As a vegetarian (newly for only 5 months) and 100% organic, Non GMO for 4+ yrs my food is my lifestyle not a “diet” and I am very concerned and focused on maintaining organic and non gmo.
I have spent hours and hours cracking the code in grocerers in England and here is what I have found so far:
Most all of the stores as of May 2015 are still 99% Non Gmo as England and Europe have stayed on the No Monsanto path. HOWEVER just late 2014 there was a break thru for the evil chemical company and England at least, has now folded its strong arms against GMOs and is allowing/letting a crack form in its grocery stores to carry GMO products under force of Monsantos evil ways. The top grocers are No longer standing true and stating they are 100% non gmo any longer
I can save you a lot of time shopping: do NOT shop at Sainsbury or M&S and parts of Tesco. they are no longer standing by their word and carrying Non gmo products. so its a crap shoot if you shop there.
Waitrose is the only one I have found so far that is standing by its word that no GMO products will enter their stores thus far May 2015.
Depending on what township you are in, there ARE small tiny independent grocers that are also non gmo and you have to google them for each spot you are in.
Organic? now that is an entire different rabbit hole and the very hardest one to find. Even in the tiny non gmo grocers, they won’t and don’t carry all organic. and it is a never ending search for my food on a daily basis! just when you think you found the best mom/pop shop on a tiny island BAM no, they are not organic 🙁
Waitrose again wins the war (and it is war on our food supplies in my opinion) of having the most Organic sections Usually. it totally depends on the township you are in, how much the grocer carries, some more than others.
But for me for now, we only shop at Waitrose as much as possible. In a pinch we go to Tesco and then you have to search and search for their Organic markers but you can find them. You just have to Really want/and mean your food to matter to you; I am finding here in England. The Blank faces we get when we ask is it Organic? is it Hormone free? shows us that England is educated as America was in 2000 not 2015 🙁 sorry to report negative. And even when they know Organic/non gmo means their following comment is its too expensive! and its REALLY not that much more, 20 pence maybe and yet you choose pesticides for you and your family over 20pence? really?
At the stores, the clerks have NO clue 99% of the time and we search it out together. So far in both Waitrose and Tesco their staff is highly misinformed and don’t trust what they say, do your own research. I found in both stores I cracked their codes and figured it out Before the employee came back to tell me what a manger said!
The secrets of Organic :
Waitrose, look on the shelf tabs that are white for an upper left corner of Green circle showing organic. Mainly only items that are organic are fruits/veggies. some Breads, yogurt, jellies, pasta and pasta sauces are the main categories I have found. NO chips,cereals or other products have been in the stores we’ve been to.
Tesco, NO shelf markings and usually never together, you have to look at every single package of veggies/fruit and its on the actual package in bold letters ORGANIC but they will be in each section of food products not all in one. they ONLY have organic fruits/veggies and some meats and once only, orange juice. No breads/yogurt/juices nothing organic only produce.
Sometimes they will have the fruit box itself that is white and says organic on it and makes it easier to find. Only at Tesco.
HINT: most Organic foods that are produce: fruits/veggies are in plastic bags (which makes me crazy–earth pollution with all the plastic and you take a gorgeous organic item and place it in plastic to get hot and off gas!) sorry I digress, but whereby most NON organic produce is loose American styled, the organics will be wrapped in plastics.
Morrisons: again search every single plastic bag and there is a tiny, dime sized (pence) green apple that says Organic on the apple. you will need your glasses for this company! also they do not group items together so its a search in each category and we are ONLY talking produce. we found NOTHING on the shelves that was organic at all so ONLY produce/fruit/veggies here.
Hope this helps saves you tons of hours that I have spent figuring this all out. It can be done and you feel so Victorious after scoring a good healthy lode but wow it takes a lot of time and your husbands won’t be happy! Now we know what we are looking for and just rebuy the same thing over and over. But even on the tiny Isle of Wight where local produce is a big thing, none are organic 🙁 I had really hoped we would get here to the mom/pop shops and find them all organic non gmo but so far not good. will update if I score!
Bath, in SouthWest – Somerset , Bath, England is Gorgeous.
Never seen a more consistant Architectural town than Bath with its Gorgeous 18th century Georgian buildings. Wow very nice.
Centuries of Romans and Noblemen and ladies, have take the “waters” of Bath. After a 30 yr hiatus once again since 2008, you can now take the hot springs “waters” again. No longer able to use the real Roman Bath site, a newer very modern building was built in 2008 using the same waters (supposedly) bubbling up next door at the ancient Roman Bath.
Thermal Bath spa is the only place in Bath you can actually get in the infamous waters. Not what your really expecting,its very very modern more Danish in style than Ancient Rome. the interior is a bit disappointing for aesthetics in my opinion but the views from the roof top deck are great.
There is no smell as they are not sulphur springs but also we didn’t really feel like they gave you the benefits of other hot springs mineral spas, no soft baby skin afterwards and in fact felt a bit dried out so have to wonder if there is chlorine added to them? But when in Rome, eh er, well when in Bath you have to do the Bath’s right? good one time but probably wouldn’t go back. Plenty enough to do in town shopping, site seeing, architecture touring etc. Beautiful town, great shopping
Our first trip to England one of my favorite things so far is the Old old Pubs, like Really Old. Made it my goal to visit each towns oldest of old and have a pint. found some really great ones and had a great time researching all the old ones and their history.
The oldest in Salisbury was 898 and the newest was 1714! I love the history, the wonky floors, the giant wood beams but always Beware when going to the Loo, its usually up or down a tiny tiny winding staircase and the stair is for shoes size 6 or smaller! Truly watch your Ps and Qs!!!
(Points to those who know what a Ps and Qs is? Do you know?) private message me if you don’t know 🙂
Fact: you can only touch the stones at Stonehenge 4x per year! Normally there is a rope holding you a football field away as the site is now run by the Historical Society and there are rules in place. No more just showing up. And you have to park far far away and take buses into the site now. Very Disneylandish.
As we started our England adventure flying to Philadelphia, we were bumped from our flight and flew in late, arriving around 9pm when we were suppose to have arrived at 12pm the day before! We got our rental car and headed to Salisbury which is closest town to the stones, About 1.5hrs away from Heathrow. We couldn’t just show up at our B&B at midnight, so we decided to go on to the Stones and sleep in our car! Having no idea if you could actually do that, if it was legal or what, but we didn’t have a choice really so off we went. Darren driving a car on the right side steering wheel on the Left side of the road for the Very First Time! pitch black, 10pm at night with SatNav telling us how to get there! Its a wonder we didn’t wreck or die!
Arrived at midnight and managed to find the entrance in the pitch black dark and pulled right up to the gate and parked. With about 50 other cars parked along a country type lane in the middle of the field, we could see in the distance some gates and buildings but had no clue what they were. We could see people walking about and some out tailgate style of the cars, with fires and singing songs but all very calm and quietly, not a big Party scene so we settled in to our car to try and sleep after 2 Very Long Days of travel. But we had Made it, Universe and Airlines be damned, we made it to Stonehenge for Fall Equinox as planned.
At 6am everyone started stirring about and more cars started arriving. The guards wouldn’t let anyone in early, so be prepared as the restrooms are Inside the gates! And no services are open so no coffee either! By the time they let us all in, there were about 150 people and many Druids dressed in style: top hats, Highland costumes, bagpipes, drums and more! We all marched in together to the beating of the drums and the wonderful bagpipes piping. What a surreal feeling.
In a typical UK fashion, there was falling mist, it was still dark and rainy but no one seemed to mind, we just all bundled up and away we all went. Straight up to the stones. Amazing experience but no wonderful sunrise this morning unfortunately. No great photos of lights thru the stones that we had seen on the internet, but many fun times were had and we got to walk all around and touch and feel the stones.
We finally made it across the pond and to London, our first trip and we packed it all in, in just a few days. There is so much to see and so much to do. Everything you’ve seen in the movies and there you are! The double decker buses, the black taxi cabs, Big Ben and Parliament, its all in front of you and so bizarre and we Loved it