What is the matter with carrots etc.

Carrots most probably rot quickly because they have been brutally washed to make them nice and clean for the supermarket. They are put all together into a huge container of water and agitated so that all the mud comes off, then packed in plastic while still damp. This bruises their surface and gives an easier entry for the rot. Unwashed carrots last longer.

I order 3 carrots a week from Tesco, they are usually huge and as tough as old boots. My dil down south says Waitrose ones are no better.

My mother wrapped cauliflower in a damp tea towel and kept it in the fridge drawer for sometimes a week and it was fine. She always wrapped her carrots too. The plastic bags seem to make the carrots sweat but I agree about them going off quickly.
What about the flavour of tomatoes? Apart from the ones in the garden we find they have little flavour - like the ones we had years ago around Christmas time. Are they growing more in this aquaculture with just a sort of ‘feed’ in the water!
I agree totally about fruit going off quickly - things going from hard to over ripe almost overnight.

And, if they're bought ones, I never leave them in the bags in the fridge.

May I just add that a friend will only buy organic carrots for her horses. She is very well informed, and apparently as a root vegetable they can absorb chemicals from pesticides and fertilizers more easily underground. This has made me buy organic, at least for carrots now.

it might be the damp that does it.

After washing I leave them to dry on a clean old towel before putting them in the fridge.

It would be interesting to save one that isn’t wrapped in kitchen paper as well, as I think that it might be the damp that does it.

I'm not sure, but I would think commercially grown ones will be scrubbed with some kind of sanitiser, and could, as you say Castillemon, be last season's brought out of long term storage.
I scrub mine well before cooking and don't even scrape them most of the time.
As an experiment, I'm going to save one of mine, after light scrubbing, wrapped in paper in the fridge - and see just how long it stays fresh.
I'll let you know

I think the fault with supermarket carrots and potatoes is that they are washed and then put into plastic bags. The Asda carrots often have soggy tips.

Ps I scrubbed them with a vegetable brush and left them to dry before putting them in the fridge.

ExD I scrubbed the ones I pulled from the garden and they do seem to last ok in the fridge, loosely wrapped in kitchen paper.

Perhaps the ones in the shops are last seasons and have been stored just a bit too long now.

The carrots I got last week were delicious, better than any I'd tasted in a long time. They were cellophane wrapped from the corner shop and did have the distribution/supplier name but I've forgotten. I'll be getting more tomorrow if they have any of course, so sweet and succulent how carrots used to be. I had them in my braising steak, but honestly you could have eaten them raw----and I'm fussy !

Veg in general aren't the same, so tasteless.

Mine are OK out of the garden, some of them are a week old, but although most of the soil has been brushed off they haven't been washed. I think its the washing that seems to take the protective layer off.
Also shop carrots seem to have lost their carroty scent.

I found the same thing with some I bought last week, get a horrible grey mouldy look to them after a couple days. Ones we have been pulling from the garden are fine.

Some fruit is the same, peaches especially don't seem to keep for more than a couple days.
I wonder if they keep things chilled while transporting, then they get warm on the shop shelf and go yuk when we get them home.

I've found mine go soft quickly too. And pears go from hard to overripe no matter where I buy them from. And skin is very hard.

The large quantities are what irritate me too, Teetime. I can’t say I have a problem with them going off, though. They seem to keep for ages in the vegetable drawer in the fridge.

Another problem I find is they are sold in large quantities in supermarkets (if you have a delivery). I suppose the answer is to shop daily.

I found, almost by accident, that wrapping carrots in newspaper, then putting them back into the bag they came in, keeps them fresh! for ages. They go into the salad drawer in the fridge.

I think it was knowing that apples can be stored wrapped in paper that put the idea into my head.

I buy my veg from our local farm shop (apart from carrots which are growing in the garden) and mine seems to be keeping ok. I think it’s got something to do with the conditions of the soil - too much rain.
My sister-in-law used to work in a veg packers that supply supermarkets all over the country. She said a cabbage could be anything up to a year old before it was packed and carrots a similar age too. So much for fresh veg!

Yes, I'm sure there is a carrot conspiracy going on.
All about stock control in my kitchen. I check stuff everyday so as not to waste things and also save money but things do seem to go off faster anyway.

Maybe I'm overcompensating.