Hosehead
Executive Member
Nope I am not referring to the price of butter or even the butter scene in last Tango in Paris but to something I hadn't noticed ...
I had a visitor from the UK and bought (since I don't shop woollies anymore) a old favourite... Mooi River Butter.
Now I haven't used that brand in about a year but I always enjoyed using and baking with it. My visitor said the butter was rancid. I said how very dare she. It smelled fine, and we argued back and forth. I conceded it was perhaps a bit more salty than I remembered, but it sure as hell wasn't rancid. Then the whole issue bugged me the rest of the day as I pride my palate and maybe I was missing something. So to make a long story short, I look at the package and Mooi River is imported now from New Zealand. Horrors. I googled and found a news item where it was said that there was a shortage of cow fodder or something in SA over the winter months so Mooi River brand was imported from NZ and the last batches are now on the shelves as the cows at home in SA return to normal milk production and Mooi River gets made locally again Clover admits selling it at a loss but I went further and investigated and finally returned all the NZ CRAP I bought because somewhere along the line the cold chain had been broken and the fats had turned rancid and my visitor friend with the sensitive palate was correct so I ate humble pie. I now look at labels of origin for everything I ever took for granted and I have found some more surprises- for example Brown rice is mostly grown in China (and I avoid anything from China if I can possibly help it) I found some from India (but we all know what they fertilise that with) and some, if not most health food store brands with no label at all. Most surprising was plain ole Tastic brown - it says "processed in South Africa" but where the hell is it grown? China?
I had a visitor from the UK and bought (since I don't shop woollies anymore) a old favourite... Mooi River Butter.
Now I haven't used that brand in about a year but I always enjoyed using and baking with it. My visitor said the butter was rancid. I said how very dare she. It smelled fine, and we argued back and forth. I conceded it was perhaps a bit more salty than I remembered, but it sure as hell wasn't rancid. Then the whole issue bugged me the rest of the day as I pride my palate and maybe I was missing something. So to make a long story short, I look at the package and Mooi River is imported now from New Zealand. Horrors. I googled and found a news item where it was said that there was a shortage of cow fodder or something in SA over the winter months so Mooi River brand was imported from NZ and the last batches are now on the shelves as the cows at home in SA return to normal milk production and Mooi River gets made locally again Clover admits selling it at a loss but I went further and investigated and finally returned all the NZ CRAP I bought because somewhere along the line the cold chain had been broken and the fats had turned rancid and my visitor friend with the sensitive palate was correct so I ate humble pie. I now look at labels of origin for everything I ever took for granted and I have found some more surprises- for example Brown rice is mostly grown in China (and I avoid anything from China if I can possibly help it) I found some from India (but we all know what they fertilise that with) and some, if not most health food store brands with no label at all. Most surprising was plain ole Tastic brown - it says "processed in South Africa" but where the hell is it grown? China?
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