Tesco's Steak Diane

[maffew]

I would however draw the line at buying ready "steak diane" from tescos, I know bloody well I can make it myself better, with meat from the local butcher...thats just lazy, not to mention selfish....

whats selfish about it?

 

[beorhthelm]

What's particularly shocking is that Brighton is surrounded by acre after acre of farmland and miles of sea, and yet it's very difficult to buy anything local. Surely an indication that we've really screwed up food distribution in this country. [/B]

most of that surrounding area is poor argricultral land though, with just a thin layer of soil over chalk. no good for most crops so mostly livestock or just hay.

 

[Gwylan]

..Sadly our cheese shop has just closed. ...

That is sad: I've bought cheese from that very shop.

Cheese is something that supermarkets do very badly and there's certainly a need for more independent cheese shops around here. The one in Lewes market is excellent though.

 

[tedebear]

whats selfish about it?

Your local butchers and farmers need your money, not the cheap steak coming in from Argentina which has been in an aeroplane for god knows how many hours....

 

[tedebear]

That is sad: I've bought cheese from that very shop.

Cheese is something that supermarkets do very badly and there's certainly a need for more independent cheese shops around here. The one in Lewes market is excellent though.

I know - I was wondering if it was (hopefully) only closed for renovations, there is no sign on the door or anything to say whats happened.

 

[maffew]

Your local butchers and farmers need your money, not the cheap steak coming in from Argentina which has been in an aeroplane for god knows how many hours....

I dont have a local butcher I wish I did.

If I did I could afford steaks from him, though what people seem to be forgetting is supermarkets are cheap which is why a lot of people choose or have to use them.

Its not ideal but its not really selfish either

 

[tedebear]

most of that surrounding area is poor argricultral land though, with just a thin layer of soil over chalk. no good for most crops so mostly livestock or just hay.

I'm not so sure about, that Real Food Direct are doing organic fruit and veg boxes which are 90% from the brighton/sussex area! We get ours from Riverford which is Devon as Real Food had trouble delivering to us for some strange reason.

 

[tedebear]

I dont have a local butcher I wish I did.

If I did I could afford steaks from him, though what people seem to be forgetting is supermarkets are cheap which is why a lot of people choose or have to use them.

Its not ideal but its not really selfish either

But the mentality that you want cheap meat has put your local butchers out of business. Thats the selfish nature of human beings. Then you moan when he has to close down. Our local butcher is only very very slightly more expensive than tescos - so no reason on that front for people to avoid him.

 

[Gwylan]

most of that surrounding area is poor argricultral land though, with just a thin layer of soil over chalk. no good for most crops so mostly livestock or just hay.

And yet there have been settlements in Sussex for hundreds of years, well before the advent of supermarkets.

It's truly remarkable that all those people survived without anything to eat.

 

[Gwylan]

what people seem to be forgetting is supermarkets are cheap which is why a lot of people choose or have to use them.

But they're not. There have been several surveys recently that show that shopping in supermarkets is more expensive than shopping locally (I remember the Trevor McDonald programme had one).

I save about a fiver a week by shopping at the market, rather than Sainsbury's.

 

[beorhthelm]

im talking about quantity. Sussex has little good agricultral land. its either chalk (no good for thirsty crops) or clay (soil gets saturated in wet weather then drains away quickly when dry). If you really wanted to stick to local produce from around Brighton, you'd find you variety restricted and i doubt sussex could sustain a 1/5th of its population from native produce, especially with all the vegetarians.

 

[Starry]

But the mentality that you want cheap meat has put your local butchers out of business. Thats the selfish nature of human beings. Then you moan when he has to close down. Our local butcher is only very very slightly more expensive than tescos - so no reason on that front for people to avoid him.

Absolutely. I have no idea how much steak is in Tesco these days, but when we made a conscious decision not to shop there and use our butcher/grocer/dairy we compared the prices out of curiosities sake and we don't pay much, if any, more. And I'd rather pay more and have good quality food than steak from a cow killed three months ago that has been flown half way around the world, injected with all sorts of wonderful goodies and frozen.

Really recommend this book
Tescopoly

 

[maffew]

But the mentality that you want cheap meat has put your local butchers out of business. Thats the selfish nature of human beings. Then you moan when he has to close down. Our local butcher is only very very slightly more expensive than tescos - so no reason on that front for people to avoid him.

I havent moaned hes closed down, I would use one if there is big time. If I go to the local co op I make a point of getting my food from there and getting my newspaper/tobacco from the little newsagent next door

Though some people do need to watch every penny, if they can save say £30 on a monthly shop by going to a convenient supermarket then you cant really blame them if its there. Its the supermarkets which should be looked at I guess

 

[Tony Meolas Loan Spell]

, Half the trouble these days is people just can't be arsed.

Thatll be me!

 

[NMH]

Your local butchers and farmers need your money, not the cheap steak coming in from Argentina which has been in an aeroplane for god knows how many hours....

HA! I bet I buy more local farmed product than YOU yer silly bint.

I lives in the farmland over yonder hill, and almost everything I buys in ye local shoppe, is murdered and sliced into by local farmers and butchers.

Tell us yore story

 

[tedebear]

HA! I bet I buy more local farmed product than YOU yer silly bint.

I lives in the farmland over yonder hill, and almost everything I buys in ye local shoppe, is murdered and sliced into by local farmers and butchers.

Tell us yore story

Do you know that for a fact? Do you actually ask where it comes from?

Heres our butcher, and at the moment beef is from Scotland (better than Argentina) although he is working on a supplier in Ashford in Kent for true Sussex beef. Everything else is local (chicken, pork for bacon and sausages etc. and eggs)

P & A Butchers

Go call someone else silly you fool.

 

[NMH]

No, it's not. It's the convenience of having shops open outside work hours. I do most of my shopping at the Open Market on Saturday, topping it up with stuff from a market near my work during the week.


What's particularly shocking is that Brighton is surrounded by acre after acre of farmland and miles of sea, and yet it's very difficult to buy anything local. Surely an indication that we've really screwed up food distribution in this country.

No it's not difficult.
Near Henfield, just a ten minute drive up the A23 and turn left at the petrol station, for 4 miles, is Swain's Farm market. Go there every so often instead of your major supermarket.
There are butchers with local meat, all over Brighton. Ask your local greengrocer where the bulk of the veg come from - do you think he's getting it shipped in from abroad? Most of our stuff comes from farms, whether they are down the street or from the Pennines! You can always get British cheeses, all over the place and including Tesco and Sainsburys. You can look at where your eggs and chickens come from, and choose British free-range - that means farmland raised.

Not since the days of peasant villages and shires, where the local Earls or whatever collected their tarriffs for the King, should I actually care a whole lot where in Britain my produce actually nibbles its' grass. Now we are even European 'Common Market' - so everything we raise and sell locally goes somewhere to feed someone and it makes a whole great merry-go-round of business.
The world is a big SPHERE in case some of you didn't know, and for all your "i want to buy only from local farmers", I just BET that half of you are chanting the good name of 'FAIR TRADE' which enables Africans to survive - when it suits you to cry for the supporting of poor farmers abroad.

Tescos and Sainsburys have those products, you can head for those shelves if you try steering your gigantic cart around the council chav families buying the economy 100 bogroll pack, and the bulk Persil.

I just REFUSE to buy from Mars or Pluto, but this "I make sure local British farmers are okay, I don't want Chilean farm-workers to get by with their days in the fields on MY money" - isn't that just as selfish?

Now, about my STEAK DIANE; Just how and where will I gather that BRITISH mustard, garlic, flour, full cream, bottles of red and white wine, and nice flakey steak....and how much money will I have left to SPEND LOCALLY after I have USED AN HOUR OF MY TIME and SEVERAL JOULES OF OZONE-EATING ENERGY just to get my own selfish kitchen dirty, and waste another gallon of water washing, loads more glass bottles and wrappers to carry all this STUFF, so that I can make sure the local cow did not die in vain??

 

[NMH]

Your local butchers and farmers need your money, not the cheap steak coming in from Argentina which has been in an aeroplane for god knows how many hours....

Can't have any of that aged beef coming over here from cash-poor farmers, threatening to force local farmers to compete for quality, can we?
Got to be unselfish and make sure we keep Britain British.

 

[NMH]

Do you know that for a fact? Do you actually ask where it comes from?

Heres our butcher, and at the moment beef is from Scotland (better than Argentina) although he is working on a supplier in Ashford in Kent for true Sussex beef. Everything else is local (chicken, pork for bacon and sausages etc. and eggs)

P & A Butchers

Go call someone else silly you fool.

My local Budgens even has produce that says 'from Sussex' on the wrappers - if I get past Swains Farms - who I have to believe (just as you do, when your friendly butcher assures you) are selling me that fresh just-picked vegetation.

For Buddhas sake, I can often walk around the corner and buy eggs and vegetables from my neighbours, who put a sign on the gate advertising eggs from their own chickens, and often a pannet of vegetables with a per-item price and a 'trust' policy that I can deposit the right amount in the box next to it. I seriously doubt that they are flying that shit in from Argentina.

 

[Northstander]

No it's not difficult.
Near Henfield, just a ten minute drive up the A23 and turn left at the petrol station, for 4 miles, is Swain's Farm market. Go there every so often instead of your major supermarket.
There are butchers with local meat, all over Brighton. Ask your local greengrocer where the bulk of the veg come from - do you think he's getting it shipped in from abroad? Most of our stuff comes from farms, whether they are down the street or from the Pennines! You can always get British cheeses, all over the place and including Tesco and Sainsburys. You can look at where your eggs and chickens come from, and choose British free-range - that means farmland raised.

Not since the days of peasant villages and shires, where the local Earls or whatever collected their tarriffs for the King, should I actually care a whole lot where in Britain my produce actually nibbles its' grass. Now we are even European 'Common Market' - so everything we raise and sell locally goes somewhere to feed someone and it makes a whole great merry-go-round of business.
The world is a big SPHERE in case some of you didn't know, and for all your "i want to buy only from local farmers", I just BET that half of you are chanting the good name of 'FAIR TRADE' which enables Africans to survive - when it suits you to cry for the supporting of poor farmers abroad.

Tescos and Sainsburys have those products, you can head for those shelves if you try steering your gigantic cart around the council chav families buying the economy 100 bogroll pack, and the bulk Persil.

I just REFUSE to buy from Mars or Pluto, but this "I make sure local British farmers are okay, I don't want Chilean farm-workers to get by with their days in the fields on MY money" - isn't that just as selfish?

Now, about my STEAK DIANE; Just how and where will I gather that BRITISH mustard, garlic, flour, full cream, bottles of red and white wine, and nice flakey steak....and how much money will I have left to SPEND LOCALLY after I have USED AN HOUR OF MY TIME and SEVERAL JOULES OF OZONE-EATING ENERGY just to get my own selfish kitchen dirty, and waste another gallon of water washing, loads more glass bottles and wrappers to carry all this STUFF, so that I can make sure the local cow did not die in vain??

Harsh, but true