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.

Read something about frozen blueberries having more antioxidants than fresh ones as well. Could have dreamt it up but I’m sure there was something in the science news.

I avoid fresh out of season fruit, it usually tastes awful but can understand if you really fancy something. I’d be prepared to shell out at M&S or Waitrose etc to get good quality produce if it’s something like that.

I don’t shop at Tesco and I knew this, because of a programme on Radio 4. Actual farmers are up in arms about this because it’s just marketing, and it impacts sales of actual specific farm produce, and also damages people’s perception of higher quality farm specific produce. I can’t believe the shops that do this get away with it from an advertising perspective.

That must be why the blueberries I bought are sour as hell. I really should make a list of what is in and out seasonly.

Frozen Blueberries

Found this

We've got a Harris + Hoole, was very surprised to learn it was Tesco. All our Tescos have Costa which seems really odd if they have their own coffee shop, which is significantly nicer than Costa!

Do also recommend M&S fruit and veg, they're the only supermarket that's consistently decent now. Waitrose is pretty mixed. Do usually go to farm shop though, which is obviously better - but also more expensive, and everything's absolutely massive. Just moved so M&S is more convenient, so I may start getting normal size food from them instead.

Was also going to post that all supermarkets do the same. I didn't realise most savvy shoppers didn't know.
We don't have any good local greengrocers but immaterial now as we have to rely on deliveries.
Our Tesco deliveries are always picked with care and the fruit and veg is OK. Ocado /M&S is alright but their packing leaves a lot to be desired.
I find the frozen fruits from both are great for breakfasts.

Only because people don't think about where the food comes from.
The produce has Produce of: [Country] on the packaging.

Do they really think that there's a farm out there supplying all the Tesco stores?

There’s a campaign against it from farmers https://stopfarmwashing.co.uk/

Frozen fruit is great but I also like tinned fruit in winter and early spring when fresh fruit is often scarce or horrible. Tinned fruit in juice is a good substitute. I often have tinned grapefruit for breakfast.

Sorry Elizabeth. I thought the Duke and Duchess's gaff would be top choice 🤗

I'm really lucky we've got a market in my city centre. Lovely fruit and veg and a couple of butchers and fishmongers. Marks and Spencer are the best for supermarket fruit in my opinion. Sainsbury's frozen berries are good and have been 3 for 2 for a while now

Haha this is so inappropriate but first thing which strikes me about this image are where are all the trousers 😂

Posts like this from the OP are incredibly useful because it points out stuff that not everyone knows and helps share knowledge. We're all in this together and we need to pass on what we know so that people can make informed decisions when spending hard earned money.

I think that it's one of those things that if you know, you know. Tesco is my happy place, so I've an idea about which are the hidden cheapo value brands. There's a spread of brands that are Tesco value in disguise - Rosedene, Ms Molly's, Eastwoods, Grower's Harvest, Hearty Food Co, Neville's, Stockwell, and probably a couple more. They're usually on the lower shelves in a supermarket and are a lot cheaper.

You have to be a blackbelt in shopping to work out what's going on in supermarkets these days to have a chance of saving money.

Food authenticity is a bigger issue, an imaginary producer name for a gullible public is the least of your worries.
Rather a lot of 'honey' is not actually honey ( the price is a clue).
Ingredients and country of origin are useful and legal information to check in the packaged foods.
Farmers markets are a bit of a scam, I asked a local one where he got asparagus at this time of year and he said it was from Peru, because they're farmers too...which is kind of missing the point of a local farmers market.

www.food.gov.uk/business-guidance/packaging-and-labelling

Makes me think of KCL accommodation, which is next to Waterloo Bridge/South Bank Centre, so fairly classy. As I understand it, Sainsbury's head office used to be there.

But yeah anyway it's clearly not a farm.

Buying out of season fruit and expecting it to taste good without paying a premium for imported by plane?

Rather a lot of 'honey' is not actually honey ( the price is a clue).

I didn't know this but I do know that most "wasabi" is coloured horseradish.

@nomdegrrr1 Thanks very much. I'm glad to see the thead is educational as well as entertaining. I'm off to buy some frozen fruit as we speak. Will definitely make a mental note of what's in season and what isn't. 'Fake farm gate' completely missed me.

Frozen raspberries are great if you let them defrost. A bit sharp like they should be, not all these super sweet nonsense fresh ones that have no flavour.

On Ilkley moor?

I really like frozen mango but I have found frozen berries to be a bit tart (I am very sensitive to sour tastes though).

"Rosedene" replaced Tesco value. All the farms used are real farm references from one of their salad producers.

On the blueberries it's class 2 fruit. Grade out, simple as that hence the retail. They're designed as an ingredient but the core 150g is not much more expensive for a far better product

Blueberries out of season are always either like sour little bullets or tasteless, woolly mush. Same as apricots. The UK rarely has decent ones.

What's the blueberry season then? Certainly not UK, some of the worst fruit on the market

https://localhoney.uk/how-to-spot-real-honey/

Spices and olive oil have been prone to fraud too. (Expensive products).
The scuttlebutt is that more manuka honey is sold than is actually produced.