What on earth, vegetables? Stay with me, a long time ago we started buying our vegetables from a livestock market stall that went on to become our town's only surviving fruit and vegetable shop, Granny Smith's. Recently the freshness of the produce on display has become more and more of an issue. The logistics for the greengrocer are hard, buy what is available and cheap in the food market and then sell it, gauging local demand just right and you make money. Get it wrong and you have moulding stock on hand or over priced against competitors or just as bad, you run out and have to turn customers away. Don't shed too many tears there was always a high mark-up to cover the inevitable stock wastage which is why, the good ones who knew their customers always used to make money.
Times have changed and now money is tight. The Supermarket have changed all the ground rules. They cream off the top quality stock. They set a roughly even price all year round, priced high to cover costs off season but not too high for when prices dip in mid-season. The traditional greengrocer has to compete against that scenario, seeking the just off prime stock or that price that will knock the socks off the Supermarkets pricing. A tough competitive world but it does not stop there, only the good can survive.
Once upon a day the produce came off the field into the market, sold and was in the shop that day or the next, fast turnover. Things are no longer like that, Supermarkets buy from around the world, move produce around, distribute from vast central warehouses, splitting into orders for individual shops and they must have certainty that the produce will last and be fresh for the days shelf time they have set. The producers are under enormous pressure to provide produce that will stay fresh for the shelf time dictated by their 'only' client, the Supermarket.
I have never managed to grow tomatoes where all the fruit were evenly ripe, none over-ripe, none under-ripe and all on the same truss but now they are everywhere, vine ripened trusses. Stay firm for weeks then suddenly collapse in a way I have never experienced before. Conspiratory theory or is this indicative that our food is no longer what it used to be be, straight off the fields. English apples on sale in March that after a couple of days go from crisp to woolly inedible? Peaches, to ripen in basket, that just sit and do not ripen and then collapse in a soggy mess. A long time ago I discover by chance that cauliflower is not straight off the field but is routinely dipped so it keeps better. I think that is the current state of our food, processed to keep and make profits for the seller.
Not so good for the consumer, you cannot trust your eye to spot fresh food from food that had been manipulated to stay "fresh".
