Food Waste

That's very helpful. Aka, thank you. If the rain stays away, I think I will go and have a look in the garden centre this afternoon. I meant to get a big bag of daff bulbs last time I was there but got distracted by something else and clean forgot.

Found it! It's called Suttons speedy veg Leaf Salad winter mix. Sow Feb-October harvest all year round.

I've not tried it before but for £2.45 worth a go

Number on bar code

5 011567 185395

Thanks Aka, I will have a look in the garden centre - if I can fight my way through all the Christmas decorations.

Anno you can buy winter mixes which will give you salad leaves during the winter. I've just planted mine but I think I've thrown the packet away. If I summon up any enthusiasm for rooting through the compost bin to find it I'll let you know what it was called.

Salad is the main culprit for me when it comes to waste, but mainly because the S.O. buys too many bags of it for the weekend [and it is the one thing that I use by it's use by date]. I'm not a great veggie eater so most meals are accompanied by a bag of salad [always the watercress and rocket one] mixed with beetroot, cucumber, tomatoes, grated carrot etc. Then yesterday I bought some deli wraps to use up some left over chicken, planning to mix it with lettuce and mayonaise only to find that the S.O. had, for once, listened to me and there was no lettuce left. Lettuce is very good for helping you sleep, which is probably why I'm such a dozy type [as in 'the soporific effect of eating lettuce'].

Never quite sure what those leafy salads are for . Bit of dietary fibre. Fill up the plate. Add colour.
Not many nutrients in lettuce. Does not fill you up. I don't know why it is viewed as a healthy food.
I remember once, in a brief phase of vegetarianism, being presented with the "vegetarian option" which was a mound of grated cheese, surrounded by a substantial rampart of shredded iceberg and a couple of slices of tomato.

I usually grow 'salad bowl' type lettuces which are a 'cut and come again' variety. However, in the winter, if I do fancy a salad, I will buy either little gems or a small bag of leaves which don't last very long. When the weather is colder I prefer something warm anyway. If I buy frozen veg (broccoli and peas) or buy a big pack (carrots) and freeze them, there is no waste as I only take out what I know I will eat.

Ever since I began living independently I have planned menus a week at a time and shopped once a week. Each plan starts with a survey of what needs to be used up. This scheme has worked well even though DH had a job that required frequent short notice work trips for indefinite period. It keeps food waste to an absolute minimum.

I grow most of my vegetables. Vegetable waste goes back on the compost tip and nowadays when meat is bought deboned, deskinned and ready diced the amount of food waste is minimal. When I put a food waste box out it usually contains no more than two bacon rinds, some fish skin and a chop bone.

All of us only have a finite income and to throw handfuls of money into the dust bin, which is what chucking unused food is, strikes me as wicked, particularly as the same people probably them complain about being unable to afford their fuel bills

I keep bread in the freezer, and defrost as needed. Don't eat meat or fish, and only buy it in small quantities for DH. The salads are the main problem, because the bags are too big for two of us to get through before they go soggy and brown.

The food waste story is, however, focused on the supermarkets as well as on the consumer, and is truly horrific - a complete anomaly in these days of food banks etc.

oh bloody hell! apostrophes again! Why does that happen? I know plurals don't have them!!!!!

Not only would my daughter's not do it, doing it wouldn't even occur to them. They know that I understand how food works.

I don't regard putting unused vegetables or floppy salad items on the compost heap as "wasting". I regard it as feeding, in due course, the garden.

I love my daughter but I would never allow her to go through my cupboards or fridge and tell me what I should throw away. Being my daughter, of course, she wouldn't dream of doing it – until I become completely senile and incapable anyway. Brendawymms Why on earth do you allow yourself to be bullied in this way? Of course, you are not alone – lots of other under-the-thumb-of-their daughters' mothers on GN have admitted allowing this to happen too. I find it incomprehensible.

When my daughter visits she goes through the cupboards for out of date dry goods, jams etc. when she leaves I put them all back.

I miss having chucks as they meant we threw so little onto the compost heap. Like everyone else who already posted, I was brought up to make a little meat go a long way. Our Thursday night evening meal has always been made out of whatever is left in the fridge, and still is, even though we are now 2 rather than 5 or more. I buy salad bags with watercress in them, but try and avoid the other leaves bags. I suspect they are one of the biggest causes of waste.

My DiL sends round her left over/out of date fruit and veg for our chickens. Most of it is so usable it never makes it to the chucks.

We look after her children most days .... they love Nana's home made soup and fruit salads

We throw the leftovers into the sky and watch and photograph the gulls feeding when at V.Cottage - Hebrideanlady. DDH takes the most amazing picture of them - on even had a small Hovis shaped loaf in its throat while it was trying to guzzle everything else on the lawn.

Bought a lamb shank or two from B.....d Stores Hebrideanlady, they weren't called shanks though, what are they call in your locality xx

I had such a huge salad this evening! A bag of mixed leaves was threatening to go off so I've been a rabbit - in that sense only - tonight.

Sooo, if the majority of us grans waste no more than twenty quids worth of food a year and the average wastage is a whoping £700 how the hell much do some families chuck out?

Yes, I remember it too Absent.

What little waste we have either gets recycled into eggs or the dogs get it.

Absent I remember the stone soup story.

We have a bitza lunch every now and again – for those who don't know, it comprises bits of this and bits of that out of the fridge.

Does anyone remember the European folk tale about stone soup?

I think it is the younger ones who waste food. Our generation were brought up to waste not want not and it is now ingrained. I hate to throw anything out and take great pleasure in making meals that could be labelled - "Honey, I emptied the fridge!" DH is always well fed. When I was younger and poorer I could make a meal out of a dishcloth (well not really but you get the idea.)

I think it would help if supermarkets didn't promote BOGOFs and similar offers on fresh fruit and veg - not much use to those of us who live alone and encourages waste.

Same feelings from me, I waste very little food indeed. The level of waste horrifies me. Perhaps supermarkets stock up with too many perishable foods.

The throw away generation need to think more about this.

Think about what meals you are going to have each week before you buy. Don't buy very perishable food just "in case you might fancy it sometime." use your freezer for the stuff that can be frozen.

Do not get hung up on sell by dates of vegetables or other food. Use common sense about the condition of tired veg, its often possible to just chop off odd bits that are soft. Make soup or peel and freeze them to make soup later.

You do need to more careful about meat and similar stuff.