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UK Cauliflower shortages

I am blanching and freezing our home grown courgettes and also the runner beans. I find cooking some of the courgettes and sliced onion in butter and olive oil, then freezing them keeps the texture well for bolognese souces etc.
 
Robinredbreast said:
There is always problems in the UK with our weather, it's either, especially in 'summer time', so dry, hot and parched, or more likely rain, rain and more rain and we get through it.
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This past 18 months have been very bad for our soil and crops. The severe winter of 2017/18 and then the long very dry summer, plus a relatively dry winter last year has not given the ground chance to recover. Its been unusually dry for 18 months continuously.

This has compacted the soil, making it hard for the rain to penetrate when it does rain, and the deluges run off the ground, causing flooding, and the ground under the first cm or so remains dry and parched. Plus the hotter summers make much of the rain evaporate before it has chance to sink in.

This past 18 months has not been usual, we cant get round it and carry on, things have changed. I am surrounded by corn right now, on the arable land. I can see the patches where the rain hasnt penetrated, and the soil is not fertile. The local farmers, who have farmed here for generations, also say this is not part of the normal ebb and flow of climate and weather here.
 

The UK weather and close countries too, often experience feast or famine in some form.
 
I've not been able to get any fresh cauliflower for over a week, and this is unlikely to get much better in the next ten months as much of the UK crop failed along with other crops due to come in over the next few months (ie much of our outside autumn veg crops).
A no deal Brexit will exacerbate this; the whole of western Europe is suffering from crop failures but they will still have existing trade deals in place to supplement home grown vegs.
I'm struggling at the moment to find substitute fresh vegs and don't have room in my freezer to buy any more frozen veg.
 
bulkbiker said:
A great time to experiment with carnivore?
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But aren't farmers being encouraged to get rid of Cattle, Pigs, Sheep and plant trees to soak up all that carbon? I can't afford to loose any more weight . There's a lot of squirrels around and that tail would make a great David Crocket hat. Sorry all you Squirrel lovers only joking and I hear they don't taste nice anyway.
 
I guess frozen cauliflower gets priority in trade, too.
 
Muddy Cyclist said:
There's a lot of squirrels around and that tail would make a great David Crocket hat.
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You use the whole pelt to make a Davey Crocket hat, my two boys had one each made from feral cats.
Muddy Cyclist said:
Sorry all you Squirrel lovers only joking and I hear they don't taste nice anyway.
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There was butcher in Reigate Surrey during WW2 who was alleged to have put squirrel meat in his sausages.
 
This evening I ate quorn mince in a sauce on top of raw spiralised courgettes and sweet potatoes. Nicer than cauliflower rice IMO!!
 
I live most of the year in southern Spain where large numbers of cauliflower plants are grown. Almost all from irrigation so weather does not have an immediate effect apart from the rare heavy rainstorm. What has changed is that the U.K. importers have stopped ordering well in advance due to Brexit scare stories. So any slight shortage means no spares for those who have not preordered. In my region U.K. long term orders (usually several months) have dropped to 10% of normal. Of course it is very easy for the management of these importers to just blame the weather. This is the case for all veg., not just Cauliflower
 
Of course, the degradation in the soil produced by flooding and heavy rain could be dealt with using crops and animals to uncompact and restore the fertility - bring back tiny tractors, hedging and ditching around smaller fields, hedgerow trees, free range pigs, goats or sheep to clear fields after crops have been gathered or spoiled.
 
No problems with Cauliflower yet, but I've been struggling to get tenderstem and or purple sprouting Broccoli , plenty of the normal stuff though
 
agwagw said:
A pity that on this forum brexit twaddle is appearing...
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I have not seen that word "twaddle" for eons.

Local cauliflower grower wins export contract to China with his product, I suppose this would be twaddle to some...
 
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