| Eating seasonally and gardening 09:34 - Feb 24 with 449 views | Mullet |
Does anyone here eat seasonally? As a kid most of my extended family had gardens so we got plenty of bags of stuff dropped off at the door and Snr grew stuff too, but I don't think it was a conscious thing just common sense to eat what was ready. Certainly wasn't in spite of frozen stuff or whatnot either.
A local farm delivers veg boxes and we have one, but a fair bit ends up being composted as it's hard to get through it all without some odd concoctions or it not being able to last a few days (I once got a stone in with the potatoes that admittedly did look like a spud until I tried peeling it)
I'm guessing we are a few days away from the Tories having a "dig for Britain" style soundbite and fetishising WW2 again. But I do wonder if we've eaten seasonally as a nation for decades thanks to ready meals and the like.
Anyone here manage it? I've got loads of gardening to do as the weather improves so might plan my crops better this year as I've had a disastrous time of it trying to grow stuff. |  |
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| Eating seasonally and gardening on 09:53 - Feb 24 with 389 views | Guthrum |
A much higher proportion of Britons do not have the possibility of growing veg now. No gardens at all, too small/dark or just a thin layer of turf over builders' rubble. Allotments have been built upon.
Seasonal eating went out of the window when freezers went from being a tiny box in the top of the fridge (just room for some ice cream and maybe a packet of peas), to useful storage in the home, big lorries on the road and entire ships. Made it feasible to chill and ship veg from southern Europe, North Africa and even South America out-of-season. Which only really took off in the 1980s.
To eat seasonally, one needs to cook. Which requires knowlege, attention, perhaps inventiveness and, above all, time. Requires sacrificing a bit of TV and online. Also sometimes eating things you don't like so much. |  |
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| Eating seasonally and gardening on 12:25 - Feb 24 with 329 views | Mullet |
| Eating seasonally and gardening on 09:53 - Feb 24 by Guthrum |
A much higher proportion of Britons do not have the possibility of growing veg now. No gardens at all, too small/dark or just a thin layer of turf over builders' rubble. Allotments have been built upon.
Seasonal eating went out of the window when freezers went from being a tiny box in the top of the fridge (just room for some ice cream and maybe a packet of peas), to useful storage in the home, big lorries on the road and entire ships. Made it feasible to chill and ship veg from southern Europe, North Africa and even South America out-of-season. Which only really took off in the 1980s.
To eat seasonally, one needs to cook. Which requires knowlege, attention, perhaps inventiveness and, above all, time. Requires sacrificing a bit of TV and online. Also sometimes eating things you don't like so much. |
We have a small set of allotments on our estate, but no idea if they are just for the handful of council tenants either.
The cultural aspect as well as the years of year round supply means the shift wouldn't happen would it?
There does seem to be a lot of moralising that "the poor" don't know how to cook, but there's also the cost factor which incentivises buying the most calories per £, as it coincides with just stick it in the oven too. | |
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| Eating seasonally and gardening on 12:35 - Feb 24 with 327 views | Ryorry |
Unable to now due to allergies restricting diet, but certainly used to at least try.
Tories in charge of education policy for last 13 years has desperately narrowed the curriculum as you obviously have more expertise in than myself - not just things like 'home economics', but hearing recent docus on how arts/music/drama has had to be dropped from the curriculum in so many schools, leading to less-rounded young people & an economic downturn in UK arts production/exports, is incredibly sad. |  |
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