I am so fed up of a lack of food in shops.

[OutofEverything]

This has been going on for a few years but is only getting worse. I had to go to 3 supermarkets before I found some eggs. No lettuce at all, a few packs of salad tomatoes available in one supermarket, loads of empty spaces in the fruit and veg section, and in ASDA even the freezers had loads of empty spaces.

Before anyone says yes I know we will not starve, there is enough actual food. But a visit to a supermarket now is a lottery about what will be available and what is missing. And more and more I am having to visit multiple shops to get absolute basics.

Yes OP google the hungry gap. February is a time when even stores of “traditional winter veg” are depleted. You can’t grow potatoes and carrots in frozen ground.

I do think this government is utterly utterly shite mind you and I blame them fundamentally for more or less everything. The moment we switch to people being more important than profit is the moment our world improves.

Perhaps you'd care to explain why your opinion differs, rather than casting aspersions at someone's post?

@ItsCalledAConversation I know the hunger gap was because even winter veg supplies became depleted when we lived in a feudal economy and most people lived at a very basic level of subsistence.
The fact that there used to be virtually no veg around at this time of year in an economy just above a subsistence level is not an excuse for what is happening now.
Or what next? If there are shortages of clothes do we all get lectured too about how people used to manage fine with just two sets of clothes?

But you said yourself that there are potatoes and carrots in the shops. Every shop round here has milk and eggs.

Eggs are hard to get. There are often gaps in certain kinds of milk - I prefer to buy milk where cows are not kept indoors which means buying cravendale or organic - can't always get it. Sometimes only whole milk available. Sometimes no parsnips or swede, traditional winter veg.
And there are gaps in other foodstuffs as well. From whole chickens to some frozen veg.

I don't have any local greengrocers but have now ordered a box from an independent supplier not too far away. I can thank this thread for motivating me to do that.

I haven’t read the thread as it’s too long but I haven’t really experienced any shortages. I tend to buy what’s on offer or cheap but if something I do want is not available I find an alternative. We are so used to having strawberries in December and everything out of season all year round. It’s ridiculous.

You must have got the meds that are in short supply owing to unspecified supply chain problems caused by something or other. You do know that mentioning Ukraine in every other post isn't helping the cause.We are all better off in many ways in the UK than many others in the world for a host of reasons. We aren't in the grief Olympics here just asking why there are so many shortages in the supermarkets.

I don't normally go to Asda but visited last night as I had to get DD some school tights. I thought it is a bit of a con as limited veg - is it really about supply and demand? Waitrose and Marks aren't operating this system. For a budget shop the loo roll is extortionate, Nearly a tenner for 12 loo rolls! It just appears to me big, noisy and the opposite to good value.

Now that's a very interesting post that gives some perspective - thanks for the info. 🙂

Could William and Kate give out soft vegetables to the grateful peasants ?

@OutofEverything out of interest, where do you live? I only ask because in the Home Counties I'm not seeing the same picture as you. FWIW I've half a swede in the fridge - could always post it to you.

Totally misleading. Just looked at the Swiss one and it is organic cucumbers which is all they seem to stock.

As someone has already said the cucumbers in Europe that are commonly sold are a different variety to the common cucumber in Britain. Compare like with like.
I want to see a comparison of salad tomatoes with different countries.

@RosesAndHellebores Thanks!
I am in the Midlands. I know it is different depending on where you live. My mum's town is fine. It must be based on how close you are to a port or airport where fruit and veg come in.

I'm in Ireland, haven't noticed a cucumber shortage, they're 69c in our local Dunnes supermarket.

It's just as well I absolutely loath cucumber, tomato, peppers, and lettuces. I survive on other things and let's face it who eats salady stuff in the Winter!

There are lots of people like me for whom cucumber and things like coriander taste soapy. I cannot stand the texture of toms with their seeds and juice, ugh, and peppers give me severe indigestion.

I can eat everything I mentioned above (apart from cucumber) when it is cooked though so ratatouille is good in Summer.

I can assure you that there are no shortages in EU countries like Ireland, France and Spain where I have been recently, and the groaning fruit and veg displays along with the shelves are such a pleasure to see.

YANBU OP. So fed up with the shortages and also fed with people falling over themselves to try and say it's not happening. I'm in the south east. I've got three supermarkets in my town and they've had no tomatoes, peppers for weeks now. Other things I can't get hold of locally is dishwasher salt. I couldn't get coriander seeds for months. I do eat seasonally where I can but this in itself is a problem - even if all of the UK was happy with potatoes/swede/turnips/cauliflower there isn't enough to go around. We don't produce enough food. Hence why the single market is such a good idea.

These are the seasonal vegetables for February. Some of these are hard to get.

Apples, Beetroot, Brussels Sprouts, Carrots, Celeriac, Chicory, Jerusalem Artichokes, Kale, Leeks, Mushrooms, Onions, Parsnips, Pears, Purple Sprouting Broccoli, Red Cabbage, Salsify, Savoy Cabbage, Spring Greens, Spring Onions, Squash, Swedes, White Cabbage.

So fed up with the shortages and also fed with people falling over themselves to try and say it's not happening.

I dunno, it's useful proxy for empathy and honesty.

@PillBoxes we have salady stuff 3/4 times a week with the following sorts of meals:

Spag bol
Lasagne
Moussaka
Roast chicken thighs (cous cous and salad)
Lamb chops (Greek salad)
Steak
Carbonara
Macaroni cheese
Ribs
Burgers in a bun
Stuffed peppers
Risotto
Roast chicken - midweek
Salmon steaks
Quiche

Typical salad stuff: Cos, little gem or bags of leaves, sometimes some chicory, tomatoes, pepper, cucumber, avocado, grated carrot, grated beetroot, sometimes a fine slice of red onion, celery, etc.

I survive on other things and let's face it who eats salady stuff in the Winter!

People whose other choices are limited by health conditions? It's all very well saying "eat potatoes and carrots" as people have upthread, but when you're shopping and caring for someone with T2 diabetes they're not practical or healthy options.

I'm in London and Aldi had no eggs at all yesterday and can't get any. Sainsbury's have very low stocks of eggs. I'm also seeing empty gaps on shelves in general not just fruit and veg but also in other aisles.

Too many people breeding. We are a small island with what, 66 million people? not surprising there is never enough to go round.

It's notball down to weather in the unseasonal food-producing countries. We live in a rural area and we always eat a lot of green veg and especially cabbages (white, red AND green). All the shops we try have very little of this produce - which ought to be freely available from UK farms.

I suspect it's the shortage of workers caused by Brexit.

I’ve spent the last 3 winter months in Spain , every shop, supermarket and market absolutely full of infinite varieties of tomatoes, salad, Massive peppers, etc etc. Right now it’s also artichoke season and the orange fields bursting with fallen fruit.
It’s not been a hard winter weather wise, 2 years ago there was snow but this year only high up in the hills and not where the veg is grown.

Wake up and smell the Brexshite.