fresh food story on ACA

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Originally Posted by pop058

I would hazzard a guess that anything in one of the major supermarkets has been gassed or frozen. I have heard of apples being months old (off the tree) by the time they get to the shelf.

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Old news and an unreasonable angle by ACA ( as usual.... never let the facts spoil a good story ) Controlled atmosphere coolroom storage has been used for decades, and that is by everyone, not just the major chains.

The local F & V store hasn't got a secret source, he gets his stock from the same wholesalers. He can also be a lot more selective in the buying of small batches.

What gets me is the consumer who expects fruit clearly out of season, to be available all the time. Where do they think it comes from, a magic Genie !? If it is out of season, it will come out of storage, or be imported.

Having the range available that we do , clearly comes at a price occassionally.

If you don't like the quality , don't buy it.

Supermarkets provide a great range of fruit & vegies, but you only have to taste their tomatoes to know they are not "fresh", a lot of the time. But, as mentioned before, if its out of season, its out of storage. I tried to grow vegies in Darwin, when we were there, had no luck . I know some people did, but we relied on the supermarkets. When on the patrol boats there, we used to get our meat from the butcher in Broome. Put in a bulk order, and it was flown to Darwin. We had some kind of sweetheart deal going, so it wasn't too expensive.


The best way , of course, is to grow your own, if possible. I grow my best tomatoes in winter here, you don't seem to get the bugs & diseases you do in summer. I bottle my own pasta sauce, usually get between 20 - 30 bottles, & freeze the bulk of them. I grow my own celery, herbs, cucumbers, broad beans, capsicums, potatoes, in season. I make green tomatoes pickles, marmalade from the oranges & lemons, [not this year, got lazy on it] I grow rosellas in season & make rosella jam, [ a lot of sugar in it, though]. Getting chooks again, soon, even though SWMBO is against it. Getting my first bee hive in September, and this year I will expand my vegie garden in summer, if only to practise proper crop rotation. I get a lot of ideas from organic garden magazines, I'm yet to master the perfect compost, nearly there. My aim is to be as self sufficient as possible, and of course being retired I have the time. When I'm not working on the Discovery.


We have a local baker in our little shopping centre, bread, etc fresh every day. Free horse manure from the local stables, chicken manure from the chicken farm at Virginia [ soon be using my own]. So far growing vegies has just been a hobby, but I'm going to get a little bit more into it. Try to give the super markets the flick, in some things, at least. Bob

water tanks and solar panels too Bob?:angel:

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Originally Posted by Pedro_The_Swift

water tanks and solar panels too Bob?:angel:

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Water tank, no solar. But we have a spring a few metres down, where the water collects , being at the bottom of the hill, it all comes here. You can tap into it. I haven't yet, my neighbour has. Bob