Hugh's War on Waste

grunnie

I grow my own veg as I have a huge garden. If I get wonky carrots it's because I didn't thin them out properly. If I get odd shaped potatoes it because there was a stone in the way as it grew and it is now shaped like a teddybear. My sons when they were small used to make a game out of what the odd shapes looked like. The wonky veg all get cooked the same and eaten the same and taste wonderful. I grow lettuce in the garden in summer in the greenhouse in the autumn and on the kitchen windowsill in the winter when it is colder. I just pick a few leaves at a time and the plants lasts for weeks. Apples I store in my garage and they keep for months - a wrinkly apple which might happen next Feb or March will still make a great apple pie. I store onions shallots carrots and potatoes in my shed covered up to keep out the frost. I once offered someone who was moaning about being hardup and she was going to Tesco to buy potatoes as they was all she ate -baked potatoes with different toppings and she turned me down as she would have to wash them. I even offered to scrub them for her but she didn't want my locally grown organic potatoes she wanted prewashed unknown type from Tesco. Needless to say I never offered her anything again.

Living_proof

grunnie wrote: »

I once offered someone who was moaning about being hardup and she was going to Tesco to buy potatoes as they was all she ate -baked potatoes with different toppings and she turned me down as she would have to wash them. I even offered to scrub them for her but she didn't want my locally grown organic potatoes she wanted prewashed unknown type from Tesco. Needless to say I never offered her anything again.

I can hardly believe it. We have allowed an entire generation to grow up expecting everything to be sanitised and available 24/7. My own daughter leaves me speechless when it comes to convenience and waste although it wasn't how she was brought up. Some people seem to have the same disgust of a slightly dirty or mis-shapen veg or fruit as the Victorians had about sex. The supermarkets have created the demand for the perfect, packaged food produce and it's going to be hard to educate shoppers to change their habits and be more flexible.

[Deleted User]

GreyQueen wrote: »

And for those who are expressing concerns about mass-layoffs for farm workers due to proposed changes, you're about [STRIKE]50 years[/STRIKE] 500 years too late for that one.

Agricultural employment levels in England: 58.1% of the population in 1500, 1.2% in 2012.

Note that the fact that we don't now have 56.9% unemployment demonstrates that the Luddites were spectacularly wrong.

jackieblack wrote: »

if we eat more ugly veg farmers won't need to grow as much to start with.

...and so we will need fewer farms to grow it all.

dreaming

grunnie wrote: »

I once offered someone who was moaning about being hardup and she was going to Tesco to buy potatoes as they was all she ate -baked potatoes with different toppings and she turned me down as she would have to wash them. I even offered to scrub them for her but she didn't want my locally grown organic potatoes she wanted prewashed unknown type from Tesco. Needless to say I never offered her anything again.

Ha-ha - this reminds me of an ex-colleague who, knowing I grew a few bits and pieces in my little garden, commented that she wouldn't want to eat at my house because she thought slugs might have crawled over them as they grew in soil. I'm not sure where she thinks the vegetables she buys in the supermarket grow, and I did point out that I do wash vegetables before using - albeit it not in the chemical-laden way that pre-packed stuff is. Funnily enough, she was often ill with "tummy trouble" whereas I didn't have any days off sick in over 5 years.
Seriously though, it is a very difficult problem to solve, and it is easy to castigate the big (and not so big) supermarkets (and I did think Hugh's attitude was unnecessarily combative from the start), but many of us have bought into the convenience of being able to do the weekly shopping in one place, and although some seem willing to pay over the odds for certain items, most people want to save the pennies as much as possible and yet still have the availability of non-seasonal produce at all times. There is no easy or quick answer, I fear, but more programmes such as War on Waste and better "home economics" education at home and in schools will hopefully start to make a difference which will inevitably filter through to the retailers. However, we also have to bear in mind that somewhere, someone will have to pay. That it may mean higher prices in for the consumer, lower profits for the retailer, or some growers having to scale back their production, or diversify (or even go out of business if they have committed to loans to purchase equipment to enable large scale production of a small range of veg/fruit) - most probably a combination of all of this.
I have signed up to HF-W's pledge, and I do my best not to waste anything, and I know many people on these forums are of a similar mind-set, but for every one of us there are at least as many people like my ex-colleague. As I said - no easy answer except to keep plugging away.

VfM4meplse

GreyQueen wrote: »

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.

:T:T:T

Very well said, for me this is the post of the year!

"When things are hard to come by, you do not waste."
^^^^The phrase you used is so much harder hitting than the references many of our parents will have made about the starving in Africa. Strange also how allergies are less prevalent where there are slim pickings.

Goldiegirl

I thought this weeks episode was going to be more about clothes. I was surprised that people throw away perfectly good clothes - surely it must occur to them to donate them to a charity shop or clothing bank? But when I realised that the focus was going to be on food again..... I must admit I drifted off and started reading my book

[Deleted User]

Best laid plans today went down the Swannee, as by the time I managed to get to Rochester to buy some veg it was all shut up.I had one of those days where God and his children either phoned me up, or knocked at the door, and my early start ended up being too late.But at least I have found out where I go to next Thursday morning 10.30-12.30 and a lady who had just packed up said get there before 11 or its only odds and ends left !!!
Shows there are like-minded folk like me who don't like pre-packaged food :):)
I too agree that GQ's post is spot-on
JackieO

honeythewitch

Goldiegirl wrote: »

I thought this weeks episode was going to be more about clothes. I was surprised that people throw away perfectly good clothes - surely it must occur to them to donate them to a charity shop or clothing bank? But when I realised that the focus was going to be on food again..... I must admit I drifted off and started reading my book

I know someone who refuses point blank to donate clothes, household items or anything else and says "why should I pay for other people?"

JackieO wrote: »

Best laid plans today went down the Swannee, as by the time I managed to get to Rochester to buy some veg it was all shut up.I had one of those days where God and his children either phoned me up, or knocked at the door, and my early start ended up being too late.But at least I have found out where I go to next Thursday morning 10.30-12.30 and a lady who had just packed up said get there before 11 or its only odds and ends left !!!
Shows there are like-minded folk like me who don't like pre-packaged food :):)
I too agree that GQ's post is spot-on
JackieO

You did better than me, Jackie. I had a similar day and didnt manage to get out at all.

honeythewitch

VfM4meplse wrote: »

:T:T:T

Very well said, for me this is the post of the year!

"When things are hard to come by, you do not waste."
^^^^The phrase you used is so much harder hitting than the references many of our parents will have made about the starving in Africa. Strange also how allergies are less prevalent where there are slim pickings.

I suppose if food is scarce there are less things to be allergic to?

VfM4meplse

honeythewitch wrote: »

I suppose if food is scarce there are less things to be allergic to?

I was thinking of staples, ie wheat and dairy, rather than manufactured products. There's no doubt that some are genuinely allergic, ie have anything from a skin to anaphylactic reaction to the allergen - and for them life must be a total nightmare - but a gastro-intestinal intolerance can in no way be classed in the same bracket. Nor are lifestyle fads allergies.

honeythewitch wrote: »

I know someone who refuses point blank to donate clothes, household items or anything else and says "why should I pay for other people?"

This is a disgraceful attitude and karma will prevail. I notice you didn't refer to them as a friend .