I would love to join in on this conversation, but there is a reason why food forums, politics & religion don’t mix well.
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I’m not getting sucked in.
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Very respectfully @Miss_belle, I think everyone is being quite careful here; I certainly haven’t mentioned religion or politics, as well, I don’t recall a single point made about either here. As far as items of self protection go, I could mean pepper spray. I wouldn’t necessarily be reading between the lines.
You are a smart one @jcostiones! Maybe we should just get back to the 70’s and talk about sex, drugs and rock n roll. A much safer topic and LOTS more fun! Have I ever got some stories to tell…
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I didn’t single you out. Just a generalization .No hard feelings ok.
Agreed, probably not the place.
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I also agree. And I never agree with anyone!
Stock up on fresh garlic! You can grow your own in the fall.
Here’s today’s pics!
I don’t know if these are all Spanish Roja.
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I’ve got several, one a co-worker said should be made into a screenplay. All involve sex, drugs, and rock n roll. Say the word and I’ll share. Food is also involved, just barely.
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Please believe me when I say that I didn’t feel singled out, but wanted to express my feelings that I thought everyone was being extremely courteous, and pretty dang careful to not walk too close to the edge. No hard feelings, whatsoever, and I realize we may all have different thoughts about it. If it makes even a few fellow posters uncomfortable I won’t mention anything about it again. I wish nothing but peace and safety for us all. Truly. 
ETA: even if it offends one person, really.
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Thanks for being a voice of calm reason @shrinkrap - you being the 4th person to agree cinched the deal.
Great looking garlic, will show to H. Did you happen to plant any I shared with you? Just curious how it may have done in your garden. Ours isn’t ready until around the 4th of July every year. And I hear there’s already a garlic shortage!
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Would love to hear! Please PM me if you think it may offend anyone though. Can’t wait!
Thank you so much. I did and will share a picture soon. I’ve learned so much in the last four years, and this year I worry I did not give yours enough sun. Usually I am worried about too much. I will save some and try again.
Oh good. I think your posted pics show great results!
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We’ve all been dancing with the edge of politics since the beginning of this thread. Once we get off grocery lists it’s hard not to. The mayhem from current rioting also has the potential to have great effect on the food supply chain.
At the supply end we have producers who find their market has changed. In the middle we have packaging that doesn’t meet a quickly changed need (e.g. flour) and capacity hit hard by the virus (e.g. meat packing). Next comes transportation hit by all kinds of minor issues with major implications, such as long-haul truck drivers who can’t find anywhere to eat. At the consumer end we have Soviet-era behaviors that include impulse buying and hoarding. Add a layer that many people don’t cook well or at all and have no access to their traditional sources of food and buying patterns are cattywompus.
It is likely at least to my mind that the current mayhem is driven as much by people feeling cooped up for months as anger over the death of a man regardless of how egregious the circumstances. People are predisposed to emotional responses especially anger.
So where are we? Buying patterns seemed to be normalizing some. The supply chain is still reeling (the thread here on HO about meat prices is indicative). The mayhem is definitely not helping in some of the areas hardest hit by the virus. From independent operators to Target and other chains people in hard hit areas have lost their ONLY source of food. Now they must spend a lot of time on (dangerous) public transportation to get to distant sources and go more often due to limits on how much they can carry long distances. We went through this in 2015 in my backyard, in Baltimore. Some businesses came back; many did not. Frankly I can’t understand why any did. Reconstruction after the DC riots took years. There are still food deserts that can be traced back to riots.
With widespread mayhem we can expect the impact to ripple up and down the food supply chain for some time before reaching anything approximating an equilibrium. In the near to mid term many people will be hungry and suffer exposure and increased risk related to the virus. Second order affects with significant impact will develop. For example, if I’m to take a boat from Seattle to Hawai’i in addition to easing quarantine issues I may have to rent a car for longer and go food shopping further afield. How many other small businesses will find themselves limited in already challenging times?
There are so many variables and uncertainties predicting what will happen is impossible. For those with a morbid sense of humor consider the impact of a delivery tractor-trailer being torched during a riot that turns out to be full of toilet paper. Really. We’re all pretty sensitive (ha!) on this issue and there could well be a backlash of law & order support that completely changes the balance of power. I offer this simply as an example of how a single small event (what is one more act of arson?) can cause great change.
I’m a small ‘c’ conservative person. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Just when I thought the worst couldn’t get worse, it has. Food supply is at the top of the list of things I worry about.
We had a “protest” just two miles from me yesterday. It started in the parking lot of a grocery that recently had a gun battle between drug dealers in broad daylight. Yesterday, roads were shut down (including the best route to our hospital). We managed to avoid arson and looting but there was assault and vandalism. Not good.
My plans for stocking up this week are redoubled. What we’re stocking up on represents the holes in our inventory so there is probably little to be learned from our list: produce, makings for dishes I home can (shelf stable which is good for the possibility of losing power), Ball jars, UHT milk and creamer, some specific canned goods, bottled lemon juice, preserved meat we like (salami, pepperoni), toilet paper, frozen spinach, chicken, toothpaste, salt for our water treatment system, a second propane tank for our grill, light machine oil, ammonia, clothes pins.
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Okay, I can fork and knife that. Don’t add anything!
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See you are a woman of reason, and agreed X2 tonight. That’s all. 
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Wanted to say I’ve experienced a 5 day service delay for a shipment that was supposed to be here June 2nd. Considering it’s only coming from Seattle, a scant 30-40 miles from my area, it’s disturbing. Thankfully, nothing essential. Not whining, rather, reporting. Oh, and was supposed to come via FedEx, but has now been consigned to USPS. Quite interesting…
Most online companies in the UK are advising several days delay from their norms.
By the by, I am an enormous fan of FedEx. A few years back, we had a trip to America. I’d spent some considerable time entering destinations into my sat nav (GPS to you Yanks) of just about everywhere we planned to visit. So, there we were at our airport and Mrs H asked if I ever did finish getting everything entered. At which point I went alternately very cold and very hot, as I recalled it was still in the drawer at home. And the flight was due to board. We had time to ring a rellie and asked that they just do whatever was necessary to get it to us by the next morning (US time). At that meant an uncomfortable flight to Atlanta, wondering what might be happening. When we got off the plane, there was a message from the rellie that she’d got hold of FedEx and the satnav was in their possession. With that, we got to our hotel - actually on the airport property, got some early dinner and went to bed (it now being about 2am body clock time). Next morning , we woke up early and logged on to the FedEx tracker to find it had actually made its way across the Atlantic and was at their local airport hub a couple of hundred miles away. Scheduled to arrive with us at 8am. Which, almost the minute, it did.
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Agree about FedEx, as compared to DSL, and others I’ve used for international. For domestic shipping, I consider it the best in the business. To beat it, you’d have to have a personal courier I think, or own a Gulfstream with your own trusty pilot. Thanks for the story - just loved it! (I’ve got a couple similar ones, but occurring domestically)
Also expecting a shipment today, but don’t remember from where it‘s being shipped.
Agree as well about FedEx.
I mean, Tom Hanks personally returned a package to the sender after he was saved in “Cast Away”. 
Although he did lose Wilson. 
