What do vegetarians do here in the winter ?

Obviously you cannot eat local produce too much in the winter... but better supermarkets and vegetable shops has plenty of foreing produce available. At least in Budapest you have plenty of shops where you can buy whatever you want, more or less. If you don't want to use local specialst shops, Kaiser among others have pretty good selection all around the year.

Incidentally we were just discussing yesterday that the local fruits we buy from the fruit stand that is close where we live, are really something different what you can buy from supermarkets, you need to eat them in a day or two otherwise they start rottening. Normal supermarket produce, like apples etc look perfect still after couple of years...

Sorry but what a bloody stupid question.
Unless you lived in the middle of a forest and were totally self sufficient, in which case you wouldn't be vegetarian, you just go to your local supermarket-Tesco, Penny Market, Lidl etc and buy the vegetables,seeds etc that you normally would at any other time of year.
This isn't some remote, backward, 3rd world country, it's a modern, Central European member of the EU.

Chill, PdLin.  My question isn't entirely frivolous.  Forget the pickles for the moment. I can say in all honesty, I believe Hungary has a lot more going for it than some of the so-called advanced countries of Western Europe. Let me explain why this question is so important for vegetarians, then perhaps you'll understand no disrespect was intended to the Hungarian nation.

If you are a meat eater, winter doesn't pose a particular problem.  You can go outside any day of the year, and slaughter an animal.  Or if you prefer, leave it to the local abattoir, and your friendly local supermarket.  Its open season, as far as fresh meat is concerned.  It's always out there, for the taking.

Try finding good vegetables in February.  Unlike meat, vegetables have their season.  Out of season, often means out of luck.  Sure, nowadays fresh produce is shipped in from all over the world.  Unfortunately, supply is limited during the winter months, and it costs a lot more than the same kind of local stuff in summer.  Also, like tomasc said, a lot of the big supermarket produce seems to last forever.  Something that's been embalmed like that, never tastes much like anything.  Its better to shop at the small mom and pop store, where the produce starts to rot after a few days.  What rots has to be real, that's as good a marker as any.

Gorging on gherkins (pickles) out of season is one person's response to the uneven vegetable supply curve, nothing to do with the state of the nation.  The farming region where I live in France produces 80% of the country's vegetables.  Not only is it a founding member of the EU, it's also considered one of the advanced nations of Western Europe.  But, try finding good vegetables here in the shops in February!

You meat eaters don't know how good you've got it.  If it wasn't for my pathological Buddhism, fearing to tread even where ants cross, I'd pack in the pickle factory and join you in a flash!

I think most people are content with the imported and/or hydrophonic veggies out of season, I know we are, despite being otherwise conscious about what we eat and trying to grow as much of it ourselves as sensible.

If you are serious about this however, I was serious too when I recommended to build your own greenhouse in your garden.
I recently noticed pet shops sell economic plant-growing fluorescent tubes.

szocske wrote:

I recently noticed pet shops sell economic plant-growing fluorescent tubes.

I wonder about that.

Could it be about the cannabis plantations?

See the following link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/10422480.stm

Note the following....."We uncovered 40 cannabis plantations in Budapest in the last year - and in almost all of them we found Vietnamese working," said Mr Boross.......Using special lighting to produce three crops a year, each could generate profits of 1m euros (£820,870) a year, police estimate"......

It looks like Vietnamese would outnumber quite a few of us.

Incidentally years ago, I heard a story that Hungarians consumed vast amounts of sugar - way beyond the normal consumption - and this just did not match up with other statistics (presumably consumption of jam, cakes and the like). The story behind it was that everyone was at home making "illegal" palinka (Hungarian kind of schnapps).