To be pissed off that Ocado have just delivered organic spring onions from EGYPT in the (alleged) summer?

[CountessDracula]

Why on earth do they have to import them from there. Surely we can grow our own in UK?

or Tesco / Tescos or whatever it is called

Every little helps Hathor.

Just today I was looking on the ocado website for info on country of origin. I have emailed then and will let you know when I get a response.

Bought some strawberries from Tesco the other day and when got home realised they were from USA!!!! Asda selling ones from Staffordshire (where I actually live!)
Shame on you Tesco!

I realised there wouldn' be any British apples obviously. But I thought that they might be starting to ripen further south in France or Spain or somewhere. How long do apples store btw?

I doubt I can shift DH off his apple a day habit, mind you. I have in the fridge redcurrants, blackcurrants, strawberries and raspberries all locally grown and picked by the DC and I, plus cherries and a melon from Asda, and he walks past them to get a poxy gala apple from South Africa

I have river swale and I am quite happy with their veg but less impressed with fruit. Very little seems to be UK. And there are fruits ripe in the UK atm. See previous post but I assume it is an economic viability issue.

They have emailed back to say they have fwded my email to the buying dept...

I bought mange tout, asparagus and carrots from tescos last week and this week and all three have the 'by air' label'!!!

Thank goodness it farmers market week this week

Yes I normally go there too
Missed it this week though

I just got a leaflet about a new eco organic type food delivery company that will bring us fresh free range eggs from Cornwall. So no food miles there then
WTF, I can get free range from a local farmer at my local market! I find that the only scheme that is organic and local is ME (or DP) at the local market, or stopping off when passing farms etc with veg for sale etc signs at the roadside.

carrots by air really is taking the piss.

as are spring onions

and strawberries from the US in July
MAAAAAAAD

But how do you know that the market fruit/veg is local? And not purchased from some wholesaler who has a deal with Chile or Thailand or somwhere?

has anyone doing shopping on-line with Tesco noticed they are doing a vegbox for £10 - probably have to rename it 'tastes of the globe'

Because the people at our farmers' market are the farmers themselves.

I know where their farm is
they are the same people every week

Bozza - is that question for the farmers market??

I am guessing by the limited and seasonal range that you can feel fairly safe it's from thier farms (I hope)

Because shopping at my local market for 16 years we get to know the stallholders - one of the stalls is stocked entirely from produce brought in by local farmers.
The butcher 'grows his own' beef and lamb on fields 2 miles from where we live, and last week I got some free range duck eggs from him, also local.

I have cancelled my organic box scheme with Farm around as I was getting fed up of produce coming from far and wide. Think I am happier wit local food/less food miles than I am organic.

'limited' sounded awful, I did;nt mean it to be

What I meant it was'nt full of water melon and tropical harvests

Am torn when it comes to M&S though as they do get lovely fruit - even if it is from everywhere but here

Sorry I thought you meant a fruit and veg stall on the general market. Not a farmer's market. It is tricky because I am like hula - prioritise local over organic. river swale fine for veg - all items in mini box this week are UK - but OTOH all items in fruit box are not UK. Surely that can't be right in July? As I said the DC and I picked £10 worth of fruit on Monday after school. I have not got round to going to a farmer's market. But local farm shop has suspicious items in. Like babycorn in March.

I know what you mean about the baby sweetcorn at a 'local' greengrocer!
If I moved area and didn't 'know' my local market I'd probably be buying fruit and veg shipped in from Mars and be none the wiser .

I got this email from Ocado - bit of a fob off really. There are only 7 fruit and veg items listed as 'In season and British' and no strawberries!

Dear Strawberry,

Thank you for your query.

To provide all year round availability, some products available at Waitrose are supplied from overseas. Waitrose buys only the highest quality products from overseas, where products are produced to the equivalent standards as those from the UK. Due to variations in Country of Origin throughout the year, this information is not always displayed on the webshop as we would not want to mislead the customer.

Where products have been sourced from the UK, this is highlighted on the webshop to advertise the British Season to support customers wishing to by British produce. You can locate this information through the 'Food' sub-heading and clicking on the 'In Season & British' link at the bottom of the screen.

I hope this has gone some of the way to answering your query.

If we can be of any further help, or you have any further comments or suggestions, then please contact us by e-mailing [email protected], or by calling us on 0845 3991122 or 0845 6561234 (8am-11pm Mon to Sat, 12-8pm Sun), seven days a week.

Yours sincerely.

Alex Pugh
Ocado Customer Service Team