$10 for one cabbage! ( about £5). Eeek.

Jersey Royals really don't taste the same any more. In fact the ones I've bought over the last decade or so have not been nice at all. I tend to buy Cornish or Pembrokeshire new potatoes instead.

I knew seaweed was used by the commercial Jersey growers but I thought the practice was banned or stopped for some reason (cost cutting?) which people have attributed to the now inferior taste.

On the other hand I might have dreamt all of that.

Callistemon21

Michael12

I got some Jersey Royals in Sainsburys recently 1kg for £3 and they seemed a little later due to the weather .
A friend who's daughter lives in jersey told me the locally grown royals are covered in seaweed to add to the flavour .
Mick

Jersey Royals used to be something special to look forward to but I think in the last few years production was increased with a consequent lack of flavour.
The seaweed thing is interesting. I knew an old lady who used to collect seaweed for her vegetable garden and she produced wonderful vegetables.

I'll look out for them and do a taste test!

I remember we used to go over the bridge to Portskewett with dads friend to get seaweed for vegetable beds. I don’t know about how his veg turned out but his dahlias looked nice!

£150 for a melon in Harrods

Michael12

I got some Jersey Royals in Sainsburys recently 1kg for £3 and they seemed a little later due to the weather .
A friend who's daughter lives in jersey told me the locally grown royals are covered in seaweed to add to the flavour .
Mick

Jersey Royals used to be something special to look forward to but I think in the last few years production was increased with a consequent lack of flavour.
The seaweed thing is interesting. I knew an old lady who used to collect seaweed for her vegetable garden and she produced wonderful vegetables.

I'll look out for them and do a taste test!

I got some Jersey Royals in Sainsburys recently 1kg for £3 and they seemed a little later due to the weather .
A friend who's daughter lives in jersey told me the locally grown royals are covered in seaweed to add to the flavour .
Mick

From what I read, because numbers had declined drastically some decades ago, protection was introduced, but they have now increased equally dramatically, hence the cull.

I read recently that since numbers have increased dramatically, and there have been several fatalities, there’s going to be a cull of salties.

Oh! I'm surprised because they are protected generally except that Aboriginal peoples are allowed to kill them as it is part of their tradition.

It seems ironic that they are protected because they are also farmed for their skins.

Callistemon21

Oh, and if you're near the sea or an estuary - crocodiles.

OMG, the Salties! Saw plenty of those on our last trip to Oz. After spending time in Salty areas, I found myself feeling daftly nervous about walking anywhere near rivers in Melbourne!

A dd spent many months in Darwin, and as a lover of sea swimming found it so frustrating that both beach and sea were strictly off limits. She’s of a generally risk-taking nature, but I really don’t think even she dared to tempt Fate.

I read recently that since numbers have increased dramatically, and there have been several fatalities, there’s going to be a cull of salties.

Oh, and if you're near the sea or an estuary - crocodiles.

It is all about trying and not relying on the shops

Not necessarily.

The difficulties in farming, growing your own vegetables and fruit in Australia are different to those in the UK or in fact in addition to those we battle with here.

Water - often too much or too little. Different insect pests, kangaroos, wild pigs, fruit bats, not to mention snakes, huge spiders.
Rabbits .........

That's a lot of money .
Is it possible to grow fruit , salad and vegetables ?

karmalady

my sisters grow loads in western australia. One has a few acres, put in their own water collection tanks and now have umpteen large raised beds, full of veggie.produce. The other has a small garden and grows lots of fruit in pots. They live just a few miles apart

It is all about trying and not relying on the shops

Where are they exactly karmalady, because water availability varies a lot depending on where you are in the state? One of my nephews is a professional parks gardener, and he only grows fruit, tomatoes and cucumbers at home because it’s too hot and doesn’t rain enough to collect enough water to maintain a full allotment patch, which he would love to do. South of Perth it becomes easier because they have more rain.

BlueBelle

Cauliflowers here are £1.00 or just over £1,25 is the most I d pay Nanna8
My allotment has potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots, runner beans, peas, courgettes and leeks and fruitwise an apple and pear tree gooseberries bushes , raspberries canes and strawberries beds
Hard work but I love it At home in tubs/ pots or whatever I have cucumber, many herbs, and tomatoes,
The snails and slugs are my enemies otherwise as an enclosed garden I don’t get any wildlife

Wow! That’s very impressive and I’ll wager taste better than shop bought stuff!

RosiesMaw

I wondered how the cost of living compares with the UK -just looking at individual prices isn’t helpful without an idea of wages etc.

Good point and we also need to consider how much everything else costs too.

Wow that's impressive BlueBelle

Cauliflowers here are £1.00 or just over £1,25 is the most I d pay Nanna8
My allotment has potatoes, onions, shallots, carrots, runner beans, peas, courgettes and leeks and fruitwise an apple and pear tree gooseberries bushes , raspberries canes and strawberries beds
Hard work but I love it At home in tubs/ pots or whatever I have cucumber, many herbs, and tomatoes,
The snails and slugs are my enemies otherwise as an enclosed garden I don’t get any wildlife

I had a lovely passion fruit vine growing but it got covered in aphids. I did a very,very silly thing. I sprayed it with fly spray. The whole thing died in a week. So sad but a lesson learnt! It used to give me loads of fruit.

my sisters grow loads in western australia. One has a few acres, put in their own water collection tanks and now have umpteen large raised beds, full of veggie.produce. The other has a small garden and grows lots of fruit in pots. They live just a few miles apart

It is all about trying and not relying on the shops

My sister is in Western Australia, it’s very difficult to grow your own vegetables there because it’s hot and dry, and water supply is restricted. You can only use the irrigation system three times week for the garden for a limited amount of time, so everything tender just can’t survive. Fruit does much better, she has enough lemons to keep a small town going.

That certainly is very steep, nanna8! Is it perhaps down to adverse weather conditions - drought or flooding?
Yes, that too. Some crops have been destroyed by floods.

RosiesMaw

I wondered how the cost of living compares with the UK -just looking at individual prices isn’t helpful without an idea of wages etc.

Minimum wage is higher in Australia. Farm workers are generally paid about $28 per hour, plus holiday, sick and superannuation contributions. That all adds to the price of food. Add on all the endless bureaucracy and the demands put on farmers by the supermarkets too and no wonder prices are so high.

Blame your government and the supermarkets nanna8.

nanna8

That was this morning at the greengrocers. It is usually fairly cheap at that particular store. How on earth can people eat the healthy amount of veg each day with prices like this? Cheese has also rocketed up and as for the price of petrol… aaargh. Is it like this where you live or are we living in an ‘unfortunate pocket’?

I remember when the banana plantations were wiped out, then when they recovered I saw bananas in a big farm shop so bought some for a treat.
When I went to pay they were about A$12 for five 😯

Actually, food is cheaper here now than in Australia which is the reverse of 20 years or so ago, nanna8.

It's not the fault of your farmers, it's the big supermarkets, Coles and Woolies; they screw the farmers right down, mishandle the produce and charge the customer about ten times what they pay the farmer!
Is Aldi better?

I can’t grow much unless I put nets over everything because we have so much wildlife here. Mostly possums but also owls, parrots and unknown creatures of the night ( foxes?) I grow parsley and rhubarb but covered up. Tomatoes are hopeless, they eat them as soon as the first little fruits appear. Carrots are still cheap here and onions. Bananas are also cheap . It is worse than I remember price wise this year.

Fruit and veg takes up quite a lot of my food spend. £5 for a cauliflower would be too much for me. The last one I bought was under £2.

I grow a lot of my own stuff on my allotment I m now off to pick my first rhubarb of the season all for free 🤣