It gave me quite a turn to hear, the other day, that we in the UK throw away about 30% of the food we buy. I had recently noticed in my own household that an awful lot of food gets chucked, so to hear this horribleness made official made me look at what exactly happens chez Mangonel.
Adopting the Pareto Principle, I figure if I can control Bread and Vegetables that will be 80% of the problem solved. Bread is such a big deal, partly because it's so damn cheap. (I'm not talking about anything which has its price quadrupled just because it has sunflower seeds in it.) I buy big because, ooh, once or twice we've had guests, or actually that week we've just happened to eat a lot of bread. The result of this statistically unsound buying method is an embarrasse du mouldy riches by the end of the week.
Vegetables are, of course, an Outward and Visible Sign of my pious approach to Good Eating. But the end result is the same - a binful of unidentifiable green spongy bits.
Irritatingly, there are fixes for these symptoms. My compost bins for one, and the Green Bin for the other. Here in Bucks we have a separate collection for anything food related. Separate bin, separate garbage truck, separate destination, to wit a high-temperature composting facility near High Wycombe. Apparently landfill use has dropped by something astounding like 35%.
But that's not a cure, is it. There's a man called Mel Bartholemew, whose Big Idea is Square Foot Gardening. Basically, vegetable growing by the Square Foot rather than the Long Line. Not only is he extremely sound on veg. patches, he also gives recipe suggestions which, if you cook them in the right order, and a little more than you need so you freeze the leftovers (all in one great tub), by the end of the week you get a delicious and perfectly balanced meal for two ready for defrosting. And he's got a beard.
(And now I've started thinking about the ethics of bread so cheap, and wondering if there's a case to be made for the harm it does society. And why the hell I don't par-boil and freeze vegetables before they rot. I'll never get to sleep now.)
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2 comments:
my darling, good for you!
i've been living green since the 70's (with time out for being married to god's own consumer) i'm not perfect-our hard waste goes unsorted most of the time and sometimes there's no fricken way I'm going out to the compost heap in the middle of january-but it's been worth it. completely.
i know how difficult it is to not buy groceries in bulk, though! 'but it's such a BARGAAAAAAIN!' i make it a point to always have some cabbage and cukes mouldering away in my fridge.
we'll be talking chutney recipes in the autumn
;-)
am liking the sound of the man with the beard
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