Corporate farming mentality.

It will be the end of us all......

LOLOLOL. Even though I hate the nasty things, although I've made them for spouses, I also agree freezing a fried green tomato is prolly a sacrilege. I wonder what they do about that certain texture a tomato gets when it's frozen. Sort of like a fibrous, gelatinous pulp. Although it's not as sacrosanct as freezing fried green tomatoes, I get the same feeling when I see whole market isles filled with gallon jugs of iced tea. I can buy enough tea leaves for hundreds of these jugs for the same price as one jug of ready-made. And......mine'll taste better.

I don't mind seeing one serving sizes of iced tea. It's a nice alternative to soda pop in a vending machine, but a gallon of it, means you are too "busy" to steep a few tea bags. Nobody should ever be that busy.

Frozen fried green tomatoes!!!!!! In the SOUTH!!!!
Surely you're mistaken. I say we boycott the company
that would commit such a crime.

Wanda, I'm surprised to learn of the frozen tomatoes and haven't noticed them at my store but they are possibly there. I agree that the gallons of tea is amazing, it's so easy to make tea at home and so inexpensive. But I still can't get over those peanut butter/ jelly sandwiches I've seen advertised. Who can't slap one of those together for their child?

Calliope, I buy gallon jugs of diet peach iced tea regularly. But een if I could make such a thing, it's so much easier to just have that jug in the fridge.

Anyway, while I, too, buy single-serving beverages in cans, I generally have a "thing" against single-serve packages of most edibles. Even Girl Scout cookies have succumbed. One box I bought, not really paying attention, had five little bags of cookies in it, I guess meant for the lunch-box crowd. But what a waste of packaging.

Pidge,I buy gallons of lemonade in the summer rather than make it every week. Hope the eye rollers and grocery police don't come and take me away.

I don't make much lemonade from scratch, either. It's not a local product so is expensive and frankly I can't really afford to buy bags of them in quantity. It's cost effective and likely ecologically effective to have it processed at a central point and distributed in recyclable containers compared to shipping tons of the raw produce.

There is a little bit of difference between passing judgment on what other people should be buying, and mentioning cost or earth friendly alternatives. I don't suppose some younger people who are starting up independent lives, if all they know is pre-made jugged water or tea, even know they have alternatives. And, unless there is a movement of consumers to discourage packaging things to death, producers will only continue in that direction. Pretty soon cookies will be individually wrapped, and we'll have a stack of paper on the counter next to the milk when we get up for our two o'clock binges. Sorry my comment was so offensive.

The gallons of tea are used here a lot for club meetings & other functions. They're fairly cheap & a whole lot easier to deal with when you're serving up a lot of people.

Hey, one of my local stores USED to carry frozen green maters. It may have been lame, but surely was a taste treat for this northen' gal that dearly loves the things and had no hopes of having any for 8 months or so.

I hit the industrial packaging isle for things like that too, Andie. I've had to personally make dinners (got volunteered for them sometimes without my knowledge) and I would also scarf up similar items. I have no desire to blow hours making drinks nor peeling and preparing halved pears or scalloped potatoes for 75 people from scratch, nor personally have the serving containers to prepare or present it. I guess you just really have to ask yourself "what's it worth to me" for this convenience and go with it.

suzy,
I was going to start another thread regarding that very idea..."What's it worth to me."

I was thinking about the tea by the gallon...which I feel the same as you for consumption at home.

On the other hand, after asking your secrets and getting so many good suggestions regarding making my own pasta, I still pick up a couple bags every time I go to the market and haven't even attempted making my own so far.

So...do you want to start a thread regarding that idea?
It would be neat to see what it's worth to some and not others...without condeming comments either way.

For example:
It just kills me to buy soft drink in individial bottles for consumption at home...so much more cost effective and less plastic waste to buy a 2 or 3 liter.
But, Mr. Man only wants the individual plastic bottles of soft drink and thinks nothing about going through several bottles a day.

Wanda, If you recycle the bottles, it's probably better to have the individual containers. Those 2-3 liter bottles seem to go flat with before you can finish the drinks & then end up being thrown out. We never buy them in that size unless we're going to have a party where we know that the drinks will be consumed before they go bad.

andie,

LOLOLOLOL!!!!

Something go flat around this zoo????
The traffic load is so that nothing has the opportunity to
go flat or stale. : )

I have threatened to charge a 'cover charge' for everyone that enters my door.

I do refill the little bottles with water, smaller amounts of Propel (the regular bottles contain too much for the kids), tea, juice, and freeze them.
Then, when we work outside, go on a day trip, ..., I just throw them in the cooler and don't have to bother with ice or cups.

Unfortunately, we don't have a formal recycle system.
Any recycling is on a personal level.

Mine's on a personal level as well, Wanda. We don't have municipal sanitation out in the boonies, although the service is good, it is expensive. In the town, there is a recycling program but it's not mandatory. Is is, but it isn't if you know what I mean. There are lists of things one cannot put in the rubbish to be hauled, like recyclable items, but just driving down the city streets and seeing none out of the curbsides, you can kind of deduce that not many people bother.

It's all voluntary here too, so every two weeks or so I load up the car & haul mine into the recycling center in Tyler. Sometimes on my way home I recycle in reverse, especially when I see all those bags of leaves being left out on the curb. Frequently several of them get thrown into the trunk. Better in my compost pile than in the landfill.

andie,

Twice a year my little community has an organized trash drop-off place for house/yard trash.
Then, the county has huge trucks that carry it off to the landfills.

After the first year, I have been forbid to go.
I brought home more than I took. LOL

I also stop for those bags of leaves and pine straw (among other treasures).

A friend and I know the days of trash pickup in certain areas of Mobile.
We have been known to curb-side shop on those days.

This same friend is bad to stop when she sees a plant she likes at someone's home.
She had her three young grandsons in the car with her on a trip 'to town.' Mobile--much bigger than our community.

She stopped at a home where we had admired the man's Shasta daisies for several years.

When she went to get out to ask the man if she could have a start, one of her grandsons, in absolute horror said, "MeMaw, you're not going to steal that man's flowers are you?!"

That's precious, and I think "out of the mouths of Babes". I will ask people for starts off their flowers, and likewise share if somebody sees one and asks. I do resent those who snip and snap or dig without asking. A little kid (and your friend) already know the proper way to do it but adults sometimes have to be reminded. We had a thread here on the GP years ago, in the olden days about helping oneself to cuttings, and the like. An shockingly large section of the respondents admitted to it, and never saw anything wrong with a help-yourself approach. One of my most productive blackberry patches is down near the road, and I'd break fingers if I saw anybody stop to help themselves to some of those wild berries who "don't belong to anybody". Yes, they're wild, but their MY wild berries. lol. I already have a bunch of signs tacked to my trees at the edge of my woods without permission. I'm going to leave the precious little worms for sale sign up, but the ones with 1-800 numbers shall be removed and burnt.

I've asked for starts too & everyone I've asked has been really generous. For that very reason, I always have black trash bags & a shovel in my trunk. Also, around here the rule is if it's outside the fence line it's free game for anyone with a shovel & a strong back.

Wanda, Andie - I asked a lawnservice crew working up the street raking pine straw to drop off at my house..lol They were thrilled with getting a (very small) bit of cash...getting paid to rake and then to deliver...lol I'd be leery of grabbing bags and not knowing what else I might find in them...have you ever had a nasty surprise like cat litter or disposable diapers? josh

josh,
LOL!!
No, I've never gotten a nasty surprise.
Thank goodness.
The only thing I ever get is larger sticks that I just put on my trash pile.

Ditto here. All I've gotten is leaves & some pine cones that get squashed up & added to the compost pile.