Thursday, November 12, 2015

Rising Awareness.

It is high time that supermarkets have their wings severely clipped, they have had far too much power for far too long. A quarter of crops grown, never make it to the supermarkets because of their unrealistic standards, a carrot with a curve tastes every bit as good as a straight one. Maybe the bosses of Morrison's and the rest of the supermarkets bosses  need to take a look at what is happening else where in the world of marketing, and take a leaf out of the Australians book.

It seems as though Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall has stirred up some public awareness about waste, with the  two programs that have been aired on BBC One in the last couple of weeks. In the latest program Morrison's supermarket eventually gave an interview to H.F.W, in terms of PR they did themselves no favours, they came over as arrogant and cavalier. However, I'm am sure that had the interview been with any of the other supermarkets the end result would have been the same.
 It seems that the supermarkets in the UK and Ireland consider that their customers are different from
Marketing down under style.
Thank you Lynda ,
 Living In The Land of Oz.blogger.com 
 for the use of these photos.
people who live in Australia. There it appears that the supermarkets are prepared to sell misshaped fruit and veg.
UK supermarkets are also prepared to sell misshapes when it suits them, as happened when there was a shortage of potatoes a few years ago, they were happy enough to sell what the farmers gave them, and guess what? the customers bought them. The supermarkets tell us that people only want perfect looking produce, is this really true? Surely taste is more important but that is something you don't get with supermarket bought fruit, picked before it's ripe so it looks perfect in the store, you bring it home and try to ripen it , you seldom succeed, it's rotten before it ripens, and it's probably come from half way around the world, produced in a country where people are starving. Kenya is a very good example, exporting green beans and peas out of season to the EU markets, yet over fifty per cent of the population suffer from food poverty.
Yesterday, even our local radio station mentioned the hold that supermarkets have over the farmers, and apparently the I.F.U (Irish Farmers Union) are calling on Irish supermarkets to relax their rigid cosmetic standards. As this statement was made in the last couple of days, I can only assume that someone within the I.F.U was watching H.F.W's programs
I suppose supermarkets do have their uses, we were told that a micro brewery had stated up just four miles away from us, the last place that I would look for a local beer would be a supermarket but someone mentioned that they had found this beer in an Irish owned supermarket, so we went looking and found that they have a good selection of Irish craft beers as well as my favourite, Speckled Hen.
Sheep stealer and Buck It, the very local craft beer, Galway Hooker is always a favourite, but you cant beat Old Speckled Hen. 
We have now tried the first of the local beer, they make three different types, it is good, similar to Worthington White shield, it has yeast sediment in the bottom, so a steady hand is required. We  seldom drink but it is nice to have some beer around just on the off chance that we fancy one.
They still keep coming.
This has been a very extended growing season, we are still picking tomatoes and there's still more to come, the French beans have finished though, so the garlic has been planted where the beans were, the mange tout are still producing and also the Physalis. It is forecasted for colder weather this weekend, so that might end the last of the summer crops, then we can concentrate on onion planting.
First lot of marmalade done.
As Christmas approaches the craft fairs start up, I have been busy making marmalade for the first of these fairs, we will also make some Christmas puddings, I'm not sure how many fairs we will do, but I guess it helps to get into the Christmas spirit.
In the latest edition of the Permaculture Magazine, Ben Law, the well known woodsman has shared his plans for a rustic seat, we both liked the design.  Simon went missing for a hour, he had gone wood hunting, five hours later, hey presto, one chair, Ben Law style. Total cost 1.25 euros. and five hours work. If you buy one of these chairs from Ben you will have to pay £225. Ours might not be quite as good as Bens, he's been doing wood craft for years and he has access to good coppiced wood, but I'm very please with ours, all we need now is some decent weather, to sit in the garden and try it out for comfort, ( says she, looking out of the window to rain lashing down, driven by high winds.)
Basic frame work done.
Getting there.
Finished chair.
Finally I have found someone local who gives pottery classes, unfortunately she is off to New Zealand for the next two months,
so I have managed to get just one lesson before her departure, hopefully I will be able to have a full course when she gets back.
I wonder what it will look like after firing?
The one small bowl that I made has yet to be fired in the kiln so I don't know exactly what it will look like, I will have it back from her before she leaves for her Xmas break.

24 comments:

  1. I would love to buy the unwanted veg for my cattle to eat. Would gladly chop them up into buckets. Don't know why they banned pig swill collection and why don't they tell you how much the plastic packaging costs per item? I wish Camra had pubs in Ireland. Great chair.

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    1. Thank Dave, I'm pleased with the chair. Don't you have supermarkets in your nearest town, we have two, a Lidl who you cant get anything from as all their waste does actually goes for pig swill! and Super Valu, we raised our two pigs last year mainly from the waste veg from Super Valu. A few years back there was a campaign over here started by a German to unpack all his fruit and veg in Tesco's and hand the plastic back to the poor girl on the till, I don't know what happened to that idea. Some things have to have packaging, such as strawberries but why plastic? The packaging is not cheap!!!. But you, the consumer, are paying for it, both when you buy an item and then again when you have to get rid of it, and you never asked for it in the first place.

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  2. People who grow their own veg wouldn't dream of discarding a misshapen carrot or parsnip, would they? Actually, those misshapen veg which are home grown taste far superior to the supermarket's 'perfect' veg. I don't drink beer but Mick does, he like the 'Hen' range, his favourite is Old Golden Hen. My tomatoes have finally come to an end but there's one thing about the extended season, it means it won't be long before we're sowing seeds again.

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    1. We still have tomatoes but tonight might spell the end as our external thermometer is bleeping away, it's reading 1.6c and I've not covered the kiwi.
      The problem with shop bought veg it's just not fresh, even if it grown fairly locally if it's from a supermarket it normally comes through central distribution.

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  3. Hi there. Great Post. I visited a friend last night who had big bags of veggies outside who front door. It appears her old polish Dad has an arrangement where he picks up all the veg being thrown out from a grocer. There was nothing wrong with them and i came home with a bag of peppers.

    Love Simon's chair and yes, here it would be worth a fortune.

    www.middleagedreflections@blogspot.com.au

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    1. Thanks for the photos Lynda, the food that gets thrown away is criminal, especially by the supermarkets, and the amount of fruit and veg that never even makes it for sale due to supermarkets cosmetic discrimination, and it's not the supermarkets that loose the money, it's the farmers.

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  4. Lovely chair! I´ve always wondered what happens to supermarket fish when it finally goes off, even when frozen, given the state of fish populations. But yes, cosmetic standards for veg is ridiculous.

    Cute marketing campaign.

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  5. Thanks Coco.
    Twice at least we have bought fish from a supermarket that has been on the turn, so I suspect they try to sell it regardless. Most of the fish here is iced, it's very hard to get fresh fish.

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  6. I agree, don't waste misshapen fruit and veg! Love the chair, well done.

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    1. Thanks B.G. Hopefully Hugh Fearnely will have stirred up a real storm and people in power might take notice.

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  7. I think it would be best to put "Packaged on" dates on produce instead of "Use By". People think that food is unsafe to eat if it is past its Use-By date.

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    1. And thereby hangs the problem. 'Use By' is in fact a safety issue, it means the safety of the product can not be guaranteed if used after this date. Best before is just a guide line that the product will be at it's best before this date but it is probably completely safe to eat it after this date. 'Packaged on' would not mean anything, years ago we always thought it would be good to have a 'laid on' date on eggs but you cant do that even though we were producers and packers of Organic Eggs. So we were limited to just eighteen days when in fact eggs if stored correctly will stay fresh for up to a month.

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  8. Are you on Twitter? I hope you don't mind, but I have tweeted a link to this post, because I feel it deserves wide publicity! (I'm @Marksvegplot). I think the European supermarkets should learn from the Aussie ones...

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    1. That's fine Mark, we did try to sign up for twitter but we are both technophobes and couldn't work out what we were doing!

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  9. I am always suspicious of too perfect uniform fruit and veg! Irritating as hell that supermarkets claim to be giving the consumer what they want when the opposite is true, grrrrr. Wonderful chair though!

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  10. I agree, we would find it very hard if we had to depend on a supermarket for our food, it's bad enough having to use them for a few basic things like detergents, they give the elusion of lots of choice but it all just more of the same.

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  11. Well hello there! You checked in on my blog (The Poor Farm) so I'm back in Ireland checking out your blog. So glad I came. Great stuff here!

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    1. I have been following your progress for some time now Donna, even my husband looks in on you. We are always interested in alternative buildings we built a straw bale house a few years back, just love your rocket stove and so glad that it's up and running before the bad weather sets in.

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  12. Really interesting post Anne. Love the chair and your pot looks great. I thought the Morrison's staff were appalling, they were not listening and didn't seem to give a fig about the message he was trying to get across.

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  13. Glad you enjoyed it Chickpea. I'm not too sure but I think the men from Morrison's were top brass, I don't think Hugh would have wasted his time with 'staff', and yes they were totally appalling, I don't think anyone who saw the program would think that they had compared like to like regarding freshness, it was clear that they had already made up their minds.
    I'm so pleased with the chair and I didn't even know Simon was making it. I hope to get my pots back next week after they have been fired, then I have to wait until February to do a complete course with her.

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  14. Found you through Chickpea... there's a wonderful 2001 Agnès Varda documentary titled The Gleaners and I, which addresses food waste at all stages of the harvesting and distribution chain.

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  15. Thanks for your comment BBBB, I will check out that video tomorrow.

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  16. The problems with food waste is world wide. Even in my Co-op they don't sell mis- shaped veggies. I ask for chicken scraps and most of the things I get are perfect for me to eat. Whenever I go out to eat (which is rare) I ask for a box and take home everyone's left overs. I can;t stand waste.
    The chair is wonderful, great job.
    Is Morrison's all over Ireland? I thought it was only in England.

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  17. Hi Carole, If you took all the food waste from just the USA and GB you could feed every single person suffering from food poverty, we keep being told that more food will have to be produced to feed the anticipated increase in world population, this is an outright lie, the world already produces enough food to feed everyone come 2050. I was very pleased with the chair and I didn't even know he was making it.
    Yes, you are right, Morrison's is only in the UK, but it applies to all supermarkets.

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