Vegetable Shortage

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Tewdric

Tewdric

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There is going to be trouble later this week in the pig shed. I went to Morrisons last night to do the weekly vege shop for the monsters to be greeted by the following sign….


”Due to flooding in Spain we are experiencing severe shortages in broccoli, spinach, salad/salad items and tomatoes.”

:doh:

The monsters are not going to enjoy their breakfasts very much this week with the limited choice of British vegies I was able to find!


Is anyone else having the same trouble? Have your pigs rebelled yet? I feel very sorry for anyone anywhere that’s been flooded out as it must be awful. :(

Here’s hoping we get a nice early spring and that the grass and wild food starts growing soon!
 
Couldn't get peppers in my nearest shop this week. 4 mile round trip walk to Lidl yesterday I got some just in time before we ran out. Have noticed prices are going up as usual when supplies are down. I've planted some parsley, corriander and grass seeds and put them on the window ledge so now chatting to plant pots as I wash up telling the seeds to hurry up and grow.
It's so sad for everyone that's been flooded. We on the other hand seem to have had a very dry winter here, the water levels here are very low for the time of year in the lakes.
 
I wonder if it's going to be a national thing. My Morrisons was really running low on Monday but that's not unusual. And last night at Tesco the veg section was really poor. I had to buy a packet of lettuce with spinach in and pick all of the bits out.
 
I have driven many miles today and have been unable to get spinach, tomatoes and romaine lettuce anywhere. All due to the flooding in Spain. I'm trying the piggies on a bit of sweetheart cabbage instead of romaine. I've been able to get peppers and cucumber thank goodness and I'm growing grass, too. This could last for some time, I fear.
 
VickiA said:
I have driven many miles today and have been unable to get spinach, tomatoes and romaine lettuce anywhere. All due to the flooding in Spain. I'm trying the piggies on a bit of sweetheart cabbage instead of romaine. I've been able to get peppers and cucumber thank goodness and I'm growing grass, too. This could last for some time, I fear.
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Hi Vicki,
I'm thinking of growing grass indoors in trays for the pigs, how are you doing yours? seed trays?
 
I managed to get a bag of mixed leaves with plenty of spinach in it on Sunday (it's cool that I looked through all the bags to find the one with the most spinach, right?), peppers weren't too bad as long as you wanted red or green. That was on Sunday though, and the spinach shortage was bad enough then!
 
I had a major veg shortage due to financial reasons this week. Second half of january is always tough due to having to wait 6 weeks for a paycheck...
So we ran out of all salad items over the weekend. Most of our lawn grass is dead due to a severe drought. And I wasn't sure what on earth to do! Thankfully the handful of blueberries that have been sitting on my blueberry bush for what feels like 2 months now decided this would be the perfect time to ripen, and they're ripening only 2-3 a day, so I gave them one each every second or third day for a vit C boost. I also double checked that their pellets contain vit C which they do. And I had 2 cocktail tomatoes still in my fridge so I share one between them every third day or so (with blueberries on the inbetween days). One day I gave them kale leaves out the garden (I have an abundance of kale but couldnt' give that twice a day due to high calcium), and the other days I just cut a handful of grass out the one patch along the side of the house that still has a little bit of grass.
The pigs were excited the first day because they hadn't had nice grass for a while due to the drought, but after about 3 days of no lettuce, no peppers, and very little cucumber they were not so impressed. They stopped wheeking at meal times though otherwise still seemed fine. Although they also haven't been overly impressed by the sub-standard hay they've been subjected to for the same reasons.
I managed to buy a smallish bag of lettuce and some more peppers two days ago and they went wild! Every time they heard the fridge after that they wheeked like crazy! Lettuce was all finished again after supper last night though so this morning was just peppers and grass again. Thankfully hubby was paid this morning so I can finally go shopping and get them some nice veg and hay again!
 
First world problems and all that.

At least I have some veggies to feed them with, just not stuff they really enjoy. I know they'll just turn their noses up at the spring greens, but I suppose they may deign to eat some if it's all they're offered. I managed to grab a bag of peppers, so Lilith will have her favourite vege this week, but there'll be sulking from the rest of the herd.

I've noticed some signs of the grass beginning to grow on certain very sunny south facing banks around the college grounds. Hopefully I can find a quiet time to sneak out an do a bit of picking.
 
So far not encountered any veg shortages down here. I'm going to start growing parsley indoors again they love it
Really peppery smell, makes you wonder what supermarkets do to there's.
 
The shortage has reached national television coverage today.
Apparently Tescos and Morrisons are limiting number of lettuces that individual customers can buy.
Keeping this information from my boys!
 
Not had anything up here yet, out local asda and aldi were fully stocked.
 
Now the veg shortage has hit us. Tesco & Morrisons will only allow 3 per item. No good to us though, I can't store it. So l'll try to eke it out for as long as possible.
 
I am putting the roots to the lettuce and celery etc in pots of water, they are supposed to regrow. We grow a lot in the garden but that only starts being planted in march. Hopefully it doesn't get too bad.
 
Things seem to be settling here, for the time being anyway, plenty of stock in the shops. I've found an independant grocer with some lovely quality veg at good prices so will be going there from now on when I can, I prefer to support the individuals anyway. He is selling Dutch salad stuff so hopefully the supply will be able to keep up with demand. I saw in the newspaper that tesco were limiting iceberg lettuce to 3 per customer because resturants were going in and buying up their stock.
 
I went to our local Sainsburys today and they seemed to have plenty of everything. I heard a piece on the radio about iceberg lettuces being limited but I don't buy them.
 
If you buy potted herbs try repotting them in a slightly bigger pot and keeping them on a window sill, they should keep going for months.
 
So far only iceberg lettuce and broccoli, my lot don't get iceberg and limited broccoli so no great shakes at the moment, but if other stuff starts getting short supply, there could be a problem. ;)
 
My local Tesco are selling herbs in small bunches, perfect for piggies. Except they'd run out of coriander, so I'm going to be in trouble later. We're the same as BossHogg atm - limited iceberg lettuce and broccoli, everything else is cool.
 
Just done the weekly shop, next to no salad stuff in Morrisons but thankfully Lidl came up trumps with romaine lettuce and peppers. They also had some fresh herbs - basil etc in pots. Trouble is where I have space to put pots it is still too cold and the plants don't last anything like the time that they do in summer :no:
 
Pettinainpigs said:
Didn't the UK used to grow more of this type of produce in days gone by, maybe we are too reliant on imports......
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Also we are used to being able to buy produce all year round. People now expect to be able to get all fruit and veg regardless of the time of year. In days gone by it would have been seasonal.

*Hurriedly hides the cherries from Chile and grapes from south Africa* :whistle:
 
My local Tesco was out of most salad things, no round lettuce, peppers or tomatos. Packet lettuce was down to the last few too.

There were signs up saying due to the poor weather conditions in the EU salad items are in short supply.

I overheard two workers talking when I was at the till, and they said how lettuce was now rationed to 3 per customer.
 
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