RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 3:53:45 AM

GreedyTop

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that discarding of food thing is why I have a hard time budgeting for my food. since I don't knowwhat I will want to eat from one day to the next, I tend to only buy for 1-3 days ahead. prices (lately) have been across the boards for stuff like milk, veggies and meat. Pasta seems to be keeping fairly steady, as do many canned and pre-packaged foods.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 3:59:58 AM

needlesandpins

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that again is great in theory Maria. however, fresh fruit and veg that is good quality, tasty and good nutritionally is not cheap at all here in the uk. for what it costs me to eat just fruit, veg and salad for a week with little meat thrown in actually costs more than i can feed a family of four if i don't eat like that.

you do put a good point across about the deals, but with the cost of living so high people will use them. when living on a very low budget i have had to use these offers. the first thing that goes off the list is fresh fruit and veg that is actually any good. people will start to have to shop every couple of days or so just to prevent waste in their own household. unfortunately things are not as they were when it comes to cooking skills. children do not learn how to cook any more. my son was asked to 'cook' pizza 3 times in a row at school. people are mostly unaware of how to preserve fresh foods by making jams, chutney, pickles and so on. i have taught my son how to cook correctly, just as my dad taught me. but unless alot changes we are fighting a losing battle.

while small dairy farmers are going out of business, not all of them are selling up. alot of them diversify into other things. for those who do sell up they see their farms swallowed up by huge multi thousand acre owners. in the end though either the super markets will have to support our farmers better, or they will have to do the farming themselves. the produce is still there to buy. i'd be interested to know just how much land the big chains do actually own.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 8:29:16 AM

LaTigresse

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A couple of things that a lot of people do not realize. The vast amount of items that originate from soybeans and corn. It's not just foodstuffs. Not even close.

Factory pork producers are buying more and more farmland. Not to actually raise their hogs on, but to have a place to spread the manure. The government has gotten a great deal more strict (though it has a long way to go in enforcement) in how these large factory hog farms dispose of the sludge from the manure pits. It is used as fertilizer on their corn and bean fields BUT, they can only spread so much. The supply is much greater than their nearby farm fields demand or can safely use.

When I was discussing the dramatic increases in farmland, several years ago, with a farmer.........I was informed that the big hog producers were buying up land all over the Midwest so that they can dispose of the hog manure. They are less concerned with the crops, corn and beans, and more concerned with having a place to spread the shit. Also, even with stricter regulation, the cost to our streams and other water ways is dramatic. Also, it takes bodies to enforce the regulations, something the government hasn't got. So while there may be rules and laws in place as to how much shit can safely be spread on an acre of crop land, it doesn't by a long shot mean that rule is being followed or has a chance of being enforced.

One of the bigger turkey producers in my area hauls the waste from his sheds out to a remote area by the dumptruck loads. There are mountains of turkey shit and dead turkeys just a stone's throw away from one of Iowa's major rivers.

When you put this all together even by purchasing a product that has corn or soy in it, in any way, contributes to factory farming of animals and the contamination of our environment.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 9:09:12 AM

MariaB

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By tasty, you mean organic or green? and in those instances I agree but our food costs compared to the rest of Europe are far lower apart from wine!
Like GreedyTop, we tend to shop every few days when we know exactly what we want to eat and cook. Weekly shopping didn't work for us because there are too many offers and temptations.
Needles, I think the supermarkets have crippled our farmers. Our land, small as it is, is worth nothing to them unless they can use it to build another supermarket on. Import is already huge and it will continue to get bigger whilst local produce will hold on for grim death all the while having to put their prices up. Its sad but its what it is.

That was interesting LaTigresse whilst at the same time alarming. In the UK we don't have that sort of land for waste products to be dumped on and we have to follow EU guidelines/ I did a little research and found this: http://animalhealth.defra.gov.uk/managing-disease/animalbyproducts/compost-biogas-manure/manure.htm

Manure is normally stored at the farm of origin or in the case of FYM taken to the place of use and stacked prior to spreading. On some occasions if the farm slurry store is getting full, slurry may be taken by tanker to the place of use and further stored in a slurry tank or tanker, pending suitable conditions for use. Digestive tract content from abattoirs is normally mixed with the manure and taken to the place of use and either stacked or applied directly to land. In these circumstances, no approval is required.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 9:17:50 AM

needlesandpins

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i mean tasty as in its flavour. i don't know about you, but i am finding that alot of our fruit is becoming tasteless, especially oranges, melon, and some apples. be it tangerines, manderins, savils, and such they all seem dehydrated, no sweetness, and a lack of flavour.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 12:49:54 PM

LadyHibiscus

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quote:

ORIGINAL: needlesandpins

i mean tasty as in its flavour. i don't know about you, but i am finding that alot of our fruit is becoming tasteless, especially oranges, melon, and some apples. be it tangerines, manderins, savils, and such they all seem dehydrated, no sweetness, and a lack of flavour.

needles

Tasteless, and with skins that are knife proof as well as insect proof! It's even true of some things that we grow ourselves, the seeds have been modified.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 1:08:32 PM

tj444

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quote:

ORIGINAL: MariaB
Like GreedyTop, we tend to shop every few days when we know exactly what we want to eat and cook. Weekly shopping didn't work for us because there are too many offers and temptations.

I know it costs money for a small freezer (I have seen new for $300US?) but imo it would be money well spent since a person could buy in bulk and on sale, divide it up into the right portions, then freeze, and also cook up big batches of food and freeze what you dont eat.. & instead of letting certain leftovers go bad in the fridge they could be frozen and heated up another time.. I think if people could do that with at least some of the food they would normally toss out then a small freezer would end up paying for itself, not to mention people would eat better too..

I agree with needles, few people know how to preserve food anymore.. Since i grew up on a farm, i know how to grow a garden, i know how to can, make jam, jellies, pickles, how to freeze veggies etc, how to make things from scratch (except bread, i cant make bread to save my life

).. Most of that is not hard to do, it does require you doing the work tho.. even if you dont grow your own and buy the veggies & fruit (but then the cost increases).. If you do that yourself you also control the ingredients that go into the preserved food so a big reason for me to get back into all that again..

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 1:11:27 PM

tj444

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quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyHibiscus
Tasteless, and with skins that are knife proof as well as insect proof! It's even true of some things that we grow ourselves, the seeds have been modified.

wwwwhhhaaaatttt? you mean you dont have the handy dandy cuts-thru-steel-cans ginsu knife???

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 1:12:38 PM

LadyHibiscus

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LOL We DO actually, my grandmother was enchanted by the commercial so I got her a set. I wonder where they are? In the basement kitchen maybe... hmmm.

Those tomatoes are TOUGH, let me tell you! For all that we haven't had a decent crop of tomatoes in years.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 1:35:14 PM

tj444

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I like Roma tomatoes,.. they can be a little tough too but my ex would grow em and then once they ripened he would just toss them in the freezer whole & skins on, then toss em still frozen in his homemade chili.. I like them in sammiches cuz they dont get as runny either.. I have never made tomato sauce with them but thats what they are supposed to be used for mostly.. those lil grape tomatoes I like too..

(TJ puts roma & grape tomato seeds on her must buy seed list)

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 2:10:19 PM

MariaB

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I understand what you are saying about a freezer tj but we live on a boat and rely on wind generators and solo panels to produce our electricity. We have a small fridge that just about copes but a freezer for us is out of the question.

Like you, I grew up amongst a family of farmers and I do know how to preserve food and that includes salt fish and cured meat. Whenever I get the opportunity and I got one today actually!, I pick blackberries and make jam. I also pickle sand fire and I pick and dry nettles for tea as well as some wild herbs and fungi.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/4/2012 2:24:54 PM

LadyHibiscus

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Had fabulous red peppers from the yard, roasted. Dad ripped out the tomatoes already. All our stuff is containered, gardens arent a thing here. Plus the deer would eat it all.

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RE: Before you grill it, ya gotta kill it - 9/5/2012 9:31:54 AM

tj444

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well, then yes, i can understand why a small freezer wouldnt work for you.. its not a solution for everyone, fer sure..

Along the lines of the world (or some parts) eventually turning vegetarianism.. a vegetarian only McDs is opening in India! Just what the world needs, McDs doing to veggies what they have done to burgers..

http://bottomline.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/04/13662332-mcdonalds-to-open-vegetarian-restaurants-in-india

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