several weeks - !

This is exactly why I don't really make it. And at my height, being wider than tall is not a terribly good look...

 

[gbb]

I meant the ones @mudsticks says you can get from the farm unwaxed, to make your curd, along with the free range eggs

Working for a large importer, they simply order unwaxed according to need /projected orders with the supermarkets. Unwaxed lemons are regularly packed but in 20 years, I don't remember seeing unwaxed oranges being packed, but then, i suppose the supermarkets are not interested in supplying to people that want to make marmalade etc. Unwaxed lemons and limes are usually aimed at the drinkers.

I have some photos somewhere of the interior of a packhouse I worked in for a short stint in Spain, its a maze of conveyors, sorters, sizes etc etc, all very automated. Waxing is one of the first parts of the process,followed by driers then graders etc. I will try to dig some out for the sake of interest.

 

[gbb]

Working for a large importer, they simply order unwaxed according to need /projected orders with the supermarkets. Unwaxed lemons are regularly packed but in 20 years, I don't remember seeing unwaxed oranges being packed, but then, i suppose the supermarkets are not interested in supplying to people that want to make marmalade etc. Unwaxed lemons and limes are usually aimed at the drinkers.

I have some photos somewhere of the interior of a packhouse I worked in for a short stint in Spain, its a maze of conveyors, sorters, sizes etc etc, all very automated. Waxing is one of the first parts of the process,followed by driers then graders etc. I will try to dig some out for the sake of interest.

Not THAT interesting but below is a small section of various parts of a fruit factory in Spain, if you covered the whole factory there'd probably be 4 times more photos.
Just a maze of conveyors, packing machines etc etc etc.
Where these guys really win the game is they own the fields, the product, it's control and movement from the field to the supermarket. This is the reality of our supply chain now, only the biggest survive, constantly driving out the competition. When these photos were taken, the independant packhouse i used to work for then was small fry but very successful. I don't think there are any small independants left in our sector.
It might partly explain how we got those heads of broccoli for 20p...scale of economy