Tomato Tomato

 Ho hum here we go again we all going to starve due to the tomato peppers and cucumber shortage , really , i cant think of a less seasonal fruit or veg for February . Even had the food pantry sending an email apology for their lack of fruit and veg . Once again the press is creating artificial images of huge shortages . I even managed to get hoards of hatred for posting on a forum that all you need is a bottle of £1 multivitamins if youre that deprived of vitamins , apparently i have an evil Tory mentality ? I noticed today the panic buying of veg in general has started  before payday weekend , so their will be yet more pictures of empty supermarkets, but this will allow them to hide a huge price hike not that the farmers will see it . I should think supermarket profits will be interesting this year . Out of curiosity how many are buying lots of salad at this time of year ? Is it just vegans getting a sweat on ? Or are most of us still creating soup and casseroles from seasonal veg ?

Heron had plenty of fruit and veg this morning admittedly no tomatoes cucumbers or peppers but i came away with my usual strange haul of frozen stuff , couple of big bags of bread crumbed  white fish broken fillets a whole £1,50 a tray , most of the Excel range has gone up but what hasnt, theres still odd gems to be had and they will keep us going for weeks . Nearly bought a big bag of Calamari in error i thought they were battered onion rings...lol instead i got a bag of ready cooked sausages , saves having to brown them for sausage casserole, due to electric prices i mostly use the microwave or slow cooker these days . Its weeks like this when i realise what a privilidge it is to have fruit and veg in the garden . Still got a load of leeks that i will pop in the freezer before they go to seed  though something ate the last of the celery ? bit baffling never had that happen before . tons of stuff in the freezer . I even managed to find some lemons for his pancakes yesterday 

Whats Going On

 Been out today partner at dentist did a wee bit of an Asda shop nearly fainted  at the price but id got a few bits of yellow sticker meat that was hidden under the usual mountain of vegan offerings , why has meat become so expensive ? even in the scale of other price rises its not looking good , we really can only just afford it . Popped some bits in the food bank hopper they keep asking for stuff that doesnt need cooking , so i added a load of little jars of spread  of one sort and another , then bulked it up with various tinned soups that were on offer . 

Anyway i had to pop into the local coop to post a parcel , there was a gang of the young new Romanians who appear each spring to work for one of the big farming estates , not much English but always nice polite kids . Anyway they were being stalked by the Coop staff and there was much muttering about them from the older generation then i realised these moaning old gits are probably younger than me !!! what is happening to people these days ?

But the one that had me spitting was i got up this morning?  I had Katy Hopkins in my feeds with a video about the dreadful hotels of foreigners at Skegness , what shitty facebook algorithm thought i would be wanting to see that vile harpy stirring trouble?  is it because im of the age that should be outraged at foreigners everywhere ?  Shes blocked now but i cant imagine how they thought i would want to see her !!!

Garden Budget

 So the munchkin and i popped in to Pennell's the very large very expensive garden center while his teachers were on strike these last week  , i was looking for last years price potting compost before the silly season and ive not been in their since it went upmarket with lots of little shops a huge restaurant and totally scary prices , theyre on a winner really 90% of what they sell is dead in a year so they say so you will keep coming back , i wandered round a bit looking for the plant graveyard every big garden has one all the stuff that doesnt look pretty this time of year and the stuff they will replace by Easter weekend , Theyre were bargains, big dead looking chrysanthemums reduced from 16.99 to 2.00 but if you looked closely many were already shooting from the base , huge potted pinks reduced from 10 and 12 pounds to 2 just need splitting and repotting . Lots of stuff was as dead as a doornail , but among them were some real bargains.  i will try to visit a few more garden places the next couple of weeks and of course B&Q home of the plant graveyard . i buy a lot of plants from the boot sales once they start at the end of March . 

Bargain of the week comes from Wilkos, i ordered some potato sets just the wee 5 packs and a new propagator top because id smashed mine ...more expense lol..Anyway they turned up the next day in a big box which i thought was strange and they had sent me two big bags of potato sets , dozens of them, the invoice said they were 5 packs so someone got it wrong and i shant complain it just means we will have an awful lot of spuds this year or the kids will. 

next strange question does anyone have a walnut tree thats cast a seedling or has nuts i can plant , the ones in the shops are not usually English Walnuts 

Poor 2023

 How tactless can MPs and the Royals get by showing up for photo opportunities at foodbanks and food pantries? It seems that every day theres pictures in the press of them , i just dont understand token support , have the Royals offered a few jewels out of their vault to donate?  30p Lee Anderson MP  running cooking courses maybe?

Anyway i thought today id scare readers away and mention the benefits system, but then i looked at the government website and found out that its so complex that its no wonder that those who qualify have no idea what they should be getting . The Government likes to perpetrate the myth that these payments are so generous that everybody is trying to scrounge them , so how come billions remain unclaimed sat in government coffers ? Then theres the great Housing Benefit scandal , whereby they set the levels for payment so low and havent raised them for years . Many people have to fork out most of the benefits in top up which leaves them with nothing to live on . I noticed the other day that we had a statement and theyre increasing our top up this year and we are in a Council property .  Ho hum . We will manage . Just shant buy any Weetabix ...lol 

I have noticed that theres lots of trying to be useful people jumping on the bandwagon offering cooking lessons and helpful hints , im tickled by those who say shop cheaper brands when if your at the foodbank youve been doing that for a long while . Or the cooking gurus who never factor the cost of actually cooking stuff these days , once again youre hardly going to be shopping for  A rated appliances if youre skint . A sandwich and a bag of crisps may be as good as its getting for a lot of people . In most families its the grownups who are doing without and necking Poundshop vitamins, as ive said in the past oranges are our measure of if we can afford fruit and veg and it isnt an orange each, so i grow what i can , ive still got a ton of leeks and fruit in the freezer for crumbles and my infamous ugly baking . Its been a tad interesting this winter till the DWP sorted their mess out, but we are fine till they convert us to Universal Credit sometime this year. im sure i will find a few informative posts out of that debacle