We see the Allotmenteers every two days (we alternate with Other Chap), and we take down four, five, six vegetables each time. Usually it's from the limited range from our local CoOp (so caluliflower, white cabbage or swede). Sometimes its from a bigger supermarket (as CoOp but also Savoy cabbage, spring greens, red cabbage).
Our Garden Girls get 2 (sometimes 3) items every 2 days, and that's to make sure they waste as little as possible.
We drill holes in the vegetables, put string in, and then hang them up. This means the Girls get their greens, but take a bit longer to do so. It helps alleviate boredom that way, as well as being good for them.
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| 3 cabbages, a white cabbage, and a cauli. |
The ladies in the local CoOp have never asked me what I do with the mountain of vegetables that I buy every 2 days. I think they probably assume I'm making soup. Or something.
If I'm shopping at my supermarket of choice I use a hand scanner and scan everything as I go.
If I'm using a competitor, I don't have that option. At the larger supermarkets, I do find the assistants tend to Look at me. Some ask. Most don't. I've started to use the self checkout at the end, just to avoid the Look.
When I first tried to do self checkout, I had problems with the vegetables that needed weighing. You have to select the vegetable from a drill down menu on the screen. I was choosing them on screen before I put them on the scale, and it took me a couple of goes (each time requiring a reset by an assistant) before I realised they needed to be on the scale before I told the machine what they were. It also occurred to me, after going through the menu to find "white cabbage" for the fifth cabbage, that I could just put all the white cabbages on the scale at once. That's what I do now.
Last week I stopped at the enormous supermarket near my Chiropracter. It was Wednesday I think (and I need to remember). They had *loads* of vegetables, all dramatically reduced. Well, reduced from about £1 each to somewhere between 49p and 69p. It soon adds up).
I filled my little trolley with cauliflowers, spring greens, white cabbage, savoy cabbage. I made sure that I didn't take all of them (although I was tempted!), I took plenty that were "on the turn", and I left plenty for others who might need them.I still had enough to cover me for 2 Allotment visits.
I'm assuming that they must be the vegetables that were left over from the weekend. I might try going to some of the big supermarkets near me midweek to see if that's a common thing.
