Wonky Veg.........

Well, it's been a while since I've been here. So much has been going on in the growing & cooking front that the months have just slipped away.

In the past few months I've been getting increasingly frustrated during my shopping trips at the labelling of some of our fruit & veg. I see shelf upon shelf of perfectly shaped offerings & then stuck up in some little corner are a few bags of sadly named Wonky Veg!! My blood boils. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that these are for sale otherwise they would all disappear into some landfill or at best be used to feed livestock. A criminal waste of both valuable resources & a disregard for the time & effort of our food producers. What makes me angry is the fact that these perfectly delicious & nutritious items are deemed to be "Wonky". That means that any of the fruit & vegetables my husband, & many others, have grown, that we have eaten & enjoyed & that I've made into bottles of Preserves are seen as in some way inferior. No they are not, they're just normal. Often that perfect looking tomato or apple is tasteless. The ones that we've picked from our trees & greenhouse (in season, but that's a whole other issue!) this year might not always have won a beauty contest but boy did they taste delicious.

What sort of message is this sending out? Unless something is perfect it's in some way abnormal, not as good or nutritious? Lets try & change this. Buy from your local Farmers Market or direct from the producer, many of them sell at their premises & it's often better value & doesn't have unnecessary packaging so better all round. Or even better, try & grow your own. You don't need acres just a few tubs can produce some fantastic treats. So come, embrace fruit & veg in all it's beautiful forms!