Hugh's War on Waste

System

If we eat more ugly vegetables, more good looking ones will go to waste instead, he needs to get us to actually eat more, or get farmers to sell to developers or set up solar farms instead

VfM4meplse

honeythewitch wrote: »

I was under the impression that all the big supermarkets demand a certain quantity and uniformity of produce, and that the contract prevents the farmers selling the surplus elsewhere?

The fruit and veg I buy from my local stall is certainly far from perfect, but still reasonably uniform. I think most commercially grown fruit is, so maybe there is less waste than we think if we stick to non-supermarket suppliers?

honeythewitch

missbiggles1 wrote: »

You may prefer the taste of certain things but it's wrong to describe the other as not being fresh or having gone off.

Personally, I prefer slightly unripe bananas and that's what I buy - I certainly don't describe a ripe banana as having gone off and suggest that they shouldn't be sold like that.:)

But you would describe them as "off" if they were black? Presumably the apples Justamum was describing were wizened, rather than just "stored"?

honeythewitch

VfM4meplse wrote: »

The fruit and veg I buy from my local stall is certainly far from perfect, but still reasonably uniform. I think most commercially grown fruit is, so maybe there is less waste than we think if we stick to non-supermarket suppliers?

Come to think of it, I dont notice much difference in uniformity between the markets and supermarkets either.

GreyQueen

As someone who grows her own veg, I would venture to suggest that the ratio of perfectly-looking to wonky veg is probably something of the order of 1:5. Meaning that an awful lot of veg has to be grown to supply a given tonnage of perfection on a given contract.

Parsnips and carrots are little beggars for coming out of the ground in a wide variety of calibers, degrees of torque, lumpiness and with very common things like green shoulders on carrots and a touch of canker on the tops and sometimes flanks of parsnips. Which can be removed by a slight trimming in both cases.

Efficient use of land, fertiliser (mostly derived from natural gas) and labour is to sort veg into grades and use it all. I suspect that there are contractural clauses in the farmers' contracts which forbid them selling the wonky stuff at the farm gate, or on to (for example) soup manufacturers, where the shape of the veg is irrelevant.

I come from a farming and farm-labouring background. When working on farms in the brutal winter of 1962-1963, a lot of root veg could not be lifted, it was stuck in ground frozen solid. Veg above ground like sprouts could be harvested and greens were in such short supply that even 'blown' sprouts, those whose leaves do not form the tight mass favoured by retailer and consumer alike, were being sent to market at a good price. When things are hard to come by, you do not waste.

It is incredibly inefficient to over-produce and plough-back the calories represented by the crop to use as fertiliser. Inefficiency is the enemy of all of us in society, whether we understand or care. Fertilisers are using non-renewables. Fertiliser run-off is contaminating water courses. Compaction of agricultural land by huge pieces of machinery has impacts on flooding many miles away as drainage across swathes of the countryside is affected. And on and on and on.......

And for those who are expressing concerns about mass-layoffs for farm workers due to proposed changes, you're about 50 years too late for that one. Most farmers have zero employees. It's the farming family and maybe a contractor running their equipment at peak times. I have farmers among my circle of friends and acquaintances to this day.

:mad: Supermarkets make their biggest profits on fruit and veg and they package them in ways which mean that we are almost certain to have some of them rot before we can eat them. Examples are washing root veg like carrots, which means they won't keep more than a few days, and packaging veg in plastic bags where they sweat and start to rot. Often the process of decay is advanced before the consumer even gets her veg home.

I'm cooking my supper right now; allotment grown leeks and spuds in the steamer. The leeks were washed and trimmed on the allotment, to keep the topsoil where it belongs, and the leaves and roots were immediately placed in the compost bin up there. This means that of the leeks which came down to the flat, 100% are edible. The spuds are not peeled, they never are, and all the nutrients will be powering me through my daily activities.

missbiggles1

NewShadow wrote: »

Landlord may not be completely impressed by that suggestion... plus - does anyone actually know whats under Cardiff? I shudder at the thought.

You never know - you might bump into Capt. Jack.;)

moneyistooshorttomention

My take on how to use a leek GQ is to use the leaves as well and then push the root section (plus 1-2 inches more) back into the soil in my garden in the hopes it will grow some more again for me. Short-circuited when I wanted a leek that was growing in my garden by me just chopping it off at the base and leaving the root section in situ.

I don't really feel like I have enough stuff coming out of the garden (as a single person) to start mucking around with making compost (or indeed enough space for doing so). So - trimmings of plants get "chopped and dropped" (ie permaculture fashion) and the bits left on top of the soil to dig in a bit and ready for the worms to "come and get it" and start eating it up. I figure I'm doing that bit more to help "feed the soil and the soil feeds me" by doing that.

GreyQueen

That's not a technique I've tried, MTSTM, but it's certainly interesting.

I have about 160 leeks on the allotment, all grown from a single pkt of seed, so am picking on them in size order. I discard about a foot of the length of the outside leaves and trim off the roots, the rest I eat. Lovely stuff.

My domestic food trimmings make a neglible imput into the allotment because it's a singleton household vs a 300 sq m plot. Last year I concentrated the contents of the compost bin on a single area 5 st 2 7.5 ft and planted courgettes into it. Went gangbusters.

Have you considered trench composting as an option?

Gigervamp

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

My take on how to use a leek GQ is to use the leaves as well and then push the root section (plus 1-2 inches more) back into the soil in my garden in the hopes it will grow some more again for me. Short-circuited when I wanted a leek that was growing in my garden by me just chopping it off at the base and leaving the root section in situ.

That reminds me. Someone I know, chopped the leaves off a Little Gem lettuce, then put the stalk in water and got a new crop of leaves.

Justamum

missbiggles1 wrote: »

Apples that have been stored are not "going off" or "past it" any more than meat is when it's been hung for the correct amount of time.
Your attitude, I'm afraid, is part of the problem.

When I was younger - and in fact up until just a few years ago - Cox apples could be found which were under-ripe when on sale, and that's the way I prefer them. If they're yellow they're not far off being wrinkly so as far as I'm concerned they're going off.

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

I think part of the problem with apples not being crisp and fresh for very long after you buy them is the fact that they are picked and put into cold storage which holds the ripening process but when they come back to room temperature they seem to ripen very quickly, that must affect the taste and texture of the apple regardless of the variety.

Sadly British apples aren't even crisp and fresh when they're bought!