Comments on: Simon Kuper have you ever eaten a scratching hen? A response to Kuper’s attack on peasant food as an expensive but futile fashion fad about to fizzle out.

By: Tom Robbins

Tom Robbins — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 10:57:00 +0000

Woolworths chickens are now allowed to eat bugs. Good for Woolies for selling scratching hens. But the chickens that lay their eggs are still denied the right to eat meat. These laying hens are vegetarian.

By: Alfie

Alfie — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 07:01:54 +0000

It was an in-house TV doccie for Woolworths, salad farms outside Paarl, Franshoek and thereabouts. Needless to say, it was hugely impressive, clean and healthy as can be. The care and enjoyment the workers take was exemplary. However, these succulent salads, their roots don’t really touch the ground or soil. It is basically water running through the viewable roots the whole day. SO: planting the same in real soil – you can taste the difference – it might not be as pretty as the Woollies stuff, but making s sandwich from a tomato that grew in soil… i’ll let u know!

By: Alfie

Alfie — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 06:39:41 +0000

Yes, growing your own vegetables is not cheaper and I suspect one use more emulsions to keep insects at bay than the large farms do, although the quality of the soil should be better (after what i saw at the Woolies farms on a TV shoot). The pleasure of seeing the veggies grow, like a bubbly bed of flower – and the taste, do compensate for the labour. Just this week by all accounts, we had the most tasty tomatoes we had in years – In the middle of winter. It is about what turns you on and not just about the marketplace.

By: Ian Olwagen

Ian Olwagen — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 15:59:42 +0000

Tom….I’m belly-aching, and it’s not from hunger!!

Excuse me while I pick some chilliea and bell peppers from my tenth floor balcony…because I want and I can