Organic Inessentials

[muninnhuginn]

We've got to rely on Tesco's increasingly good range of organic groceries. We know this: they've just discontinued several of our regular buys. So goodbye to:

• Tesco's Organic Shortbread Fingers
• Tesco's 6 pack of organic ready-salted crisps
• Hawkwood pineapple chunks
• Strawberry Fizz.

It takes a lot to induce the ravens to hang around the Customer Services desk until; there's someone to quiz. It has to be said that the staff in Tesco are always helpful and so we checked each item on the computer and we left a complaint/comment (actually we now have a second complaint: the scrappy bit of photocopied paper which was the comments form did not inspire confidence!). So, since (except in Looby Loo's opinion) these aren't necessities we'll go without. Looby Loo will complain bitterly about the lack of her favourite biscuits and soft drink, she won't get to take crisps in her sandwiches, and we'll only get to have sweet and sour pork when we get a fresh organic pineapple in the weekly box. Or we flap off to Arjuna and see what they've got. If we're going to walk much further we might as well shop in a small store than trek off to an alternative supermarket (and anyway, we're still boycotting Sainsbury's).

Comments

I live near several Tescos

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

... want me to keep an eye out for any of these products and stock up with whatever they've got left?

What's strawberry fizz?

You *could* make your own organic crisps, including vegetable crisps ...

Re: I live near several Tescos

[muninnhuginn]

Thanks for the very kind offer: we really can do without tho'. LL will just have to learn that we can't always get these things. I'd be pessimistic about finding the stuff anyway: mostly they've been out of stock since Easter.

Strwaberry Fizz is, I think, produced by Belvoir Farms, but I may be wrong (it's not on their web site). It's fizzy mineral water with added strawberry juice (plus some apple or grape juice). Pleasant, tho' terribly sweet; less sticky than most kiddy drinks. But no added artificial colours or flavours.

And, yes, I could make something like that. But it would be a treat and wouldn't be sitting in the cupboard for the couple of evenings a week when we have that for tea instead of milk. We can buy organic crisps too, but only in big bags which means opening a large one and putting a small quantity into another bag for LL's lunch. The rest would then go to waste most likely: I only allow her to have crisps once a week.

Strawberry Fizz

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

saw several bottles of it at reduced price in the local Sainsbury's last week, but decided not to buy them for you as it was Sainsbury's ....

Thanks for the kind thought!

[muninnhuginn]

There haven't been too many complaints about strawberry fizz for a while--mainly due to the post-school ice cream consumption--and I think I can get it at Arjuna. A trek across town impends. Pity the poor knees.

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I think that Arjuna is the right way to go :-) I know that several small organic/wholefood shops around my way to stock e.g. the Hawkwood tinned fruit range. I can't remember the specific reason why you're boycotting Sainsbury's, but I don't really like the ethics any of the big ones except Co-op...

We used to have a decent Co-op...

[muninnhuginn]

... but now it's Asda and at least ten minutes further away than Tesco. Sainsbury's is further still, Mill Road beyond that. I would use Arjuna for much more (I do prefer local independent shops), but instead do a massive (for a small person, with arthritis, on foot) but infrequent trek when we have several Ecover washing up bottles requiring a refill. I buy whatever else I can manage to carry home at the same time. And yeast. They have better yeast. There's no point using them for fruit and veg. as they use the same suppliers that our box scheme uses.

Tesco can't be boycotted: it's the nearest place with organic milk, which we now seem to require by the gallon.

Re: We used to have a decent Co-op...

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Bah! to ASDA-Walmart.

I don't suppose that Arjuna have any delivery arrangement? Or that your veg box scheme can deliver organic milk (ours does)?

Re: We used to have a decent Co-op...

[muninnhuginn]

I ought to work out which groceries, such as pineapple chunks, we can get through the box scheme. We already get our eggs and flour that way--neither, for different, reasons fun to carry home. I think we could do tea that way (assuming it's the right brand) and there's probably more.

I don't think we can get milk that way tho'. And certainly not a week's worth all at once. We buy about three 6-pint containers of organic wholemilk a week (and there's only two people drinking the stuff!).

Re: We used to have a decent Co-op...

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

Our box people produce a booklet, and can basically throw in anything that they sell in their (organic) farm shop (including Graig Farm meat). Don't see why they couldn't deliver you 18 pints of milk...

But, egads! How does a person manage to consistently consume more than a pint of whole milk each and every day? English porridge for breakfast, a giant mug of cocoa at bed-time... doesn't leave any space in the diet for cheese? :-)

Building Bones?

[muninnhuginn]

I does work in reality work out at about five x 6 pints over a fortnight.

I really don't know where the milk goes--it's not me or the cats. That leaves two cuplrits. Looby Loo does drink a lot of milk--on the other hand she's just grown another centimetre in not much more than a month. (I don't suppose gaining one more new tooth actually took a whole lot of calcium!)

Re: Building Bones?

[purpletigron.livejournal.com]

I can just imagine Little doing the 'Secret Milk Drinker' sneaky thing in the middle of the night, wanting to get big like Big :-)

LL will of course need plenty of fat, vitamins and minerals even though the tooth will have been growing, all hidden, in the gum for a long time. Is the other potential culprit having any trouble with chubbiness? :-)

[pickledginger.livejournal.com]

There was a wonderful powdered soy milk I used to buy ... no longer available at either the mainstream supermarket or the health-food store, and I'm not sure it's still being made. I miss it!