Courgette crisis!

They did a report from a veg market on Breakfast and wholesale boxes of courgettes are four times the normal price.

I heard on the Today programme that in the UK one farmer has invested millions to grow tomatoes hydroponically under LED lights. They are basically grown in guttering as they do in Holland - I think this method is the reason for tasteless tomatoes - the ones OH grows in the garden are delicious.

It's definitely got to be Onions for me ....would be a sad world without them ...they go in practically every dish l cook! ?

Yes Welshwife, I saw that item re courgettes on the news this morning. Apparently due to bad - and pretty much unheard of - huge snow in Spain. My disappointment was there is still huge demand for the outrageously overpriced few that get through. Beware the traders who might be opportunist and simply do without them for a little while. Does anyone remember many years ago when potatoes became a silly price and people resorted to alternatives such as rice? The price soon returned to 'reasonable'. Nowadays, I think many of us don't take time to be price aware. Yep TIME is indeed precious.

Oh dear! How did our parents manage? I love courgettes but it's not the end of the world if we don't get them. If I were a gardener [which I'm definitely not!] I'd try and grow them myself. Perhaps that should be another NY resolutions

Potato, onion, just thinking bit of bacon, white sauce and yes another hot pot!

Fruit and veg don't taste the same as when I was young because they are specially bred for shelf life. I remember when I was a child being sent to buy tomatoes that were over ripe ,
for frying. What has happened to juicy William pears? Russet apples? Small Canary bananas? They go off too soon for the supermarkets to stock.
Tomatoes should not be refrigerated.

We used to grow courgettes (zucchini in US) during the short New England summer. Peppers, too, though they are more challenging.

They grow so quickly, you can end up with cricket bat sized courgettes if you wait too long to harvest, even a day can make a difference in a few inches.

My expat friends likely will recall home-gardeners leaving a basket or box of zucchini at the end of their drive with a sign saying FREE-PLEASE TAKE ALL YOU WANT! My mum used to make zucchini relishes.

I also remember back in the US that California (and now Florida) was the 'salad bowl' of America. Spain is surely the UK's.

Here, I wish we had more Greek produce. They grow lovely soft fruit and vegetables. Their peaches and melons are amazing.

I always put my excess courgettes and squashes beside my gate with a 'help yourself' notice. I find that they only disappear at night!

Couldn't live without onions. I rarely buy fruit & veg from Supermarkets preferring my local shop which stocks mostly local produce some grown less than a mile from where I live.

I also get veg boxes from Riverford delivered, they are about 10 miles from where I live, superb, in season, straight from the ground veg (carrots with soil on them). Used to use Abel & Cole as well but they don't deliver where I live now.

When I was growing up we grew all our own fruit & veg, apart from potatoes as they always got "wireworm", greenhouse grown tomatoes absolutely wonderful flavour

I wonder if the current trend of eating ready made courgetti - expensive ready spiralized courgettes - has exacerbated the shortage?

Quite likely, Grannynise.
Couldn't live without onions and tomatoes. Mercifully, one can get good tinned toms. One should be able to make do.
Frozen veges are pretty good on the whole, except they are a bit boring.
Yes, we have got used to having everything at all times - no real "hunger months" at the end of winter after the winter vegetables have finished and the spring veges start.

No one else seems to have mentioned broccoli but I had to go to three stores on Monday to find any!

We could eat English seasonal instead?

Probably the weather causing shortages . We had a very hot summer and our courgettes , peppers and aubergine didn't do too well. We now have had cold and frosty weather since early December, the ground is frozen and the citrus trees are looking very sorry for themselves. Maybe more shortages in the spring and summer!!

I was just about to ask what courgetti was! Interesting.

Couldnt do without cauliflower, I grow Courgettes, very easy to do, also home grown tomatoes, now THEY cant be beaten, mmm, the delicious flavour, roll on summer.

He never short of something as we grow so much throughout the year, and the freezers are always bursting.

But couldn't live without onions.

I couldn't find any courgettes last week (Waitrose or Lidl) and just wanted one to put in a stirfry.

Well, I couldn't manage without potatoes, but, if we're excluding them then broccoli because it is so easy to prepare and good for you too.

I had a good crop of courgettes in the garden last summer and froze the surplus, no lack of courgettes in this household.

Love courgettes stir fried in slices with tomato onions bacon and a little cheese lovely with pasta. Have to wait now!

We usually grow a few courgettes in Summer, but not enough to last through to Autumn.I can live without them.
I use a lot of tomatoes and peppers and of course the humble spud.Never use any onions!

I discovered last summer how easy it was to grow courgettes so won't be buying them in any season. Tomatoes a bit more difficult but I got a good greenhouse crop last summer/autumn. I managed a few butternut squash and we are in Scotland! Apart from bananas, kiwis and mangoes we try to buy everything else locally and in season. For winter, we prefer the root vegetables anyway and hubby makes the best soups! Like others, I would be worried if we couldn't get carrots, onions and swedes. I tried growing kale last winter and used it in juices but it is so tasteless. I know it's meant to be a superfood...Have grown a few savoy cabbages over the winter, almost in spite of myself (i.e., haven't looked after them) so they will be nice...I hope.

I use every vegetable there is.. Today we've eaten onions leeks, garlic, spinach, beans and cauliflower.
Tomorrow it will be lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, onions, red pepper, celery and cress.

BUT - if forced to choose one which would you choose ww?

to veg or not to veg That is the question

I could give celery a miss.

Thinking back to when I was growing up in Scotland in the 1940s and 50s, we had a very limited selection of vegetables. We always had potatoes and onions, carrots and some sort of cabbage. We sometimes had swede (which we called turnip or neeps), white turnip (which English folk call turnip), cauliflower, brussells sprouts, leeks, lettuce, beetroot and tomatoes in season. We had tinned peas (garden peas if you were posh, processed if you were not), baked beans and tinned or dried butter beans.

I sometimes think I should take my grandchildren to the supermarket and point out all the vegetables we never had - mushrooms, sweet peppers, courgettes, aubergines, butternut squash, spinach, green beans, kidney beans, asparagus, kale, beansprouts, sweetcorn, cucumber, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, garlic etc etc

They'd probably find it hard to believe. Our diet then involved eating meat (usually low quality gristly meat) almost every day at home and at school. I haven't eaten meat for almost thirty years.