Grocery shopping (by bicycle) in the Netherlands | Week 18 2024

[@teresacrowley4076]

The weather looks good there 🌞

[@PaulvanGulik]

A bit chilly, but quite nice. A nice break after all the rain we've had

[@teresacrowley4076]

@@PaulvanGulik unfortunately we have had loads of rain here too. The last few days have been nice and sunny but temperatures are not great. 🇮🇪

[@PaulvanGulik]

What part of the world are you from? Winters are quite mild here. We get way more rain than we do snow.

[@teresacrowley4076]

@@PaulvanGulik I am from Eire☘️☘️ (Ireland) . This winter was very mild. Little or no snow. Usually if we get a colder winter then we will get drier and higher temperatures this time of year.

[@PaulvanGulik]

Not that far away then, in the grand scheme of thing. I hear it's beautiful there.

[@lulububs]

Ginger beer?! I used to make that as a kid but I forgot how. I need to relearn and to find out if I could do it sugar free

[@PaulvanGulik]

It's been a while since I made it, too. So I'll just experiment a bit, with different sweeteners.

[@brian5154]

Nederland officialy has the biggest choice of food in the world. This may help to illustrate this......

[@PaulvanGulik]

The US might have us beat in the selection of junk food. But being a big trade hub for the world, we do have options from all over the world.

[@wyldlibrarian3549]

oh yes Can we see the ginger beer process next time ... back at uni i had a ginger beer plant ... plant is a funny word for it ... big jar... ginger... sultanas.. water ... sugar ... used to feed it weekly i think... really dont remember too much but the process and dynamics in the jar were fascinating. Warmer climate too. Never actually made ginger beer with it... just lived with a zoologist at the time :D

[@PaulvanGulik]

By feeding it weekly, I assume that means it was alcoholic? The one I make isn't alcoholic, it's just ginger, sugar, optional lemon and some sparkling water. We didn't end up making it this week, because we didn't have the time. And since I haven't made it in years, and I'm using sweetener instead of sugar now, I'll have to experiment a bit before doing it in a video.

[@wyldlibrarian3549]

We didn’t make anything with it. Just enjoyed the “show”

[@wyldlibrarian3549]

Hi Paul - thanks for the bike ride ! love coming with you ... (so to speak ) - i am retired now and live in a FAR too hilly area to bike but used to bike a fair bit in flatter areas when younger. love to know what kind of trees (the bigger ones ) are natives to your area. How did your bike get knocked over ? Car ? Do you have big supermarket chains there ? I think you mentioned Lidl. We have Coles and Woolworths but the produce is not as fresh as yours seems from the market ( I mean its not bad either but ... farmers markets are always good). Did you have to fight over which packet of chips with your nephew (always makes me chuckle !) I dont know what you spend each week on groceries - seems they just get more and more expensive. My 2 grown sons live with me and we pay quite a bit. cheers and thanks

[@PaulvanGulik]

Technically, none of the trees are native, they have all been planted. Because where I live quite literally didn't exist until the 50's/60's. I live in Flevoland, the island right in the center of The Netherlands when you look at a map, and it's the largest artificial island in the world, by quite a margin. First, they dammed off the bay, seperating it from the sea and turning it into a freshwater lake. And then they built a series of dikes and levees to drain part of that lake and create new land. But yeah, there are no trees here older than about 60 years. And no, my bike wasn't knocked over by a car. It was leaning against one of the bike racks. Someone must've bumped into it when trying to put their own bike away. Since I had the basket with all the things from the market still on the front, it was quite front-heavy, so easy to topple over. Pretty much all supermarkets are part of a chain here. The biggest by far is Albert Heijn, which I hardly ever go to because it's the most expensive one in my area. Number two is Jumbo, which I also don't go to very often, just because they don't have a lot of sales. In third place we have Plus, which is the supermarket you see me go to every week, at the end. Then come Lidle (probably the store I go to most after Plus), Aldi, and some smaller chains like Dekamarkt, Vomar, Boni, Dirk. I'm definitely noticing the prices going up, especially produce. I don't know if it's general price increases, or (hopefully) just because we are in between seasons, but I've noticed that my spending on produce has almost doubled lately.