I am on a mission to cut down
on food waste. See all these lovely veggies? I am going to try and make sure
that none of them end up in the compost bin. That is what usually happens to
approx half of the veg I buy. Partly because the supermarket sells some
things in quantities enough to feed a family when I only need enough for myself
and one vegephobe, and partly because I lack the imagination to be able to make
vegetables interesting before they start to rot. I need the culinary skills to
make green vegetables attractive to a Glaswegian. This is a big ask, so if
anybody could help me with that one, I’d be grateful!
What I really need, I guess,
is a good greengrocer a short walk away so I can buy a little at a time. You
see, I do tend to buy enough for a week with the hope of staying out of the
supermarket as much as possible. I just don’t need the temptation to spend that
lurks inside. They have only just stopped ambushing us with Easter eggs for
goodness sake! But I do buy lots of lovely looking veg (it does look so
appealing, doesn’t it), then it sits in the fridge for days while I try and
work out what to do with it. Yes, I know I should make a weekly menu and
shopping list. I don’t find this as straightforward as I used to for various
reasons. Something to do with being overwhelmed with choice I suspect.
If anyone can teach us
something about reducing food waste, it must be the wartime generation. Our mum
was brought up when severe rationing was in place and used to regale us with
horror stories of just how little butter/cheese/meat or anything else was
available. Especially sweets. But maybe that’s why she had an 18 inch waist as
a teenager. Many people grew their own veg. They had to or they would have been
very hungry indeed. So anyway, food was very precious and was never wasted. As
a last resort, if something was way past edible it would go in the pig bin.
A little of this attitude was
still around during my own childhood, as rationing only finally ended the year
I was born. But back then there was hardly the cornucopia of foodstuffs
available and/or affordable. As a child, I had never heard of aubergines,
mangoes, peppers or any of the many things we are urged to eat in quantities
these days. Green veg meant cabbage, and beans came out of a tin. Asparagus was
for the wealthy (it still is), and garlic was just plain… foreign!
I have been amazed at the
‘past it’s best’ food the elderly are prepared to eat rather than waste it.
Community carers often come across out of date food, especially cheese
sprouting whiskers, and are asked to serve it up for a meal. Now, there are
rules about this sort of thing. You may not serve somebody food that is out of
date, mouldy or whatever. Why would you do it anyway? But try telling that to
the elderly. They have always eaten cheese with whiskers and it never did them
any harm. Or so they tell you. Besides, there isn’t anything else to eat. So
you have a conversation with the Powers That Be that goes something like this:
PTB: You must throw away all
food that is past it’s use by date.
Carer: But Mrs X won’t let
me.
PTB: You must throw it away.
Do it when she isn’t looking.
Carer: But she knows exactly
what’s in the fridge and gets angry.
PTB: Sigh. OK, leave it there
– it’s her choice. But you mustn’t give it to her to eat.
Carer: But there isn’t
anything else.
PTB: Heavier Sigh. Just use
your initiative.
Carer: She can’t eat my
initiative. If I go out to buy something I won’t have time to cook it AND she
won’t pay for more food when there’s something in the fridge already.
PTB: ……..?
They never throw away food,
even if it’s mouldy. Just scrape off the mould, cut out the bad bits and eat
it.
I like a bit of mouldy cheese
myself, but prefer the sort that is supposed to have mould. I’ve got this
cheese still in the fridge, opened a few weeks ago. Now I’m not sure if the
mould is the sort that is supposed to be there, or has grown there since. I
must be getting old, because I’m going to eat it anyway.
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