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Post by desertwoman on Feb 3, 2022 16:54:50 GMT -5
Stopped at Whole Foods for a vegan scone snack, while doing errands. Took a quick look around. Nary a carton of eggs or OJ and quite a few bare shelves throughout the store. The checker told me they are having trouble with getting deliveries because of a shortage of drivers.
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Post by reuben on Feb 3, 2022 17:02:17 GMT -5
Going to Whole Foods here is like going to a Rolling Stones concert in a huge stadium. Haven't been in years.
Fortunately there's a similar and smaller store, Fresh Market, where the old Whole Foods used to be. Much smaller, but has pretty much everything I need. Fresh Market, the farmers market, and the seafood market do me well. There's a Trader Joe's around as well, but I never go there - traffic is awful.
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 3, 2022 17:11:44 GMT -5
Whole Foods went SERIOUSLY downhill the minute it was acquired by Amazon.
While we didn't shop at Whole Foods more than a few times a year, I absolutely LOVED it for its variety fresh seafood, exotic produce (think "Sea Beans" - aka Saltwort), & other stuff I couldn't get elsewhere. Alas, that is no more. Produce is common, predictable, & not always pristine for the price; & seafood is the same. I also don't like the fact that the seafood counter guys spritz all the fish with spray bottles of water (I hope that's all it is) in order to keep everything look "fresh".
And we used to get our Thanksgiving heritage-breed turkeys there since 1996, but no more. They no longer carry them or take reservations for them like they used to. Luckily we've found a local farmer to provide us from now on.
All in all, Whole Foods is honestly no better than any other supermarket.
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Post by reuben on Feb 3, 2022 18:56:15 GMT -5
While we didn't shop at Whole Foods more than a few times a year, I absolutely LOVED it for its variety fresh seafood, exotic produce (think "Sea Beans" - aka Saltwort), & other stuff I couldn't get elsewhere. Alas, that is no more. Produce is common, predictable, & not always pristine for the price; & seafood is the same. I also don't like the fact that the seafood counter guys spritz all the fish with spray bottles of water (I hope that's all it is) in order to keep everything look "fresh". I forget the details, but one day a few years ago I notice "dry scallops" being sold in my local seafood market. They were significantly more expensive than the normal scallops, but I was curious, so I asked the guy behind the counter about them. He said that normal or "wet" scallops have a small amount of bleach (or was it ammonia?) to preserve them, whereas the dry scallops don't. Not being a fan of drinking bleach, I opted for the dry scallops. But it wouldn't surprise me to learn that whatever the wet scallops are packed in is such an small percentage that only voracious nonstop eating of them would cause any permanent damage. That's just what I recall, and don't take what I wrote as gospel. Do your own research and make your own decisions.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Feb 3, 2022 20:09:47 GMT -5
reuben The chemical added to scallops, and other foods, as well, is sodium tripolyphosphate, a.k.a. STPP. Maybe they consider it a bleach, of some type?
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Post by gianna on Feb 3, 2022 20:51:32 GMT -5
(think "Sea Beans" - aka Saltwort), Oh my goodness. You eat that stuff, lol? I've never seen it at a local grocery or farmer's market. I had no idea it was edible and just looked to see how it is used. It grows rampantly in our local slough - serious continuous, dense lush mats of the stuff. We call it pickleweed. It seems quite happy where very little else will grow. Not sure I'd want to eat anything growing in that water however - a mix of fresh water drainage and ocean surge. I don't even like stepping in it. Shudder.Of course now i want to try it...
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Post by breezygardener on Feb 3, 2022 22:41:35 GMT -5
Oh my goodness. You eat that stuff I don't know if we're talking about the same thing, but maybe look it up, as several mainstream seed companies sell seed for it, & I'm planning in trying to grow some this coming season. In the wild it does prefer saline environments, but can be grown without it. It's delicious, & I first got to enjoy it via Whole Foods in a hake dish that I had been interested in trying, & the gods were apparently with me when I found both the Samphire/Sea Beans as well as the hake at Whole Foods at the same time. Since Amazon's takeover, however, it's doubtful that I'll ever see Samphire/Sea Beans at Whole Foods ever again.
As far as wild-gathering - I would never gather/cook/eat any wild plant that was growing in less than pristine circumstances. Ever.
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Post by gianna on Feb 4, 2022 1:05:09 GMT -5
I don't know if we're talking about the same thing, but maybe look it up, as several mainstream seed companies sell seed for it, & I'm planning in trying to grow some this coming season. Yes, it's the same stuff. Salicornia. I've just been reading about it. We have 5 species in SoCal. But I don't know which one we have here. I don't know anyone who has ever taken the time to key it out. It's one of those 'don't really care' native plants in a tough family. I do remember vaguely that it is very productive in terms of accumulating bio-mass. Or something like that. Not my area of expertise. I also did not know it's grown commercially, which certainly would make eating it safer. Nor that seed is available. If anyone is interested, do a google image search for Salicornia fields. Interesting information on other uses too. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SalicorniaI will admit to being initially horrified. But feel better now. Thanks for the path to follow. I love learning about things like this.
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Post by davidjp on Feb 4, 2022 11:48:06 GMT -5
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Post by armjr on Feb 8, 2022 6:38:48 GMT -5
There's always Chufa and purslane if you get hungry for the wild stuff....
Whole foods... When going through San Antonio I would stop and get a couple loaves of Ciabatta and Seeduction bread. Amazon bought whole foods and the bread changed. We don't go there any more.
#1 wife gives me a grocery store report every time she goes. Each time it just gets worse. More empty shelves, less variety, prices are up. She's been going to Aldi's for a lot of things lately. A while back (a year and a half) eggs were going for .56 a dozen for medium. They are $2.09 right now.
I have expanded the garden(s) beyond what I can comfortably work.
To top things off, the stupid freezer went out some time last week and a bunch of last years hard work turned to mush.
#1 son doubled the size of his garden to put in more peas and beans for canning(beans) and freezing(peas). He also keeps layers for eggs and raises hogs and steers for butchering. He's an avid fisherman as well. They buy staples only at the grocery store...
I don't do livestock any more but that doesn't mean ai won't in the future if the future is not what it used to be....
Alan
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Post by gianna on Feb 8, 2022 11:45:18 GMT -5
There's always Chufa and purslane if you get hungry for the wild stuff.... Both of these grow in my yard. But no thanks. Lush purslane is not so bad, but it's only got a short window here and gets undesirable fast without enough water. The Chufa (had to look that up) that grows in my yard is a different variety of nut sedge, and while it produces the little underground 'nuts', our variety is not that large. Max maybe a half inch, and that size is uncommon. And then it would need to be peeled. One would use more calories digging and peeling than you'd get from eating them. Fortunately the gophers have removed almost all of it. We do have a Whole Foods, not that close, I've only been in it a scant few times. When it first opened and I went in to check it out, I felt as if I didn't belong there. I would LOVE to have chickens, but for many reasons that would not work out well here.
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Post by armjr on Feb 9, 2022 8:48:26 GMT -5
I like the way purslane looks. It's a pretty little plant. I have waged a lifelong war on nutgrass. These gophers around here don't seem to know it's good for them.... Hogs will wipe it out, but that method introduces a whole nuther set of problems. I've heard that the worst thing you can do to it is pull it up. Supposedly that stimulates the roots to kick into fast forward and make even more nutgrass. The best method I have found is a totally NON-organic way of dealing with it. I've also heard that it does not like high nitrogen content in the soil. I dunno...
Alan
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Post by emmsmommy on Feb 9, 2022 19:15:39 GMT -5
Today it was pasta, canned soup and bottled water. I got down on one knee to drag out the last five boxes of angel hair pasta--one for me, two for another lady and left the other two where someone wouldn't have to practically stand on their head to reach them. There was two boxes of spaghetti left but other than that the shelves were practically empty. My daughter seems to like a particular chicken noodle soup and I happened to grab the last three cans of it. The only two cases of water were both torn open. Lots of empty spaces on the shelves, just didn't take time to see what was supposed to be there.
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Post by datgirl on Feb 10, 2022 9:25:41 GMT -5
emmsmommy,same here with the pasta at the Meijer I go to. We stopped in a Woodman's the other night, and the pasta shelves were full.
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Post by gianna on Feb 10, 2022 9:33:04 GMT -5
I like the way purslane looks. It's a pretty little plant. Definitely. I haven't had much of it come up the past few years. Probably the on-going drought coupled with the critters, including the wandering flocks of quail that have removed many seeds, including weeds. (Not only are the quail cute, they are functional). I have friends who just loved wilder tasting greens - I would pick bags of purslane for them. They also loved dandelion greens. Ick! I have waged a lifelong war on nutgrass. These gophers around here don't seem to know it's good for them.... Hogs will wipe it out, but that method introduces a whole nuther set of problems. I've heard that the worst thing you can do to it is pull it up. Supposedly that stimulates the roots to kick into fast forward and make even more nutgrass. The best method I have found is a totally NON-organic way of dealing with it. I've also heard that it does not like high nitrogen content in the soil. I dunno... Same here with nut grass, including trying a limited NON-organic way (one gets desperate), which did work. But not totally. It's so sneaky too. If you aren't looking for it, it just looks like grass. Fortunately it does seem to be gone in the main garden part in back, I do think because of the gophers. The nutgrass sure didn't die on it's own. I think I might have accidentally brought it up here 30 years ago with soil in plants I also moved. I watched a YouTube video the other day, from a place in Maine, and they described how they planted Chufa on purpose. I watched in horror as they said you need to plant at least 2 acres of the stuff if you want to attract turkeys, lol.. And that turkey's love it so much they will decimate the area to find it. To each his own. I'm not hunting turkeys, and they are not gardening. Here's the not organic planting Chufa/turkey Video. Kinda fun, and only just over 3 minutes: www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpcbx-y1GTo
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