Okay, I know it’s almost June and I’m just posting this now. But I do have my reasons… May was a very busy month down at the allotment!
Our order for April:
* Organic tomato juice — Biona, three 750ml glass jars @ £2.04 each. Buying in glass jars is more expensive, but we’re committed to reducing the plastic in our lives (tetrapaks, the most common containers for juice, are plastic-lined). Mr Thrifty loves tomato juice. Although I love all other forms of tomato, for some reason I do not like tomato juice. Go figure.
* Seitan in tamari sauce — Yakso, three 350g glass jars @ £2.29 each. I was curious about this product as it is the only seitan packaged in glass that I’ve ever seen. I thought it would be convenient for camping. We tried one jar and it’s good, but not great. Still useful for camping, though.
* Organic raw cashews — Essential, 1kg for £8.91 (£4.05 per pound). For making cashew milk. YUM. Unfortunately packaged in a plastic bag.
* Organic polenta — Essential, 5kg for £9.58 (£1.92 per kg / 87p per pound). For making bird food and coating bean burgers. Packaged in a plastic bag.
* Organic soya beans — Essential, 5kg for £8.09 (£1.62 per kg / 73p per pound). For making tofu. Again, in a plastic bag. Homemade tofu is vastly cheaper than the bought stuff… 160g of beans makes a 250g block of tofu, which works out to just 26p (plus cost of coagulant). Cauldron, the most widely available brand of tofu, sells for £2 per 396g. Disappointingly, Cauldron recently made changes to their product line, and THEIR TOFU IS NO LONGER ORGANIC. Furthermore, it used to be packaged in a plastic pouch inside a cardboard box, whereas now it is packaged in a big plastic tub. What are you doing, Cauldron?
We placed our May co-op order a few days ago, and it’s due in next week. I promise to be less tardy with those details.
I wondered about that seitan, too! Can you tell me what the texture is like?
To be honest, I don’t exactly remember what the texture was like. It was the taste that I found a bit odd. When we open another jar, I’ll take special note of the texture for you 🙂