Phoney supermarket farm 'Rosedene' - TESCO aarrrgh!!!!

[Tonty]

I am fed up with the awful fruit that is from 'Rosedene Farm'. Absolutely atrocious. I've just has some of their blueberries (they were the only ones left on the shelves). Each one is either hard &sour, or fluffy mushy nonsense, they taste like coagulated fat. Their strawberries are awful too.

I haven't bought this brand for yrs because i tried their oranges before and they were equally awful, but yesterday i was desperate for blueberries with my morning yogurt. What a disappointment! I just looked this farm up and to my amazement discovered its a fictitious farm used to sell Tesco Value products!! Does everybody know this already and I'm just late to the party? apparently all the supermarkets are in on it too. Had i known they were 'Value' fruit, I'd never have bought them. There are many great 'value' products, but fruit is not one of them.

They rebranded Tesco Value in about 2018. A friend working in design was involved at very low level, and had to sit through some very, very tedious meetings.

@JTRSOP Posh rabbit! it must be careful.....

yes I hate the brands within a brand, on the other side I ventured into Hertford market yesterday and everything tempting and huge! had to rein myself in, and not expensive either so maybe a market near you would help?

Several years ago when there was a chicken scare, I was surprised to learn that the farm (or chicken supplier, or whatever they are called) was supplying both M&S and Lidl.

My beloved hounds will only eat fresh venison from the local stately home farm shop.
I'm so fortunate that Mama's eldest brother owns it.

YABU to expect good soft fruit at this time of year. It is force grown and/or has a LOT of food miles.

You are better off either eating seasonal fruit or getting frozen.

It’s not really blueberry season, they’ll all taste rubbish atm, same with strawberries and other fruits.

@brightnails Those look gorgeous. The market in St Albans does some scrumptious fruit too.

Sainsbury's seem to have a brand called Stamford Street (or something?) which is seems to be available in Sainsburys and is a front for their own brand, value bread products. I guess they think calling something Tesco / Sainsburys economy range puts people off buying them?

Anyway, finding decent blueberries is hard enough at the best of times, but buying economy ones is never going to end well. For years I thought I hated blueberries because they were always so tasteless and mushy. Then I realised I had just never tasted a decent blueberry because I was always buying them out of season. For yoghurt I find the frozen ones pretty good. No wastage and much cheaper.

Where do you get your frozen fruit from?

I live rurally in a farming area, with a market town nearby. Even I don't have a greengrocer. The town is ringed by supermarkets

I now never buy fruit and veg from Tesco as everything I ever tried from there had something wrong with it.

Tesco apples have been disappointing, as has much of the fresh produce we’ve tried recently. Our local farm shop has a long growing season for strawberries, as they grow them under cover, in a warm poly tunnel I imagine.

Tesco got rid of the value range and used 'fake' farm names because people were embarrassed by having Value products, and also because having a farms name on food supposedly makes you think thst the food is fresher and more local.

All the Supermarkets do it ...M & S 'Lochmuir' salmon has been riddled with controversy.
Not all farm shops only have sustainable /local foodstuffs either, some buy them in, check boxes /labels etc.
Its just my taste but I go for frozen or tinned soft fruit in the winter. I don't even bother with tomatoes this time of year.

@itsnotfairisit , I live in an urban area and there are several greengrocers. There are farm shops a few miles away. I'd need to drive or cycle there.

The supermarkets sell most fruit and veg bagged, which means you buy more than you would if you bought them loose.

Yes i knew I thought it was common knowledge most of the Sainsbury's do similar for their value range ,It is called Stamford Street

Frozen fruit & veg will also maintain unstable nutritional content better than 'fresh' produce. Texture then becomes the deciding factor.
https://agriculture.institute/food-fundamentals-cpo/nutritional-changes-food-deterioration/

It's a bit misleading of them isn't it. Obviously they can call a brand whatever they please but using the word "farm" together with a name signifier implies a consistent dedicated grower/supplier which in turn indicates a certain level of quality.

I don't shop at Tesco anyway because I hate their tiered pricing and data collection but as a general point of observation this is shoddy behaviour.

Most, if not all, of the supermarket farm names are fake. The real ones don’t tend to have the supermarket as part of their brand name.

I’ve just bought a punnet of blueberries from Lidl and they are all sour😡

It's just marketing.

Chatsworth ? 😉. 🤣

Ethene gas is useful for ripening other fruits in the bowl, it's why a ripe tomato can turn green ones red. Most supermarket fruit is unripe, even if labelled as ready to eat. It won't be as good as ripening on the plant because other processes are absent, but it might not be quite as hard and flavourless.

Pemberley.

To be fair that name sounds pretty low market anyway, like it’s been lifted from Eastenders.