Have You Noticed A Decline In Quality Of Products You Regularly Buy?

PeppermintPatty said:
We’d love to grow our own fruits but we don’t have the weather for that. Last summer we grew strawberries but didn’t get enough to can. We planted most of our strawberries in the garden and have raspberry and blackberry bushes planted around our property. The only fruit we bottled was apple to make apple butter and it was really good. We made 14 or 15 bottles. We shipped out some to my husbands sister cause she loves it. She also loves the green tomato chow chow so we sent out 4 bottles of that too. We are happy that there’s something yummy that we can make from our under riped fruit.
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I always say waste not ~ Want not ….you do ( you are your DH) do a-lot a canning …and I’ve done the same with underripe tomatoes ,I actually like green tomato pickles …shop bought is way toooo sweet for me .l like tangy pickles.
I saved my tomatoes by freezing them till I had enough to make tomato juice this summer , my DH loves TJ
when I took this photo about 2 weeks ago , I’d already taken 4 big bottles inside and put in fridge
I water bathed / sealed it as well so it’s in the cupboard @PeppermintPatty

Queensland is ideal for growing fruits however they have millions of bats so there’s no point ….and like you there’s no point in trying to grow fruits that dont suit your climate ,as I’d think they trees would freeze to death in the snowIMG_9236.jpeg
 

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Kadee said:
I always say waste not ~ Want not ….you do ( you are your DH) do a-lot a canning …and I’ve done the same with underripe tomatoes ,I actually like green tomato pickles …shop bought is way toooo sweet for me .l like tangy pickles.
I saved my tomatoes by freezing them till I had enough to make tomato juice this summer , my DH loves TJ
when I took this photo about 2 weeks ago , I’d already taken 3 big bottles inside and put in fridge
I water bathed / sealed it as well so it’s in the cupboard @PeppermintPatty

Queensland is ideal for growing fruits however they have millions of bats so there’s no point ….and like you there’s no point in trying to grow fruits that dont suit your climate ,as I’d think they trees would freeze to death in the snow
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That tomato juice looks really good.
The excess tomatoes that are ripe, we make into tomato sauce for pasta etc., and it’s really good. Last year we bought all our tomato plants. This year we are growing all our plants from seeds. We currently have 23 seedlings planted. They are ALL Roma seedlings but we have 4 other types of tomato seeds.

How long do you bath the tomato juice for?
3 hours?
 
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MACKTEXAS said:
Only 2 months ago, I could buy a large bag of Walmart's generic brand Cheese Puffs for $2.86. They stopped carrying those and now sell only the Cheetos brand for about $6.00. I found a bag half the size of the Walmart bag at Dollar Tree for $1.25, so I get 2 bags of those now = $2.50.

Room spray, wax paper, ammonia, masking tape, batteries, bar type hand soaps, ball point pens, sunglasses, bags of popcorn, canned pie fillings, some cake mixes and frostings: All those are cheaper at Dollar Tree than Walmart.
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To be honest - I buy none of this besides an occasional roll of wax paper.
 

PeppermintPatty said:
That tomato juice looks really good.
The excess tomatoes that are ripe, we make into tomato sauce for pasta etc., and it’s really good. Last year we bought all our tomato plants. This year we are growing all our plants from seeds. We currently have 23 seedlings planted. They are ALL Roma seedlings but we have 4 other types of tomatoes.

How long do you bath the tomato juice for?
3 hours?
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40 Mins
This is the recipe I used the TJ is delicious 🤤 @PeppermintPatty
Homemade Canned Tomato Juice
 
JBR said:
I've been involved with growing strawberry plants, and at times with acquisition & distribution of strawberries. The varieties that are generally (though not always) transported over distance and sold retail tend to be different from home grown. They're selected for keeping qualities, as the transportation, retail display, and sales aspects extend the time after picking.
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This is correct. We can complain about having local berries only for a short period during peak season or complain about how bad the year round supply of berries tastes. Your choice.

I do find commercially grown and shipped FL berries can be outstanding at peak season, far better than CA or MX.
 
Most likely we are entering the 100 year cycle of high winds and drifting dust in the air.
It seemed to be apparent last year and very real this spring.
 
Absolutely. I cannot even taste most of the food I buy anymore. The nurse here said that we lose many of our taste buds as we age. Well, no kidding, I am already aware of this. We are also subjected to a few cooks who either over cook or under cook everything.

When I buy fresh produce, I expect to be able to taste it. NJ's soil is very rich for growing just about anything, but where does this facility buy its produce. PA, which makes not one iota of sense to me. As soon as the farmer's market opens, I'll be there.
 
RedAlert76 said:
Nothing in this world,is like it Use to be..
Including ourselves :D
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"I'm going out on a limb here and offering, nothing prepared for us is going to be good for us. ... :coffee: ..."
"Keep us alive, but gradually harm us, of course! The planed harm has been going on for many decades!"
"If it is caned or in a Bottle its to put you down with bad health problems and them richer!"
 
Michael Z said:
Regular duct tape is garbage these days! Even the name brands (like Duck) are junk!

The only tape worth using is T-Rex, or an equivalent, which is strong enough to hold a shattered bumper together for 5 months (I know). The only problem with these super strong tapes is tearing off a piece!
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I've found Gorilla tape to be much, much stronger than duct tape.
 
ChiroDoc said:
'Preciate the heads-up re their online sales. I see the prices aren't cheap, but then again they have the best quality. I hate those thin rickety little containers they sell like at WalMart.
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The plastic containers sold at the dollar store are even worse. I have a large one in which I put a 40 lb. bag of dog food and when I went to nudge it with my foot to move it a couple inches, I put a large hole in it.

You get what you pay for, and then so much less.
 
HoneyNut said:
I've read that our sense of taste deteriorates with age, but I think apples still taste real good (most of them, in the right season, not the ones that were stored for months), as a kid my parents would buy a whole bushel of apples and although they were VERY tasty they were a bit mealy which I guess was them getting overripe maybe.

The most disappointing modern product to me is elastic in clothes, I had a soft stretchy skort from college age that I only threw away a couple years ago, and the stretch was still good (whereas the fabric was in shreds), and I have a couple jockey athletic undershirts that were my mom's (she liked them in her 80s to use instead of bras because they have real good stretch/hold) that are still perfect, but the clothes I've purchased the past half dozen years the elastic doesn't have good hold and completely gives up being elastic after a few years.
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I 100% agree regarding elastic @HoneyNut ,
I used to buy 3/4 in ~ good non roll elastic for adding to waist bands

I purchased good quality jersey fabric skirts from a

store called Nonib who specialised in woman's good quality garments .( I’ve got 57 skirts ,bought from NB when the quality was still good ) they were not eye watering expensive…on average about $68~ $90

I wear the skirts for for social ballroom dancing ~ ,no frilly / fancy over the top clothing~ is worn by anyone now days ..any way instead of messing about with hemlines I’d take the skirts up at the waist ….being jersey it was easy ~ now the elastic only lasts 12 months or so and it’s …if you stretch it …it’s ruined 😠

I like my skirts to be just covering my knees …..

Of course Nonib which was part of a group being Millers / Rockmans / Rivers / Susan have ALL …closed in the last few weeks here in Australia…..some of the reason very poor quality fabrics being used to make garments ….one wash and bin them ~ type of clothing …so ~ no one hardly buying ~ due to many factors ….but the biggest gripe amongst dancers was the very poor quality garments, some of which had a strange… smell :sick::sick:about them
Of course it was all made in china
 
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Kadee said:
40 Mins
This is the recipe I used the TJ is delicious 🤤 @PeppermintPatty
Homemade Canned Tomato Juice
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I might add that's not my kitchen ……my kitchen is mostly white …I’m not going to be messing with tomatoes
in my kitchen so seeming we do the actual water bath processing in the shed ….we did the entire process of making the TJ in the shed …I’ve got a machine ( hand driven ) to process the tomatoes-it save so much time / mess
Roma’s are the best tomatoes @PeppermintPatty only issue I tend to get bottom end rot …I’ll be giving them a try again next spring ( September )


IMG_9238.jpeg
 
Kadee said:
I might add that's not my kitchen ……my kitchen is mostly white …I’m not going to be messing with tomatoes
in my kitchen so seeming we do the actual water bath processing in the shed ….we did the entire process of making the TJ in the shed …I’ve got a machine ( hand driven ) to process the tomatoes-it save so much time / mess
Roma’s are the best tomatoes @PeppermintPatty only issue I tend to get bottom end rot …I’ll be giving them a try again next spring ( September )


View attachment 413294
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We make our tomato sauce in the kitchen. It makes a mess but we clean it up. Our shed is filled with garden stuff . We could probably do it in our garage. It’s got power but it’s also filled with wood dust from woodworking, so not sanitary enough. We will stick to the kitchen.

Yes Roma’s are best for making juice or sauce. Other types we get for making chow chow which is like a chutney.
@Kadee
 
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