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Is it milder

Doug

Doug

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It seems to me to have been a very wet cold winter but the plants in the garden don’t seem too agree, this is our rhubarb basking in today’s sunshine I can’t remember it being this advanced in March before, it’s ready for harvesting :shock:

IMG_20240324_160118806_HDR.jpeg
 
Much milder this year and quite a lot of sun too. Last week we were self sufficient in solar hot water most days which is pretty unusual in March. Normally we would have to wait until late april may for adequate free hot water.

Bob
 
I bought some root ginger only last week to make the first batch of rhubarb and ginger jam. We are a few miles south of you Doug but even so I do not think we have had a day long frost this winter. Been bloody wet though.
 
It's an unusual year I agree. In Kent it has been incredibly wet, but temperatures are 13 - 15C. Mind you we had the mother of all hailstorms yesterday. Hawthorn laurel and early cherries are in blossom, and rape is bright yellow in the fields nearby. Hence bees are very active and have filled one super already, which is unheard of for us.

The Tawny owls are active (t'wit) too, and to my total amazement and make a proper racket at night, swallows have arrived. Last year we hardly saw them at all and it was months later. With temps above 11/12 degrees, the fish are actively seeking food and for the first time ever, bats have decided to roost in the eaves of our outdoor kitchen. They're very cute. Unfortunately we have an unauthorised bunny as well, so I am instructed to break out the artillery.
 
In the south east it has been a warm wet winter. February was both the warmest and the wettest on record in East Anglia. It's part of a trend, though. We haven't had a proper winter in years down here, with autumn arriving late, and lasting until the beginning of spring. Our heating has come on 11 times, for a total of under 30 hours, for the entire winter. It almost certainly won't come on again until November. That just cannot be thought of as normal.

Reverend Gilbert White kept meticulous notes of when stuff happened in his garden in Hampshire in the 18th century........first flowering of bluebells, first butterfly, frog spawn, oak leaves opening........that sort of thing, and from his time to now autumn is over a month later, and spring over a month earlier.
 
We have daffs going over, and snowdrops long gone, hawthorn blossom is about 10 days in. Rhubarb is NOTHING like Doug's, maybe 100mm to 150mm diameter leaves, emphatically nowhere near harvestable. Most trees are still in bud and Magnolia is p'raps most close to flower opening.

The ground is hyperbollically sodden, reflecting the winter, and the biggest surprise here in Northumberland is the wind. Two days ago, on the A1, the car and I were blown sideways by a gust into oncoming traffic in the opposite carriageway. No pacemaker needed here :shock: . There was also a grain trailer blown onto its side a few miles up toward Berwick.

The forecast is for rain (and snow above 2-300m) especially as you cross the border and progress into the montains north of the Great Glen. Caingorm to Glen Coe look like getting walloped with up to 100mm of snow. That said, where my son now lives (Lancaster/Kendal) the rain totals have been just unbelieveable and I see they are going to get hit again this week. Bob, you'd better tell your daughter to invest in a boat!
 
Down here in rural SW France it's been a relentlessy long, wet, but mild winter. Weeks and weeks of greyness. The local webite said we had had just7 rain-freee days from September 27 until whatever-date-it-was in February. Very miserable.

But just recently we have had some lovely days - I've been out in T-shirt and shorts planting trees. We inherited a small orchard of half a dozen old and somewhat neglected fruit trees. My friend showed me how to prune them and you could almost hear them breathe a sigh of relief as unwanted branches were cut off. We've also planted another seven. I might need another cherry, as Kordia is not self-fertile, so we'll see what happens. But I have wanted an orchard for almost as long as I can remember, so this is a sort of bucket-list job.
I do have some rhubarb. In my garden in the UK it was prolific, but whilst it does seems to have survived the trauma of relocation, it's only just peeking its head out of the ground.
S
 
For you rhubarb growers, do you force them? I consulted the wifely oracle on this and she grows ours surrounded by dry straw under very large upturned tree pots. They are being harvested right now. We also have quite a few Gunnera and they are very perky as well.

We are still getting light frosts though in a couple of more exposed spots.
 
I think you are very lucky living in SW France Steve. I always wanted to live in the South of France, it has such a lot going for it. Brilliant produce and very relaxed way of life.
 
This is quite different to the South of France, Adrian. And I'm sorry to disillusion you, but the food here is one of the few things we have found disappointing.

Food is expensive. Some of it very expensive. And the range of produce is not great either. Mushrooms? White, take them or leave them. Occasionally chestnut. Morells, shitake, buy jarred.
Cabbage was a fiver when we arrived, although at the mo I sometimes see them for as little as €2.99. Cucumbers €2 each. Onions €5/kilo.

Beef is about the same price as UK, but chicken is sometime more expensive than beef. I saw one in the supermarket a couple of weeks ago for €40. A big chicken, yes. An organic chicken. But still a chicken.

There are lots of things that just don't exist. Spring onions. Minced lamb (indeed, lamb of any sort os often absent altogether, despite there being sheep in the field just outside our village). Naan. Maris Pipers. Parsnips. Anything remotely resembling Bisto. If we want "proper" tea, it is available, after a 40 minute drive. There is a long list.

Dairy is good. Most of the milk is UHT, but tastes remarkably good. Lots and lots of cheeses. Cheddar is available, at a price. Last time I looked €28/kg. I don't know how that compares, but it sounds expensive to me.

There is a small local market on a Saturday morning. One greengrocer, one (very expensive) fishmonger, one cheesemonger. Eggs. Dried sausage. Samosas(!). Junk stall. That's about it.

There is a much bigger and better market at St Junien, but that is an hour's drive away.

On a Wednesday evening there is a small Farmer's Market in a barn, a couple of vilages away. Fresh mushrooms (last week he was selling Shitake). Other fresh produce (whatever he has harvested this week- carrots, spinach, turnips , peppers etc), goat's cheese, beer. Fresh milk, not pasteurised. Take your own bottle and they fill it up. It's very good. €1.30/litre.

The last time I went to the UK I walked into Lidl and was properly shocked at the excellent range of produce, the high quality and the very, very low prices.
 
wet wet, just when I think I can do something decent it rains again.
 
Steve,
We bring more “supplies” back from the UK than luggage. Currently on my 4th run this year.
I bet you can’t find malt vinegar or decaf tea either and what about the price of porridge oats :o On the plus side I can see a GP within 48hrs.
Surprised at how much you are paying for cucumbers is that supermarket price? We do miss the selection of green vegetables, in fact all vegetables and like you I rarely, if ever, see spring onions.
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q!":3fzxy7x0 said:
Onions €5/kilo
Click to expand...
:o :o
Click to expand...

I paid 99p for 1kg brown onions last week in Aldi.

Steve, I know you can't get much more rural than your location but are the prices that high in super markets L'Clerc , SuperU etc. Leader used to be good for meat.
I've not been to France for a few years now since the latest bout of inflation but don't recall such disparity with UK prices then.

Bob
 
Woodbloke":2rdnh1uj said:
Andyp":2rdnh1uj said:
On the plus side I can see a GP within 48hrs.
Click to expand...

I saw my doctor last week within 30 minutes of making the appointment - Rob
Click to expand...

Think I'll move down your way, Rob. Our surgery used to be like that but just checked when the next online FTF bookable appointment is ...April 19th! Possibly there might be some slots available if one were to ring the surgery but why do that when they have an online booking system. Rather poor TBH.

I can't fault the care, though.
 
The shitake mushrooms that Steve referred to but which got caught by the forum profanity filter are "s h i t a k e"

And very tasty they are too.
 
9fingers":xvt3xtkz said:
SamQ aka Ah! Q!":xvt3xtkz said:
Onions €5/kilo
Click to expand...
:o :o
Click to expand...

I paid 99p for 1kg brown onions last week in Aldi.

Steve, I know you can't get much more rural than your location but are the prices that high in super markets L'Clerc , SuperU etc. Leader used to be good for meat.
I've not been to France for a few years now since the latest bout of inflation but don't recall such disparity with UK prices then.

Bob
Click to expand...
LeClerc is good - the nearest is half an hour away. I've seen SuperU in Limoges but never been, never heard of Leader.

Our local town is Chateauponsac. You'd never call it picturesque, but it was once thriving. No longer. There is not a single bar/cafe/restaurant remaining. The independent food store has gone. There are still a couple of hairdressers, a boulangerie, the Post Office (2 hours per day) and a florist. There was a white goods place, closed down. An ironmongers, long gone. The pizzeria, finished. There is a little teashop, open Wednesday to Saturday (we've been a few times, always the only customers). An estate agent (recently changed hands, so that tells us something).

The main food shop is an Intermarche Contact. Not as big as a Tesco, similar to a Co-op, I guess. I can get fuel there, as well.

The pace of life is definitely more relaxed. Shops don't open until 9 or 10. They close at 12 and they may re-open at 2 or 2.30. The PO doesn't bother re-opening at all. The Recycling Centre is closed Sundays and Tuesdays, and it closes for lunch. Over in Bellac (bigger town, half an hour away) the hospital reception closes for lunch. If you queue at a market stall, be prepared for the costermonger to finish his conversation with Mildred before serving the next cutome, no matter how long the line is. It really is a bit like stepping back in time. Great in many ways, infuriating in others. We are still adjusting.

Property is cheap (we were very happy until we saw what we could have bought for the same money) and Council Tax is low. €600 for the year, c.f. £2.5K in the UK.

Health care is not free, but so far no idiotically stupid bills either. My partner broke her wrist last year. Total bill over €1200, our contribution a little under €50.

Few regrets, so far. Not zero, but few. I certainly wouldn't go back to Kirkby-in-Ashfield.
S
 
Ah. I got the wrong end of the stick Steve. Apologies. I thought you were much further south but you are pretty much in the middle, a bit north of Limoges? Not an area I know. I lived in Lyons for a few months years ago and my memories are based on markets there and also going to St Paul de Vence most years. So I am very out of date on produce and prices. The prices sound horrendous. Oddly enough my favourite mushrooms are Morels and you used to be able to get them fresh quite easily in season in France and England. Now they are unobtanium. Available dried but silly money.
 
Why is produce so expensive over there? Is it because of the disputes with farmers or too much land devoted to grapes :D
 
Wallace- not forgetting in my area

- large areas of farmland being built on ( much of the local farmland is owned by university colleges and the church, who are happy to cash in)
-solar farms
-biomass production for renewables
 
I agree with this. :text-goodpost: Kent is full of orchards and hop fields. The supermarkets would rather buy apples from France than have them harvested in the UK, so they rot on the trees. Local authorities are easily persuaded that these "redundant" orchards and hop fields should have new housing estates thrown up on them and cite government policy. This is prime agricultural land that we will never replace. It's insane.
 
I’ve long since thought about why food costs seem so different between France and the UK.
Many factors come to mind.
Supply and demand. I think cultural differences mean demand for some product varies. Take milk for instance how many bottles of supermarket brand semi skimmed milk would you expect to see in Tesco, Sainsburys etc?. I sometimes buy ALL the bottles on the shelf in my local SuperU.
I have never seen supermarket branded porridge oats.
As for vegetables. Family and friends are aghast that we might serve up 4 types of veg during a meal. Is that because veg is expensive or people just do not or want to cook eat veg?

Franchise. Most of the supermarkets are run as franchises here. I cannot begin to understand why and what effect that has on costs .

Transport costs. France is bigger so distribution costs are greater.
 
Do you not think Andy that a significant factor is that farmers are more militant in France and that there remains a culture of local markets?

In the UK, farmers are pretty much under the thumb of the supermarkets, and individual farms are often small (well under 1000 acres) and so they have little leverage, even in co-operatives. We have immense competition - you will know that in our area of Kent, we have Sevenoaks, Tunbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Maidstone all within 10 miles, and all of them have Aldi, Lidl, Waitrose (not TW), Sainsbury's, Tesco, M&S, Asda (TW), and at least one Morrisons, plus Waitrose in our village (and Tesco express and co op). That is a LOT of competition which must peg prices a bit.
 
I do wonder if the price in France is more sustainable and correct and the UK is too low. Adrian, I would correct the statement about Kent being full of orchards to it USED to be full of orchards. Having lived and cycled the lanes around here for nearly 20 years the reduction in orchards is shocking. This apple producer Bardsleys is very near to me and used loads of farmers land under contract.

https://www.fruitnet.com/fresh-produce- ... 81.article

As a result of their losses so many orchards have been grubbed it is a shocking loss of homegrown food production. We should be eating cold stored British apples all winter over berries grown in Peru it's insane.
 
MattS":2nfgvl4f said:
I do wonder if the price in France is more sustainable and correct and the UK is too low. ..... We should be eating cold stored British apples all winter over berries grown in Peru it's insane.
Click to expand...

:text-+1: to both.

Farmers are screwed into the ground on price by the supermarkets.

Fruit gets picked before it's ripe. "Home-ripening" says the label. Rollox says I. Generally in our experience the quality of fruit is awful.
 
RogerS":1lapz2h8 said:
The * mushrooms that Steve referred to but which got caught by the forum profanity filter are "s h i t a k e"

And very tasty they are too.
Click to expand...
Spelled correctly it shouldn’t get caught, let’s test…shiitake.
 
AJB Temple":1ctmj6r3 said:
Do you not think Andy that a significant factor is that farmers are more militant in France and that there remains a culture of local markets?
Click to expand...
Indeed. Did you see how organised and undisruptive the tractor protest around Westminster was yesterday? No burning hay bales on the street, no blockade of the M25. All the protests though dont seem to make a ha'peth of difference. Farmers still complain and so do shoppers.
Local markets are expensive in my experience and not particular local outside the large population centres. We would have to drive further to a market on a Saturday than the supermarket. Markets are a holiday treat for us. If i could walk to one I would use more often.
 
Andyp":ytnd25c2 said:
AJB Temple":ytnd25c2 said:
Do you not think Andy that a significant factor is that farmers are more militant in France and that there remains a culture of local markets?
Click to expand...
Indeed. Did you see how organised and undisruptive the tractor protest around Westminster was yesterday? No burning hay bales on the street, no blockade of the M25. All the protests though dont seem to make a ha'peth of difference. Farmers still complain and so do shoppers.
Local markets are expensive in my experience and not particular local outside the large population centres. We would have to drive further to a market on a Saturday than the supermarket. Markets are a holiday treat for us. If i could walk to one I would use more often.
Click to expand...

To my way of thinking, 'markets' and 'farmer's markets' are for growers to sell their own produce. Certainly experience of summer markets in the South of France supports that view point.

Greengrocers in the UK are a dying breed, priced out by supermakets. We had an excellent greengrocers in Malvern. He'd go up early morning to the wholesale markets in Birmingham, select the good stuff at a good price and put a decent markup on. We still got good produce at a good price. Then Waitrose came to town. He closed within a couple of years.
 
Yep, I agree. I can't think of a single independent greengrocer. However, what does seem to be happening is independent butchers branching out. About 2 miles from us is a village that has a proper butcher (not cheap mind you) right by the village pond. Of late he has branched out extensively into fresh vegetables as well as meat and cooked foods. Only a small shop but seems to be doing well. There is also a very good farm shop near the agricultural college, which also has a proper butchers and extensive veg and some smoked meats and fish. It's not exactly cheap, but it is pretty good and very seasonal plus local. So we have a little hope that traders can survive the endless manufactured uniformity of the supermarkets. There is also an embryonic produce exchange in the surrounding few houses. One produces an incredible abundance of asparagus, we have a couple of egg suppliers, a couple of us produce honey, a lady makes cakes, I do the baking, and we have an abundance of tree fruit in season and share that. We have discussed cider making and experimented, but it is very hard work and equipment intensive. It's all rather trivial of course, but it avoids waste and encourages community.
 
Yes that sounds really good, we have to be careful what we buy here as it’s all contaminated with gmo etc, and the meat has to be organic and grass fed to avoid all the drugs pumped into the animals.
Back home there was a good market that went back to the 1400’s, several good greengrocers and two independent butchers, they are surviving but it can’t be easy.
I do think the desire for good quality food is growing, though not everyone thinks they can afford it. I have always maintained that simple good food can be had if money isn’t wasted on all the packaged branded stuff. I just buy good quality meat and vegetables and cook nearly every night, and I make my own stock which makes everything delicious.
Ian
 
We have two independent greengrocers in our market, two independent butchers in our town centre, two independent bakers in our town centre and two farm shops within 10 minute drives from either end of the town.

Surely Tiverton can't be unique.
 
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