Sweet. I'm from Canada, and east coast so had to travel to NY, Detroit etc to see them. The things I did when I was young....sure hope my kids don't think they'll be pulling any fast ones over me....
I think I can actually hear crickets chirping on the TA Forums today. There have hardly been any posts.
I remember mobile shops coming round too, Mondays the fruit and veg man would travel round the village, Wednesdays the butcher, Fridays the pop man (and I remember saving the bottles to get the money in returning). Every now and then I see a Ringtons tea van, but it's a shame to not see the local shop vans on their rounds anymore. Also fruit. I swear to god it's different now, peaches were always really juicy and soft, they are rock hard now. Vegetable used to have actual mud on them and caterpillars inside the lettuce sometimes. Had to buy a postage stamp the other day, almost fainted at the price, last time I bought one they were 27p!!!!
I had a part time job on a fruit & veg van for a while at the weekends when I were a lad. It was great, got extra spending pennies and lots of free fruit and veg which was awesome. And you're dead right there's just no comparison between the force grown, almost (if not actually) frozen when shipped then defrosted, under-ripe, tasteless, over priced, TINY, crap-fest that is the fruit and veg in supermarkets compared to when you got them from, oh I don't know, an actual greengrocer. Now there's a word that'll disappear from use
We have similar shenanigans happening here in the States with the fruits and veggies. I don't know about mobile stores, I've never seen those, but when I was a kid we had our own garden so we had plenty of fresh vegetables. I would eat tomatoes straight from the vine. Now what you get from the grocery store have no taste are hard and are pointless to eat. We do have farmers markets with good produce but you have to time your visit during their limited business hours.
Definitely not, as an enthusiastic cook I can still identity individual ingredients tastes in most food. To a degree at least, I'm not what you'd call even close to how professionals are The main trouble with most of the f&v these days is its picked long before it's ready so that it doesn't degrade too much during shipping. So when you get it from the shop it's very under-ripe. You notice a difference when you get stuff direct from a farm, I'm lucky that there are excellent farms around where I live that you can go to direct for fruit, veg (obviously just what's in season) milk, cheese, meat and so on all from their own farm. Even the stuff you get from a farmers market is better by miles than a supermarket.
I thought the problem with the tasteless food hadn't arrived to the US. Here in Spain tomatoes are worthless. To have them taste something, just a tiny bit, you've got to pay 10x more. And let's not talk about milk. When I was 6-7, we went directly to buy milk from the farmer. That was true milk, and not the whitish tasteless liquid we have here now. I hope at least the milk still tastes in the US as good as it did when I went there 20 years ago...
The milk in the US taste "good" because they load it down with sugar. So not only is it loaded with fat it is also loaded with extra sugar. I only use milk for breakfast cereal and sometimes cooking, otherwise it's just there for the kids who are only allowed to have it in the mornings or chocolate milk as a treat.
Guess I'm going to have to look at the milk carton when I get home, but you are saying you see sugar as an ingredient on yours, other than naturally occurring lactose? It would obviously have to be listed if added.
Ok, so the adding sugar to milk thing is probably some conspiracy theory I unwittingly bought in to. I've been doing some internet research and have found it to be untrue. However I have also learned some things about processed milk that are persuading me to remove it from our grocery list. I'm not going to put it all on here but it appears to be pretty much unbeneficial and possibly even harmful to humans. Raw milk might be ok but still unnecessary. Thanks houseofg for forcing my hand.
Raw milk is dangerous. The pasteurization process removes harmful bacteria. And just like eating raw meat, you might be OK, but you might not be. There are certainly lots of issues that can be brought up with various changes in diet, but a "clean" food supply, "clean" water supply and vaccinations are the biggest reasons why infectious diseases are at the bottom of the top 10 reasons that people die i the US, and are big reason why the average life span has increased from the mid 60's to the late 70's / early 80's in just the past 40-50 years (also vector control -rats, mosquitos, etc). Unfortunately there are lots of conspiracy theories regarding public health in the US and the science behind the decisions or recommendations is beyond most people's ability to understand unless they learn epidemiology and biostatistics. The press generally does a poor job in presentation and so it is no wonder that theories that are incorrect abound.
It's very hard to get to the "truth". A lot of what I'm finding is from doctors or organizations with very strong feelings on one side or the other. The more I read the less sure I am about any of it. The best answer I can find is that a little milk isn't bad but also isn't necessary. One thing seems clear though, added or not the stuff is loaded with sugar. That alone is enough reason to limit your intake. Also, yeah raw milk is a no brainer. The only things I consume raw are fruits, vegetables, nuts and when I can sushi.
You made me think about what I said and realize it came from a source I had no reason to trust, causing me to dig for more information. I'm usually a very skeptical person but sometimes I let myself get carried away by something and forget to fact check. Thanks again.
My mum has her own allotment she started about four years ago, and her carrots are beautiful, and her cabbages, and her potatoes. She tried growing strawberries (my daughter fave) but she on,y got about six fruits I remember my daughter asking what the box of veg is and what's the stuff all over them once, I looked at her like she was crazy and then realised she'd never seen veg dug from ground before, it's all shrink wrapped and washed. Carrots covered in mud were weird to her. I'd love an allotment of my own, as my mum isn't local to me, but all the pigeon men take them all up here and there is a very long waiting list. I would love my own little shed, I could dissappear to the allotment and spend hours sitting in my little shed playing on my ipad Husband is friends with a farmer and every now and then we will be given some meat, father in law is a shooter and were often given pheasant, rabbit etc he goes deer stalking a lot and once gave us a whole deer, a butcher friend charged us £20 to turn it into sausages, burgers and steaks. Best £20 I ever spent. He keeps offering to take me shooting but I'm not sure I could do it. I guess that makes me a hypocrit as I'm happy to eat meat but not kill it.
I live in a rural area of the U.S. so forgive my ignorance but what is an allotment? Sounds like a small piece of land that you rent to grow a garden maybe? And who are these pigeon people?
