La Puce wrote:
JennyC wrote:
Not everything is poor quality.
In the Netherlands, their fruit juice is German and pure. Their beer
is German Reinheitverbod compliant and not the output of the local
chemical works.
We got a good quality pressure cooker from Lidl.
They don't have a big variety of things, except for some reason of
frankfurter sausages.

Their jams are great too and the frozen salmon portions........
You do have to be picky with the veg though.

HOOOOOOooo stop it! I'm starving now!! Is Lidl german? This is it -
this is why it's nice where you are, but not where we are. Ours, on
Seymour Grove, is weird and half empty and as I said, only the
chocolate is ok - the rest is really bizarre and I have no confidence
in the prices.

Lidl is indeed german. In Ireland, I can find very little wrong with
them. Lidl is the nearest supermarket to me, and I was initially
attracted by the incredibly cheap cut flowers they sell. They're not
always great, but this time of year they sell lovely bunches of locally
grown tulips and daffs for €2.99. They also sell lovely small budded
pink roses with a couple of sprays of those tiny fluffy white flowers
for the same price which last at least 10 days in a vase. And beautiful
white lilies that last for well over 2 weeks for €4.99 or €5.99.
Fruit and veg is of excellent quality, with much of the seasonal stuff
procured locally, Most of the cabbage, brussels sprouts, lettuce,
mushroom and spuds are almost always Irish grown. Bananas obviously
come from elsewhere... Fresh meat is also locally produced - though I
frankly do not find it up to scratch, and generally rely on my local
friendly butcher who slaughters his own and provides great service.
Whether I go to my local Tesco or Lidl, I find I don't need to be any
more picky when I grab fruit and veg - I always watch what I purchase
anyway, and when buying grapes for example, am very careful that they
are all in good nick.
Re. the gardening stuff, Lidl are quite good for plants - but you need
to buy them as soon as they appear in the store. They are ill-equipped
to store living plants, and if the stock has been aroudn a while,
likelihood is that it will be damaged or dried up, or even dead. That
said, my garden boasts quite a few Lidl plants which have grown well
and done what it said on the label. I also found the seeds of many of
the veg I love but rarely/never see in our normal garden centres here
in Lidl - hence, salsifies, kohlrabi and others have grown in my garden
last year courtesy of Lidl.
When it comes to the equipment, you have a point. Not all is of tip
top quality, and if it costs you €1.99, it is likely not worth much
more than that. However, we purchased a garden shredder two years ago,
which has munched its way through much of an old leylandii hedge...
needless to say, we adore it :-)
I agree with you on the chocolate, too. They have the most fabulous
dark choc with 70% cocoa solids, which is pure heaven on a plate with
their (equally delicious) espresso ground coffee... :-) (excuse me a
second while I drool).
If the preconception in the UK is that only people who are financially
challenged shop in Lidl, you would be amazed at the number of large new
car driving people shopping in my local store. The shop is generally
well stocked - though don't call in late in the evening looking for
milk or bread - always clean, and the staff friendly.
That said, I called into a Lidl near my family home in SW France last
year, and it looked like a manky war zone where you would not be caught
dead for fear of catching something. YMMV.

Cat(h)

Cat(h) wrote:

Lidl is indeed german. In Ireland, I can find very little wrong with
them.

(great snip)

Are you sure the stuff is local? If it is that is absolutely brilliant.
I also think because I'm French and from the south west of France, I am
very dubious of places like these. Why on earth someone would go to a
german supermarket in bordeaux, pau, sarlat or toulouse, when vegs,
meat and bread is there fresh and produced locally?!!

I've been brought up with markets and local stuff - I think it's kinda
deep in my blood now and I get funny seeing food stuff displayed with
weeks of shelves lives on them, I don't like tinned stuff, beside
tomatoes, sweetcorn and tuna. The cats and dogs love it though. I try
not to buy yet more plastic if I can help it. I'm not vegetarian, nor
am I campaining day and night etc. I just want simple fresh stuff,
locally made, in season and if I have to pay the extra 20p for my
biodiesel and my carrots, so be it )

La Puce wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:

Lidl is indeed german. In Ireland, I can find very little wrong with
them.

(great snip)

Are you sure the stuff is local? If it is that is absolutely brilliant.

For reasons I will not go into, I can confirm that some of it is. But
as I said, not every vegetable is. And some of what should be (e.g.
carrots are French), isn't. Essentially because Lidl are looking for
the keenest prices and our producers are not always the most
competitive.

I also think because I'm French and from the south west of France, I am
very dubious of places like these. Why on earth someone would go to a
german supermarket in bordeaux, pau, sarlat or toulouse, when vegs,
meat and bread is there fresh and produced locally?!!

To a fair extent, I agree with you. However, I have lived away from
that situation for nearly 20 years, and where I live, it is *extremely*
difficult to get locally produced goods. I have tried repeatedly to
sign up for veg box schemes, only to find that no-one could guarantee
me regular deliveries. The costs were also pretty horrendous.


I've been brought up with markets and local stuff - I think it's kinda
deep in my blood now and I get funny seeing food stuff displayed with
weeks of shelves lives on them, I don't like tinned stuff, beside
tomatoes, sweetcorn and tuna. The cats and dogs love it though. I try
not to buy yet more plastic if I can help it. I'm not vegetarian, nor
am I campaining day and night etc. I just want simple fresh stuff,
locally made, in season and if I have to pay the extra 20p for my
biodiesel and my carrots, so be it )

I'm with you on teh above. But as I said, I now find myself in a
society where weekly markets are few and far between and those which do
exist are a recent yuppy innovation - I'm not joking - where an
*organic* chicken of medium weight, say 1.5kg, can set you back as much
as €15, locally produced jars of jam sell for upwards of €4 for 250
gr, and there is simply not enough variety to purchase most of one's
food needs.
There is no food market in my immediate viscinity. The nearest is
about 15 km away, it's on Friday mornings, but only starts from 9 am.
It is utterly impractical for me to shop there, as my first task of the
day is to commute to work, and I cannot reasonably be expected to take
half a day off to go shopping for food. Tesco, on the other hand, is
open 24 hours. It's simple, we don't really have the option of markets
in Ireland. However, we have great butchers, and some good fishmongers
in coastal areas. We also have some good greengrocers, but a lot of
these are finding the going very tough when competing with the multiple
retailers.
All in all, as I said, in the society in which I operate, I can find
very little wrong with the Lidl model.
But at this stage, I am so far off topic that I deserve a drastic rap
on the knuckles.
I'll shut up now :-)

Cat(h)

The message . com
from "La Puce" contains these words:
JennyC wrote:

Not everything is poor quality.
In the Netherlands, their fruit juice is German and pure. Their beer
is German Reinheitverbod compliant and not the output of the local
chemical works.
We got a good quality pressure cooker from Lidl.
They don't have a big variety of things, except for some reason of
frankfurter sausages.

Their jams are great too and the frozen salmon portions........
You do have to be picky with the veg though.

HOOOOOOooo stop it! I'm starving now!! Is Lidl german? This is it -
this is why it's nice where you are, but not where we are. Ours, on
Seymour Grove, is weird and half empty and as I said, only the
chocolate is ok - the rest is really bizarre and I have no confidence
in the prices.


In ours, the veg and fruit are excellent, and far-and-away better than
any other stupidmarket. Some of their wines take a *LOT* of beating,
well, most things are good value.

Some of their cheap non-edible things are a bit rubbishy - though I did
buy an excellent, stable and good-looking self-assemble TV stand with
three plate-glass shelves (and crap instructions) for less than twenty
quid. Had my hi-fi on it for quite a while.

About the only food I'd *NEVER* buy in Lidl is what they'd like us to
believe is bread.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

In article , Janet Baraclough
writes
The message
from Martin contains these words:


Maybe what they sell in NL is better than they sell in UK?

Ignore the misinformation by Puke.
What Lidl sell in the UK is usually at rockbottom prices and often
excellent quality, just a matter of picking and choosing.

Janet


And whilst some might be lucky enough to have some choice, there are
others, equally keen on gardening or eating or whatever and rely on Lidl
for affordable shopping. !

Janet
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

T.C.

Children! Do play nicely

/T.C.

--
Rusty
Direct reply to: horrid dot squeak snailything zetnet point co period uk
Separator in search of a sig

Cat(h) wrote:
To a fair extent, I agree with you. However, I have lived away from
that situation for nearly 20 years, and where I live, it is *extremely*
difficult to get locally produced goods. I have tried repeatedly to
sign up for veg box schemes, only to find that no-one could guarantee
me regular deliveries. The costs were also pretty horrendous.

Do you have a van coming by you once a week? My friend who leaves in
Veuil, (middle of absolutely nowhere), gets the bread van twice a week,
meat once a week. The veg she grows herself and shares with other local
farmers.

I had signed to an organic home delivery, a scheme offering boxes from
£5 to £15. The first time I got 60% oignons roll eyes! I mentioned
it and they exclaimed that it's because they thought I was french lol!!
Still, I continued for a while, just so that I would help them at the
beginning of their venture. I stopped eventually fed up by the random
produces. I couldn't keep up with so many oignons!

I'm with you on teh above. But as I said, I now find myself in a
society where weekly markets are few and far between and those which do
exist are a recent yuppy innovation - I'm not joking - where an
*organic* chicken of medium weight, say 1.5kg, can set you back as much
as €15,

This is madness - I would however put money for a chicken, but £6 is
my limit - once a week chicken though. I've got a friend who started
selling fruits and veg on the high street from a caravan. He sells 6
froots or 6 vegs for £1. I think that's pretty good and you find
students munching on raw carrots when they pass by.

locally produced jars of jam sell for upwards of €4 for 250
gr, and there is simply not enough variety to purchase most of one's
food needs.

I've decided to do more jam this year. There's lots of trees on our
allotments which fruits just fell and nobody seems to care. I'll use
them )

All in all, as I said, in the society in which I operate, I can find
very little wrong with the Lidl model.
But at this stage, I am so far off topic that I deserve a drastic rap
on the knuckles.
I'll shut up now :-)

Don't. It's nice to find out how the others live )

"La Puce" wrote
Janet Baraclough wrote:
[context restored]
People in this group have endlessly made it clear, they just won't
tolerate your lying foul-mouthed abuse of other posters;

Tut tut Janet. Only you dear. So stop stalking me and calling me
names, throwing abuse at me and being rude at every opportunity. My
name's not puke but Puce. La puce.

Talk about pots and kettles! At the moment it looks like you're doing
the
stalking, bringing other groups' squabbles into urg.

And IIRC several people over the weeks have suggested politely that you
stop the juvenile namecalling but you haven't. You've posted some quite
unpleasant insults and not only to Janet. Quite honestly it's enough to
make anyone puke.

snip

It is so clear that you despise me for reasons nobody frankly
understand.

The reasons get more numerous by the day.

--
Sue

La Puce wrote:
Do you have a van coming by you once a week? My friend who leaves in
Veuil, (middle of absolutely nowhere), gets the bread van twice a week,
meat once a week. The veg she grows herself and shares with other local
farmers.

No such van where I live, but to be fair we are within the commuter
belt of Dublin, and have four good supermarkets (one Lidl) within 5
minutes drive from our home.
On the other hand, I often see the butcher's van on Sat mornings in my
other half's village, in a remote rural area.
I am not sure just how prevalent such services are, though.
And I recall when a child in the Hautes Pyrenees, that I saw the end of
the baker's and butcher's van service which coincided with my leaving
home for college. So your friend is lucky that the service is still
available to her.


I had signed to an organic home delivery, a scheme offering boxes from
£5 to £15. The first time I got 60% oignons roll eyes! I mentioned
it and they exclaimed that it's because they thought I was french lol!!
Still, I continued for a while, just so that I would help them at the
beginning of their venture. I stopped eventually fed up by the random
produces. I couldn't keep up with so many oignons!

I didn't even get that far :-)


This is madness - I would however put money for a chicken, but £6 is
my limit - once a week chicken though. I've got a friend who started
selling fruits and veg on the high street from a caravan. He sells 6
froots or 6 vegs for £1. I think that's pretty good and you find
students munching on raw carrots when they pass by.

A recent study has shown Ireland is one of the EU countries where food
is most expensive - in the top two if memory serves.
Organic food and food markets in Ireland have more to do with recently
acquired affluence and the so-called "celtic tiger" than with
fulfilling the need of procuring food each week - which is what French
food markets are about. Food can be fantastic quality, but the prices
are genuinely horrendous. You could only ever justify buying yourself
a treat - in effect, they are not a viable alternative to ordinary
supermarkets. And to be fair, supermarkets are not bad in Ireland, and
the food is of good quality. Although all my French friends and
rellies find it over processed - though less so than my modest
experience of the UK retail - and overpackaged (fruit, veg, meat and
cheese in particular).
On fruit and veg stalls - in season, we get particularly good
strawberries from the SE of Ireland. Plenty of growers get temporary
licences to sell them from the side of the road. A punnet with 300 or
400g of fruit can cost €5 or more. And when you are travelling long
distances, what greater pleasure is there than munching on aromatic
strawberries still warm from the sun? So, you stop, and you fork out.
But you ain't going to go and make jam with them!


I've decided to do more jam this year. There's lots of trees on our
allotments which fruits just fell and nobody seems to care. I'll use
them )

I get odd looks when I go plundering hedgerows for blackberries and
elderberries here :-)


Don't. It's nice to find out how the others live )

True, and thank you, but this is a gardening newsgroup, and to be fair
to those who log on to read about gardening, this time, I am really
shutting up :-)

Cat(h)

La Puce wrote:
Cat(h) wrote:

Lidl is indeed german. In Ireland, I can find very little wrong with
them.

(great snip)

Are you sure the stuff is local? If it is that is absolutely
brilliant. I also think because I'm French and from the south west of
France, I am very dubious of places like these. Why on earth someone
would go to a german supermarket in bordeaux, pau, sarlat or
toulouse, when vegs, meat and bread is there fresh and produced
locally?!!

Next time you are in France have a look in Lidl. Lots of locally
produced or French produced stuff in our local one. Off the top of my
head, all of the following are considerably or slightly less expensive
and of considerably or much better quality than other supermarket
rivals. Confit de canard, pineau de Charentes, Cassoulet Toulousin,
sausages and lentils, saucisson with walnuts, various cheeses, jambon
cru and other meats for raclette, some yoghurts and desserts. Some
wines, sometimes, depending on special offers.

As regards fresh fruit and veg, I imagine people buy from Lidl because
they are very very much cheaper than the local markets. Which is a real
shame, but there you are.....Fresh bread they don't sell at all.

Gardening things and tools in general are usually good value for money I
think, I have a few of their things, but for anything heavy duty I
would prefer to pay more money for a better quality product.

--
Holly, in France
Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.
http://la-plaine.chez-alice.fr

Sue wrote:
"La Puce" wrote

calling me
names, throwing abuse at me and being rude at every opportunity.

Talk about pots and kettles!

Quite!
--
Holly, in France
Gite to let in Dordogne, now with pool.
http://la-plaine.chez-alice.fr

On 28/2/06 14:14, in article
, "La Puce"
wrote:


Sue wrote:
Talk about pots and kettles! At the moment it looks like you're doing
the
stalking, bringing other groups' squabbles into urg.

What?! I have asked Pedt to stop crossposting. It was however
apparently necessary to do so because then posters would benefit on
learning how to filter the spams/troll whatever. That's all. Left at
that.

I do not stalk. Janet is constantly abusing me. I do not try anything
with anyone. I'm a nice person really and you are however seemingly
very bored to try to annoy me too.

And IIRC several people over the weeks have suggested politely that you
stop the juvenile namecalling but you haven't.

That's not true. I received many emails to tell me to ignore the
bearded ladies and keep posting. Yes, in those words.

Do you really not see how it is that you have made such a bad impression on
so many people here? Many of us email each other at times about various
things. It is a matter of trust that we do not publish on a newsgroup what
we discuss in email because we regard them as being as private as
hand-written letters. But you have no scruples and have several times now
disclosed what has been written to you in emails and on two occasions at
least, the name of one of those emailing you. It's despicable.
You have no idea what has been said about you in emails, do you? Or how
many people have said them? But you should certainly remember that you're
not the only person who receives emails.
The sort of person who wrote that to you has done you a disservice because
they have stirred you up but are not brave enough to do their own dirty
work. Straight off, I can think of two people who would fit that bill and
both are thoroughly disliked for their whiny, egocentric mendacity. But
that's hardly surprising if they're encouraging you to go on being rude and
unpleasant.

You've posted some quite
unpleasant insults

And Janet doesn't?

and not only to Janet.

Yes, to someone else and that someone else is actually quite an
interesting person and I will not get into further problems with her.
So leave it Sue. Please, go and gossip about your neighbours, but leave
me alone.

Why that remark about Sue and her neighbours? You just *have* to insult
others about their looks, their families, their lives, their experiences,
their age. You are just SO rude and SO unpleasant on here that it is
startling that you expect everyone to treat you with respect and kindness!
Elsewhere you have tried to ridicule Janet about her postings in another
group. Again - any fool can do that and a couple, as foolish as you, have
tried. But anything can be taken out of context and, where the history
isn't known, used against someone. It's a low and vicious piece of
behaviour.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
)

"La Puce" wrote in message
ups.com...

JennyC wrote:
Not everything is poor quality.
In the Netherlands, their fruit juice is German and pure. Their beer
is German Reinheitverbod compliant and not the output of the local
chemical works.
We got a good quality pressure cooker from Lidl.
They don't have a big variety of things, except for some reason of
frankfurter sausages.

Their jams are great too and the frozen salmon portions........
You do have to be picky with the veg though.

HOOOOOOooo stop it! I'm starving now!! Is Lidl german?

Info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lidl :~))

I recall ALDI in Austria having the most delicious Serbian Bean Soup I've ever
tasted. Stiff with garlic and totally yummy. I always come back with a box full
if we pass thought there on our hols :~))
Jenny

"Cat(h)" wrote in message
ups.com...

snip

That said, I called into a Lidl near my family home in SW France last
year, and it looked like a manky war zone where you would not be caught
dead for fear of catching something. YMMV.
Cat(h)

OH - the one in le Bugue (Dordogne) is fine !!
Jenny

JennyC wrote:

That said, I called into a Lidl near my family home in SW France last
year, and it looked like a manky war zone where you would not be caught
dead for fear of catching something. YMMV.
Cat(h)

OH - the one in le Bugue (Dordogne) is fine !!

Stop it you ;o)

But it's true, isn't Cath. Some are good and some are bad. But I
wouldn't go there, especially in Le Bugue!!! (I'll go swimming there
though and visit an old friend ;o)