Thanks; I think the better sounding option is to dry them for future use in yoghurts and perhaps flapjacks if I allow myself to get back on these as the temperature and no doubt mood drops later in the year
if you need any preserving recipes / methods, just give me a yell.
FWIW while pricey I've always considered their own-brand stuff decent value as the quality is usually very good.
Because I don't consider the ride a chore I hit my local maybe 2-3 times a week during the last two hours of opening to trawl for reduced items. Today was pretty good - including a tub of coleslaw (£0.60 down from £3.00), two punnets of blueberries (£1.30ea down from £2.80), 250g of sliced turkey from the deli counter (about £0.70/100g down from around £3), also some mini pork pies and and olive bread thing for the old dear at about 1/3rds normal price.
On top of that there are the usual rolling promos so if you're buying long(ish) life stuff (like cheese, yoghurt etc) you can stockpile it when it's cheaper. I also respect Waitrose more for at least attempting to promote some degree of ethics in their supply chain while continuing to offer promos to regular punters, unlike most others who now only do meaningful offers if you have one of their scummy "loyalty" cards.
By no. of ingredients I reckon typically 50-100% of my lunch salads were bought at less than retail; be that from Waitrose, M&S or the local Co-Op; I'm resisting the urge to quantify this exactly with a spreadsheet
Ah. A fellow Yellow Stickerer! I had good pickings in Waitrose here in Ely on Tuesday. A tray of organic lamb mince marked down from £7.59 to £2.59. Half got frozen, the other half was turned into lamb koftas for yesterday's supper. After Madam Lexi got her share, of course. Also a tray of five cooked jerk chicken thighs marked down from £4.25 to £1.49 (one thigh made a very nice chicken salad filling for a couple of wraps this evening), a packet of mange tout for 59p, four sub rolls for 69p and a pack with four pains au chocolat for 89p. That was after picking up 2kg of yellow lentils / split peas for £2.50 and a 5kg sack of Thai jasmine rice for £5.60 on YS in Tesco earlier in the afternoon.
Besides, Waitrose here is now the only place in town that has a wet fish counter other than the van that turns up on the market on a Thursday. The latter is spendy and doesn't have much choice. If you're not fussy, Waitrose always has some good bargains on fish towards the end of the day.
I don't want to be too judgemental of the apple-snaffling family as people round here generally seem pretty sound and switched on - I see quite a few houses with fruit or other free stuff outside; suggesting that at least some folk care about helping others out and minimising wastage.
On top of that it seems the trays I put out never last more than a day (so there's clearly demand from people wishing to use them) while the only blackberries I see wasted on the floor seem to be from canes too high to reach; while I've seen a lot of people out picking.
Despite being on the edge of a city it seems that some decent connection to nature still exists
Oddly, you don't see too many folks out picking blackberries here outside of places easily accessible by car - and I live right out in the countryside. I'm lucky though, as there's a stand of canes just across the road from me. North-facing, so not particularly sweet, but the fruit are very big, so suspect an escaped garden cultivar rather than the pure wild brambles. That said, there's loads of good places to pick out here, so I'm spoiled for choice.
The village where I live also has a community orchard, which is a lovely resource. It's not without its problems though, as there is a lot of wastage of fruit, but then there's also the issue of people coming from outside the parish with ladders and crates and stripping the trees. I do avail myself of the fruit, but largely concentrate on the fruit that most won't pick so that it *doesn't* get wasted.
Mind you, I make jams, jellies, chutneys etc (I'm a champion preserve maker!), as well as turning stuff into puddings, pies and crumbles. Oh, and I'm rather partial to apple fritters!
Foraging is one of my favourite things to do at this time of year.
I will freeze blackberries so that I can make jam once my stored cooking apples (I also have a big bramley tree in my garden) start looking a bit tired.
