Storms and chickens

[Guest]

speaking of 'meat free', here's an idea for a totally delish meat free sandwich. Made with seeded batch bread, use houmous instead of butter (we used slow roasted tomato houmous), some spinach, some chopped red romano pepper and some organic falafel bites cut in half (all bought from ocado/waitrose).

 

Makes a totally delicious sandwich! You could use a deli wrap instead of bread but I can't fold those darn things

[crazygal]

very very interesting. I have also stopped buying frozen products containing meat for quite a few months now.

 

DH "popped" to Sainsbury's last night to get himself some snacks and picked up some bacon- he told me he had decided to get the "outdoor reared British back bacon rashers" instead of the organic ones as they didn't state that it was outdoor reared-(but would organic pork be outdoor reared anyway??) yay for my DH I was really chuffed as all of my banging on about "happy pigs" for the last year or so has really paid off!!!

 

On a different note - Mcdonalds my DD aged 5 said to me the other day that she thought that the happy meals should be called unhappy meals as the poor chickens are unhappy in their cages...

 

I try to buy our meat from a local farm shop, I have just made a beef casserole and you can just see the freshness as compared to buying supermarket meat (even if it it organic).

 

I love pigs, if I had the room a pig is the next animal I would get...I've already done the sums and the space just isn't there

[chelsea]

 

I love pigs, if I had the room a pig is the next animal I would get...I've already done the sums and the space just isn't there

 

I love pigs too. My dream is to have an orchard - I will get it one day!

[WitchHazel]

£1 in every £8 spent in this country is spent at Tesco.

 

That's not £1 of every £8 spent on food, nor is it £1 of every £8 spent at a Supermarket. It's £1 of every £8 spent full stop.

[Blackrocksrock]

Must admit I did not see any French chickens or I would NOT have bought any - did not buy the chickens M & S had in from Ireland ages ago either. What is wrong with good old scotland, England or Wales for our food - we should be eating scottish chickens up here and england should have english chickens with no large carbon footprint!. Its terrible - see the asparagus on the shelf says BY AIR on it - I did not see that till I came home - no asparagus for us at the moment!.

[ali-s]

The organic chicken I bought from Tesco last week came from a farm overlooking the Moray Firth I have seen the farm on the way to Inverness I always shout "Chickens" when we drive past

[missuscluck]

Tesco

Here we go again, dont get me started.

I would rather go veggie.

The problem is economics, nothing more. Once you have tasted 'proper meat' theres no going back, the problem is getting people to pay a bit more. I think a lot of people dont actually 'cook' anymore anyway. It requires too much forthought.

[Lesley]

There is a very interesting thread on River Cottage forum at the moment, called Waitrose Bacon - in the Pigs section.

 

It is quite long now but it does make interesting reading.........

 

The gist of it is that Waitrose are selling pork products labelled Gloucester Old Spot and Berkshire. These words appear prominently on the packaging. The (very) small print however says that the meat comes from GOS or Berkshire sired pigs. This means that any old sow of any breed is impregnated (AI) by one of these rare breeds.

 

Producers of real Rare Breed Pork are not happy - if someone tries that from Waitrose and finds it to be uninspiring or lacking in flavour then the next time they see rare breed pork for sale at a Farmers' Market or Farm Shop then they are not going to bother buying it because they've 'already tasted it'

 

sorry Clare - I know this was about chickens, but just something else to be aware of.

[The Dogmother]

That's quite alright Lesley - it comes to the same thing in the end. My initial rant was about chickens, but the same applies to their foreign meat too.

 

I saw that about the bacon in the paper, you'd think that Waitrose of all people would be more careful!

[crazygal]

I think a lot of people dont actually 'cook' anymore anyway. It requires too much forthought.

 

Over the years I've been cooking properly more and more, and now I'm also being very selective about what I buy and where it does take thought...the problem is time- no one has any time anymore it seems- but then we all have the same amount 24 hours a day (deary me I'm stating the obvious here!), but are people using time to plan and cook proper meals from scratch? or just bunging in a ready meal from a supermarket.

 

I'll stop being sanctimonious now - I know its not very attractive! (oh and I'm not perfect- just try to be!- I had a pizza last week shock horror)

[Sunshine]

I noticed today that our local M&s has a large sign in the window saying that all their products are made with free range eggs. I did't realise before all the programmes that have been on lately about how many foods have battery farmed eggs in them so now i am much more aware.

[chili pepper]

I dont believe that tesco are having trouble sourcing free range chicken at all. My local Morrisons always has a supply of free range chicken on its shelves and has done since the Jamie and Hugh thing. I think Tescos are just peeved that the programs had the effect that they did, They are behaving like spoilt children and deciding NOT to give in to public pressure, they have become nothing but bullies in my eyes and probably think that if they hold out long enough we will revert back to buying battery chicken if they give us no other option.

 

I too now shop anywhere but Tescos, and have bought more from local farmers markets etc. You cannot beat the taste!

 

Also why on earth are Morrisons stocking asparagus from Peru when we are one of the top asparagus producing countries???? Ludicrous.

[chickencam]

We won't have to wait long for British supplies either

[Cinnamon]

 

Also why on earth are Morrisons stocking asparagus from Peru when we are one of the top asparagus producing countries???? Ludicrous.

 

Maybe because its out of season in the UK at the moment?

 

I have never had problems buying British free range chicken in Tesco,but I couldn't get any in Waitrose last week

[Chuckov]

I have found it so hard to get free range or organic chicken since the programmes that we have given up eating it!

 

In the olden days, chicken was a rare treat and you could expect to pay more for it. At the end of the day, we should blame ourselves as well as the supermarkets - after all, they are only doing what we as a society want. There are too many people scapegoating Tescos, without looking a little closer to home first. Tescos are far from blameless, but we should think about why things have got to the stage they have - it's because we as consumers have made it that way.

[peanut12]

I have to say in my local Tesco's defence (somewhat reluctantly) that on my last 5 visits they have had around 40-50 packs of Free Range fillets and at least 4 or 5 whole birds on the shelf.