Carrots and milk

The only problem I've had with vegetables is when purchased from Aldi or Lidl. I find they can sometimes be just on the turn but I rarely shop in either. We're very fortunate to have a good local greengrocer which also sells an excellent selection of cheeses and West Country charcuterie.

No problem with s/s milk from Tesco, we use about six pints per week, I buy loose carrots from them if I don’t get to the farm shop, they’re delivered a a brown paper bag.
I haven’t had any problems at all with milk or veg over the last, goodness knows, at least six years we’ve had Tesco, occasionally Asda, deliveries.

I have kitchen roll in my vegetable drawer in fridge and it helps to keep other veggies dry but I think the carrots are not in good condition when I buy them. I try to peer through the film covering them but I still can pick horrible ones. Parsnips, turnips, mushrooms, leeks etc are fine

Milk turns off before sell by date even though I buy it with quite a few days in advance

If I have to buy bagged potatoes or carrots I take them out of the bag and leave them a couple of hours to dry on a sheet of newspaper and then store them in a wicker old fashioned shopping basket lined with newspaper and covered with a sheet of newspaper. They last well somewhere fairly cool. We use a lot of milk and the 4 pints seem to last well. From Waitrose as that is my closest store within walking distance. I occasionally use s/s litre of UHT milk if I run out. If only the 2 pinters were half the price of the 4 pinters it would be useful to buy smaller ones. But I am a cheap skate.

carrots keep very well under water in a container in the fridge. Milk can be frozen in portions or will make scones if turned

Gardeners used to keep their carrots potatoes etc in a clamp, which composed of the root veg being covered in straw or similar and the earth piled on top. My grandfather used to dig a drainage channel around it. They kept all winter like that.

Milk used to be scalded and the cream skimmed off for use (delicious)

That was before the days of pasteurising.

Is your fridge as cold as it should be, OP? Do you have a fridge thermometer to check it?

Where do you all buy your carrots? Ours nearly always come from Asda and they keep very well - as long as they’re taken straight out of the plastic.

A clamp that's a word I haven heard for years. When I was a child our next door neighbour's family had a farm and their carrots were kept in the clamp and maybe potatoes too. We bought a sack of potatoes each winter and they lasted and lasted. Mum kept them in the sack in an outside cupboard. Which was more than cool! I expect she bought carrots as well and maybe swedes too. This was in Kent where there were acres of vegetables growing.

I've stopped buying supermarket own brand milk because it always goes off .
I prefer Cravendale .
It has a pleasant taste and lasts for ages .
When I lived on a farm as a child we had nasty tasting sterilised milk .
It lasted a long time , but I'll never forget how vile it was .
If I buy carrots I take them out of the plastic bag and wrap them in newspaper as I do with all my vegetables .

My fridge seems cold enough. Cans, butter etc are all chilled. I don't buy newspapers nowadays so can't wrap carrots up that way. Carrots are from aldi and morrisons as is the milk. I may try cavendale milk as another grandsnetter mentioned. I'm just curious as to why they don't last as long as they used to do. Years ago when I was younger we had no fridge and mum's veggies and milk seemed to last longer but she probably shopped often

I blame Brexit. I have bought fresh veg from a local greengrocer that comes in paper bags but all the veg tends to be soft, and then mushy when cooked. I've gone back to buying my veg at Tesco.

I buy two x four pints of filtered ?milk in one go with my weekly shop , I have never found it goes off. I always put it straight back in the fridge after I use it. I find if I buy carrots and I put them loose in the salad draw of the fridge they are fine for well over a week but if I put them in my veg rack they tend to go limp and wrinkled.

In the olden days, polomint, we had a daily milk delivery. Some lucky people still do. Like you I buy my milk mostly from Morrisons and I have no problem at all. I think you should get a fridge thermometer - it’s easy to think the temperature is ok but a thermometer is a good investment.

We have milk delivered in returnable glass bottles, 4 pints on Tuesday, 3 on Saturday. It’s local and lasts well.

Yes it may be a good idea to buy a fridge thermometer. My fridge freezer is only a few years old....I think! Maybe it's older than I thought

Just as a matter of interest, how many of gransnetters have a fridge thermometer?

I do.

Like 62granny and Georgesgran I buy filtered milk and it lasts for at least two weeks, though I've normally used it within the first week. It has a different taste, slightly like sterilised or UHT milk, but since I normally only use it in cooking, coffee or for the grandchildren's cereal that is not a problem.
I try to buy carrots loose as I don't use many, but also have used the Lakeland bags mentioned above which work well.
Also I have a new fridge which keeps the vegetable drawers only marginally above 0 degrees so fruit and veg keep well anyway.
My problem is always keeping tomatoes from going squashy, keeping them out of the fridge is recommended but they just don't keep well.

The only vegetable I always buy organic are carrots after DH’s brothers oncologist told him to never eat carrots that weren’t organic. Always buy them from Tescos. Even kept in the plastic bag they come in they last for ages as long as there isn’t a rogue one in the bag.

I buy pre packed carrots via online delivery shop and agree they don't last very long but it's more convenient for me and means less heavier stuff to carry. Have also noticed cucumbers being reduced to mush very quickly and I do buy them separately when I go to the greengrocers. I still think the removal of sell by dates on fruit and vegetables has not been a good move for consumers.

I’ve been having trouble with bagged carrots going slimy, and bagged potatoes growing huge eyes before I get round to using them. I also had one mysterious case of FLOPPY carrots in the veg bin in the fridge! Apparently if they get dehydrated they go floppy. I don’t really want to have to process all my fresh veg before I cook with them - I can’t stand up for very long before my back starts to ache.

I agree knspol, at least the dates enabled us to choose the freshest veg on display.