Rises in food costs coming

[LemonPieKitty]

I was reading this morning and came across this article. Not sure if it's something to be worried about or another sensationalist headline but stuff like this petrifies me.

Bank of England boss predicts apocalyptic food costs

I have prepped for a long time but have basically run down my supplies to nothing as we are about to rip our house apart. Once the work is done I'll start building up my stores again and will have a lot more space to put things. I just find things like this quite worrying. I have a genuine fear of not being able to feed my kids. Do you think scenarios like this are likely?

Narks not Marks. Doh. Fecking autocorrect.

Food prices have already risen significantly. The Tesco cheese I used to buy was £2 and now it’s £2.70. Tesco orange juice was £1, now £1.70. This is only in a few months. It feels like almost every item is rising by 10p a month!

Some things have gone up every time I shop.

"D"H keeps worrying about emptying out the cupboards and freezer...so wants to use up anything I have bought rather than go to the supermarket....

"D"D keeps trying to fill every spot I make with things only she will eat (granola, protein bars, healthy treats, potato wedges, particular seasoned chicken, sugar free icecream, berries, salad ...), so any space that I MANAGE to make is immediately filled before I get there.

I let them both see that I had significantly reduced the amount I had in my dry stores spot about a month ago (to keep them both happy). But I have done a stock take for myself and refilled various gaps I am concerned about since. So I have made it difficult for them to get in there and neither has a need to go in there as I don't have any treats there anymore.

I am very thankful DD is going back to an academic year in school this year (after transition year last year) - so has voluntarily signed up to hot dinners and evening study at school. She may want snacks when she gets in at night - about 9.30/10pm, particularly on sports training nights. But I
a) won't have to have dinners for her in the house except at the weekends; and
b) will be able to USE the kitchen when I get in from work so can get back to making proper dinners, with real ingredients, and not needing fast meals with lots of shortcuts and processed food to ding for our meals in the chaos that is the kitchen after she has cooked and eaten.

I intend a lot of stir-fry type dinners with a mix of lots of veg and a smaller amount of meat than recent meals.
I also intend a lot of meals using the slow cooker, or traybakes, that I can organise and leave to cook knowing they won't be disturbed.

I can do things that need plenty of seasoning or care, but mean the reduction or elimination of meat is far less noticable.

And I can do cheaper meals that need time to cook for flavour or active cooking (risottos, pasta meals like Carbonara/penne al limone/cacio a pepe, fried rice dishes etc) or can use up leftovers again.

that sounds very annoying.

I have packed away one lot of preps havbing pulled oput hoovered and restocked with longerdatte stuff. the rest will have to wait until after holiday.

I am narked as there is not a cheap supermarket nearby so calculating the cost of taking things with and petrol cost increase, managing without, or making do with expensive stuff.

I’ve been canning a lot lately. Friend was laughing at my 4x 5kg bags of sugar and 5l jugs of vinegars I bought earlier in the year now sees why I had them to hand as I’ve slowly been pickling, jamming and making various items to cover the winter from home grown and yellow sticker fruits and veg.

whenever I can get something cheaply or snag a lidl too good to go box I’m turning it into a jar of something.

BlackeyedSusan I misread that and that - why is she naked because of supermarkets? 🤦‍♀️

Been lurking on these threads for a while and find them very inspiring.

I got a fantastic £1.50 veg box from Lidl yesterday. I've made eight portions of mash for the freezer, 3l of roasted tomato pasta sauce, and frozen enough bananas to keep us in smoothies and banana bread for weeks.

I seem to remember the boxes were like gold dust but there were half a dozen at 2pm yesterday in my local store.

Did a Sainsbury's order which I updated last night. Between me putting DDs favourite pizzas in and checking out 24 hrs later they had gone up by 50p each (not previously on promotion, just bunging the regular price up from £3 to £3.50

I'm bloody sick of it. They are just taking the piss now.

Anyhow, I've given myself a shake and done a stock take, rearranged stuff to make space and pulled out all of the hard I own. They've been sterilised and I'm making cucumber pickle and pickled red onions. Got a huge glut of the cucumbers so will be making more. Got a few kilos of tomatoes from the plants this week with more to come so will be making roasted tomato pasta sauce (thanks, PP!) Just need to think of something to do with the courgettes. I'm eternally sick of ratatouille, but do enjoy a blitzed up broccoli and courgette soup. However I'm thinking can I dehydrate sliced courgette in the bottom of the Aga? (Don't have a dehydrator)

Green beans I think I'm just going to blanch and freeze. Looking forward to green bean casseroles in winter. Going to have an eating out of the freezer few days to free up some space.

Rainbow, I've dehydrated mushrooms in the Aga before now and they worked well so would think courgettes would work too.

Just made large batch of leek potato soup for the freezer. Easy cold day lunches.
Also caramelised leeks down for the freezer. I freeze in small amounts just right for quiches or frittatas.

The courgettes mini savoury muffins for Ds nursery snack.

Quick question re pickle, anyone pickled marrows? I have 2 home grown from neighbours but I don’t like them so unless I just cook them both for DH’s dinner they’ll go to waste. Just don’t know if it would work if I pickle them.

TIA

@AdoraBell this is my mum’s marrow piccalilli recipe. It tastes good, and clears your sinuses a treat while it is cooking.

@AdoraBell (she died a decade ago, so I can’t ask her for any further detail)

Thank you LadyHelenaJustina that looks good, and I’m sorry for your loss.

For courgettes, look up Nigellas fritter recipe, they are delicious and freezer brilliantly. . It has feta which you could leave out and replace with some other cheese, spices or flavourings. I use the 79p fake feta stuff from Tesco and it works well.

Courgettes can be blended with cashews into a nice vibrant pasta sauce (a bit like pesto) in a pinch.

Not much help for storage, but I like to slice courgettes lengthways into 1cm thick layers, squeeze lemon juice over them in ovenproof dish, and cover with a handful of panko mixed with grated parmesan and pepper. (I used to do it with fresh breadcrumbs smothered in melted butter, which is delish but not so great for the waistline - and it's useful to have another use for panko from stores).

I also do bags of mediterranean veggies, all diced up, and throw in the freezer. So almost ratatouille, but no tinned tomatoes - just all veggies diced into the same size chunks to roast (about 20-25 minutes for 1cm dice, larger size needs longer but work well on BBQ). Onion, whole cloves garlic, cougette, peppers, mushrooms, halved cherry tomatoes etc. French beans work ok in it, and aubergines are good (but no one in my family likes aubergines). Toss in some olive oil, dash balsamic is nice, season with salt/pepper and some oregano/basil/rosemary/thyme (whatever you have that is relatively med). Can also freeze any leftovers once cooked to reheat as a side dish or use in a basic tomato sauce with pasta etc. But handy as a base recipe that is easily tweaked to what you have to deal with or what is left in the fridge.

R4 warning of empty shelves due to energy costs and small companies going bust.

Definite gaps in shelves appearing more often now. I can't get the half sized tins of kidney beans or chick peas, which is the right size for our needs. And milk is often in low supply too strangely.

I haven't noticed gaps, but i have noticed less choice.

Things no longer stocked, big gaps on the shelves today but only in certain parts. Things have gone up again. Supplies are intermittent so buying habits have changed. I bulk buy soap when it is in in Asda as it is often out of stock. Which does not help their supply chain. Aldi don't have their own brand soap anymore. It's all a bit background nagging anxiety whether it will have gone up or be available.

There were gaps in my local Sainsbury’s yesterday, I didn’t look around the entire shop, but coffee was sparse and sugar has been moved to a smaller area.

They had offers on the coffee I buy which surprised me.

It perturbs me that retailers like Asda seem to have taken over the Government's job of providing a basic range of (just about) affordable food like the Essentials range. (Tinned loops 16p, tinned baked beans 25p, large-ish white/wholemeal loaf 39p etc.)

Except ... DP and I were in Asda yesterday and the shelves had been entirely depleted/stripped of these items, and not re-stocked.

I don't know what's going on, but it's concerning. I think if I only had 55p and went in for the basics of spaghetti loops on toast and they were all sold out, I'd probably cry, iykwim.

I think Jack Monroe mentioned recently that she campaigned for Asda and the other big supermarkets to make sure they had their full range of basic items available. It seemed that the moment the cost of living crisis started, the basic items decreased from circa 200+ per store to around 60 or 70. Only Asda replied to her and said they would endeavour to have the full range of basic items in all of their stores.

However, I know (for various reasons*) that this has not been the case. They are possibly stocking those cheaper items, yes, but not to a the full extent. Let's face it, they expect some shoppers to buy basics, but rely on others to buy the more expensive (and often still own) brands in order to make more profit.

It's in their best interests profit wise to limit cheap / loss leaders. However, demand for those cheaper products has probably gone through the roof because;

A. Cost of living crisis - poorest of people plus others now buying the cheaper items.
B. Food banks also buying these items in bulk in order to offer as much as they can to users.
C. Small food businesses will also now be buying these items as they are in dire straits (e.g Cafés etc)

*I am a mystery shopper (food retail) so I'm aware of trends / price increases even more than the average consumer. I used to be a café owner and shopped for basics bread / eggs / salad items etc in supermarkets as it was cheaper than wholesalers. And also I've had times when I've been on the bones of my arse and as an Autistic person, I used to be able to calculate my weekly shop to the penny on a tight budget in my head.

Bottom line is though, the supermarkets aren't doing enough (and possibly profiteering - time will tell when the next set of quarterly figures come out) Government isn't doing enough (or didn't do so soon enough - same old story) and the fuel prices are pushing everything up so they are profiteering, too. But we know that already. Brexit hasn't helped. The Russian war against Ukraine hasn't helped, but we continue to pay the price and vulnerable people continue to suffer whilst there are more billionaires than ever.

It really is time we all came together. Unfortunately, Brexit divided us, Covid divided us, and politics continues to divide us.

In the words of Jo Cox: "We are far more United and have far more in common with each other than things that divide us"

Everyone should remember that.