seasonal variation
On the hottest day of the year so far, 33 degrees or thereabouts (I know, it's not that hot, but it does come as a bit of a shock when it's been cold and grey for months), I thought I'd revisit a couple of old gripes; seasonal produce and unripe fruit.Way back when, there used to be an unlamented supermarket chain called Safeway, and their entire business model seemed to be predicated around the concept of stocking the same range of fresh fruit and vegetables all year round, thus in the middle of a heatwave in August you could buy wizened parsnips air-freighted from Australia, not to mention brussel sprouts and neeps at astronomical prices. There was a time after the demise of Safeway, when the big supermarkets; Tesco and Sainsbury seemed to embrace the seasons, and you couldn't assume that they'd have soft fruit all year round, sadly, advances in horticultural techniques have extended the growing period for fruits like strawberrys. This has not, however, meant that they are better to eat, as in order to transport them from Spain (for example), they have to be picked under ripe. So the whole market has shifted from producing the best tasting fruit, to producing specimens that look good when upripe. They seem to have done something similar to asparagus, as my local Tesco is still stocking UK grown spears.
Into the realm of weasel words comes 'ripen at home', a plastic encased package (you can't then inspect the fruit) containing fruits of such hardness that a week in an ethylene enriched atmosphere wouldn't help. Generally speaking, they either dry out, or rot before they become edible, this is a transparent effort to shift the supermarkets responsibility onto the shopper. Similarly annoying is the phrase 'perfectly ripe' when applied (at a premium) to produce that very often isn't any more ripe than the more plebeian fruits that are in the same display.
My contention is that there has been a change in policy, probably a consequence of the difficult market at the moment, and that, while there is a conscious effort to maintain a basic stock throughout the year (Tesco still has sprouts, and parsnips at the end of June, for example), I think the underlying philosophy is more to do with using the value of seasonal fruit to underwrite the costs of supplying them throughout the year. Hence now, when there looks to be a glut of stone fruits, and market stalls are selling them for pennies, the same plastic wrapped trays are available with no acknowledgement of real world pricing. A simple test is to look at the price of grapes; they used to be sold in bunches by weight (and in some stores still can be), mostly now they are sealed in plastic cartons, and at a price point of around £2.00. What tends to vary, is the weight, and also, you will often find that your plastic tub contains several small chunks of bunches, rather than a bunch, if that matters to you.
However, outside of 'premium' named varieties, it is rare for grapes to fall below that price point, even at times when they are in short supply (like now). A supermarket is a very controlled environment, it is deliberate policy not to have any references to time on display for example, the ideal customer would be one who roams the store at length and isn't very conscious of the costs of items beyond the walls. As ever, when presented with a banner screaming about price and value, you should ask; what is paying for this reduction?
A final note, to moan about cheese, why is it impossible for UK supermarkets to sell cheese that is ripe? We are offered brie and camembert that are just flavour free chalks, yet if you keep them for a couple of weeks, they become perfectly acceptable. Continental hard cheeses like gruyere, emmental or comte although obviously of impeccable origin, are so juvenile that they might as well not bother selling them.
I shall probably return to this theme, I don't think I have fully explored the ramifications of seasonal fruit and veg, and the ever increasing growth of single use packaging.
posted by Lampy @ 6/29/2019 02:12:00 pm
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