To be shocked at the rising price of food?

[AbsentmindedWoman]

I do a fair bit of my grocery shopping at Aldi and Lidl, but dip into all the big stores very regularly as well for certain items I like when they are on offer to stock up, and also for yellow sticker bargains.

My bill has gone up by about a quarter in the last six months or so for the same products. Aldi and Lidl don't seem all that cheap anymore - although to be fair I don't know what doing my 'main' shop at Sainsbury's or Tesco or Morrisons.

I'm a little shocked at just how quickly the prices are going up. I knew they were going to rise but kind of expected a much more gradual increase. Silly me.

Has anyone else felt like this? Or does anyone else feel alarmed at not knowing when prices will level out and slow down?

With sterling facing more devaluation, I don't think the savings will make up for rising prices on other items.

Allotments are great if you live in the south, but in the freezing North you're much more restricted in terms of what you can grow due to late frosts and a shorter growing season. I used to live south of the Pennines and I miss being able to grow courgettes, tomatoes etc. Can you live on gooseberries and kale?

Lots of regions have poor soil as well. We're on moorland. Great for bilberries but not for much else. Genuinely thinking about trying to grow cranberries next year- I live in a bog!

We're northern and I know people growing both.

Do they have a greenhouse, onion? I've tried both without and failed. We're quite high up though.

My relatives in Scotland are pretty much restricted to brassicas, alliums and legumes outside of their greenhouse. I can't grow brassicas on our soil.

Or carrots. Or pretty much anything edible tbh.

Also, they may get a small crop of tomatoes/courgettes but it won't compare to the bumper crops you get down south. I've grown them in London, midlands, the north and there has been a big difference between each region.

I'm so depressed. Was Brexit really such a great idea we're now having to plan victory gardens to fund it.

We are in Wales and without a very sturdy greenhouse you can only get a handful of soggy, tasteless tomatoes a year after tending to the sodding plants for months . Our soil makes carrots and parsnips impossible.

Yes in a good year we are self-sufficient for veg (not fruit!) for a couple of months in the Summer. Our apples and pears last us a month-two tops. If you have a family and are eating your 5 a day, in most of the UK an allotment and a few bushes will only touch the sides.

I wouldn't romanticise what's going to happen on 2019 if we get a hard Brexit TBH. Part of my work is dealing with the wholesale food sector - if you think food is expensive now you ain't seen nothing yet.

"Was Brexit really such a great idea we're now having to plan victory gardens to fund it."

No. It was never a great idea. This was always going to happen.

The leave campaign leaders literally didn’t (and still don’t) have a plan for winning, they weren’t expecting it. They knew it would be suicide but wanted popularity, the fucking idiots. Do you remember their appalled faces afterwards? Boris Johnson was white as a ghost.

Did anyone else laugh at Chris Grayling when he said UK farmers would grow more food to save us paying a lot in tariffs?

I'd like to know where he thinks all this unused, fertile land with perfect microclimates is, and how farmers are going to increase yields without wrecking the soil with agrochemicals.

I think it's a very good thing for the price of milk to go up. Milk has been disgusting cheap for too long.

They do, but have also been able to grow tomatoes in pots outside a greenhouse. I had success with my potted tomatoes on my west facing balcony a few years back too. And courgettes in my front garden, which to be fair is south facing and gets a lot of light. Lived on a hill when growing the tomatoes in the flat but not now.

As I said upthread, allotments certainly aren't the solution. Nothing is the solution to Brexit other than not doing it. But it's not true that you can't grow courgettes and tomatoes outside the south.

It's sadly true in my area of the north, onion- I've tried! I can send you a picture of my mouldy, mildew ridden results, if you like.

I believe you, but the north is a big place and it wasn't correct to say those crops are impossible outside the south east.

I have grown tomatoes in pots on the decking (the only sunny sheltered spot). Not worth the effort for the small crop I got, and these were easy to grow cherry toms too. Massive contrast to the bumper crops I got in London, where I could grow marmande outside. I've stopped growing them as I think they'll bring blight in and I want to try potatoes.

Sorry, massive tangent! I do agree with you on Brexit though, sadly.

Not impossible onion, just a bit pointless.

I certainly haven't found any of the tomatoes I've grown to be pointless. They were delicious. If you think it's only worth the effort if you can grow bumper crops, that's obviously your call as only you get to decide what's worth your time and effort, but plenty of us would disagree.

I don't believe living 'up north' is a bar to growing lots of fruit and veg, it's just a case of picking an appropriate crop and variety. Friends live in Yorkshire and grow plenty of apples, pears, greens, beans, peas, sprouts, leeks, swede etc. Maybe ask around more experienced gardeners locally to see what does best in your area?

I got about 10 tomatoes (6 of them cherry tomatoes) from my 3 bush tomato plants (in hanging baskets) before blight struck

But there again, I live in Scotland and don't have a greenhouse yet

Well I'm as far away from most of Scotland as I am from the south east of England, so would expect things to be different again there. I'm not claiming to be able to supply Tesco or anything like that, but had always felt pleased with mine and my family's meagre efforts and results. Until now anyway! Anything we can grow ourselves helps with our carbon footprints and the DC get to see them growing and help pick, which is good for their education. So I have always thought it was worthwhile.

Where we are is south Greater Manchester area, so the soil isn't too bad and we are not short of rain! In terms of easy things, my back garden is north facing and not amazing. There are wild blackberries growing round the perimeter that get no attention at all aside from five minutes pruning when they're sticking out too far into the kids play area, and we get as many as we want for a couple of months each year from them. We also have rhubarb and raspberries that my DM planted and we do fuck all to, and manage to get a small yield from them with no effort. There are actually still a few raspberries on the bushes now, I ate about ten yesterday.

So I'd recommend those for anyone in the area looking to get started. I cannot emphasise enough how little effort goes into them. No you're not getting your 5 a day from them, more like 5 a week, but it seems a reasonable return on our investment of nearly zero.

Calories, protein, fats.
In our area you aren't allowed to keep chickens on an allotment.
It's all well and good but the majority of my food expense is not on tomatoes or courgettes! Or any fruit and veg if I shop 'seasonally' as far as possible.

Oh worriedrose don't feel down about your allotment suggestions. It sounds lovely but tbh I think most people don't have the time, energy or inclination and would just rather do the mouse to the house thing with Tesco. We have got used to a very different style of living haven't we?

I am so damned depressed and sad about Brexit too, listening to John Humphreys this morning talking to good ole Ken Clarke about what would really happen in the eventuality of no deal, could it really not happen and we get to stay in the EU? I would sob no doubt with happiness just as I sobbed with sadness all through the night and day after the referendum. As someone said up thread, it comes to something when we are having to think about growing our own bloody food again....

karate I'm almost self sufficient in summer salad leaves these days. A combination of a couple of pots in the garden and a row at the allotment (small quarter plot) . I have so little time to look after it all (working totally lp) but the right crops (spuds, sweecorn, onion) can keep me going for quite a while.

I'm now going to read Theworlds post from yesterday about Legatum and start cursing.