On waste ...

11 November

The fuss over all that wasted food is not just about how the supermarkets treat their suppliers, oh no, not by a long chalk. It’s claimed that 25% of all wasted food is thrown out by us shoppers who buy far too much. Yet that is what the supermarkets want us to do but using their ‘bogoffs’ and 2 for 3 offers. Do we really need two packs of onions or frozen sprouts or tins of sweetcorn?  So perhaps it time to think about stopping buying prepacked F&V and buy loose instead. As it happens, like all of us we too waste a good amount of food that hasn’t been used.

One of our worst things to waste is salad items. We all have our likes and dislikes don’t we? (My Word doc here is highlighting the ‘we’ and suggesting ‘us’ instead; ye gods, must be another yanky thing again!) I like most of the lettuce leaves you can by these days, but Jan doesn’t and will only eat iceberg lettuce, and not much of that either, so that’s what we buy mostly. I’ve thrown out so many of those prepacked lettuce leaf variety things. We buy a small pack of six tomatoes, and you can guarantee that we will throw at least half of them away, same with spring onions.

Jan is also very picky when it comes to sliced meats too, and for some time we have bought it fresh sliced at the deli counter, or did until Asda and Morrison did away with them. Cheese is another one for us, well, mainly Jan really. She only likes mild cheese, while I like strong (but not mouldy), cheese. With Jan and her cheese, and slight sign of sweating or dryness and she will cut off all the side to get at the unaffected cheese underneath. Of course I could do some of the many different salads that are floating around right now, but Jan wouldn’t even look at them, let alone trying them; and as for mayo or any other type of dressing – forget it!

We have been doing better with taties just lately though. In 1980 we were going through a 56lb bag of taties in around a fortnight, and it’s just the two of us. Now we would lucky if we got through 10lbs in two weeks, but even then we were still ditching a fair bit. But as I said, we are doing much better now. We have enough left from the last bag for tonight’s dinner and for me for tomorrow when I try that thingy I had on Sunday in the Crow’s Nest pub.

Fruit rarely gets wasted and even then it’s just the odd piece that has gone rotten in the fruit bowl. So now I ask you, ‘How much food do you waste weekly?’ I’m not expecting answers on a postcard, but to urge you to look at your shopping and see if there is any way where you may be able to cut down on what you waste. And remember, it’s not just a bit of cheese or few spuds or strawberries; instead think of it the £1 coins you are putting in your bin.

OK, enough ear bending for now and time to look for a photo … 

My lunch in a pub in Coventry some time ago, and yes, I did leave about a quarter of bread, but all the ham did get eaten, and I didn’t leave any of that pint either!

Today’s funny …

A family is at the dinner table. The son asks the father, “Dad, how many kinds of boobs are there?” The father, surprised, answers, “Well, son, a woman goes through three phases. In her 20s, a woman’s breasts are like melons, round and firm. In her 30s and 40s, they are like pears, still nice, hanging a bit. After 50, they are like onions.” “Onions?” the son asks. “Yes. You see them and they make you cry.” This infuriated his wife and daughter. The daughter asks, “Mom, how many different kinds of willies are there?” The mother smiles and says, “Well, dear, a man goes through three phases also. In his 20s, his willy is like an oak tree, mighty and hard. In his 30s and 40s, it’s like a birch, flexible but reliable. After his 50s, it’s like a Christmas tree.” “A Christmas tree?” the daughter asks. “Yes, dead from the root up and the balls are just for decoration.”