Ed Dowding

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2011/jun/03/fish-stocks-information-beautiful

Sainsbury’s believes you can but when Alex Renton took up the challenge, he found his household had serious misgivings. He writes: “Most supermarket sales campaigns are about “value”, which means “lower prices”, though those are not the same thing at all. In pursuit of what would seem impossible, greater earnings with ever-lower prices, the big shops have, over the decades, transferred the profits in food from the producer to the retailer: farmers who used to get more than half the price of a pint of milk now get a quarter. We shoppers and eaters, meanwhile, have transmuted the sensible thrift of our ancestors into a bizarre combination of gluttony and meanness. We eat too much, throw away 30 per cent of the food we buy, yet we want it all cheaper than last week. And we’ve got it — we spend around 11 per cent of household income on it: half what we did 30 years ago.

Source: The Times via The Soil Association

I went skip raiding last night around the back of Waitrose with a friend who lives locally.We thought we’d go see what’s thrown away and liberate some meals from the tragedy of landfill.

It’s illegal, but as an imaginary legal team suggested, “being immoral is clearly worse than being illegal.”

We parked around the corner from the service entrance to the store, and wandered in with our big strong bags. There were a number of bins locked up in a cage a little away from the building, and four or five more nearer the doors. These were floodlit, too, which rather hampers the covert operations aspect.

We flipped the lids on the ones we could get access to and immediately found what we were looking for. Bags and bags of food, some with slightly split packets, but for the most part just food with a display until date of the day before.

We were only there for a few minutes since we didn’t want much, and didn’t want to get caught, but still came away with everything you see below. If you’re up for a bit of virtuous fun, I strongly recommend it.

If a healthy school meal service, linked to good food education, can help reduce the incidence of Type 2 diabetes by just 1% then it will more than pay for itself in savings on diabetes costs alone.

via The Soil Association

From the marvellous Planet Green comes a list of 66 Things You Can Grow At Home – in containers, without a garden

Tree fruits – including apples

1. Apples
2. Kumquats
3. Avocados (plenty of extra tips online if you search)
4. Blackberries
5. Blueberries (sometimes helpful videos are available online)
6. Pomegranate
7. Cherries
8. Figs
9. Pears

Citrus fruits

Citrus trees in particular are said to be good for beginning gardeners and are easy to grow indoors, so don’t let inexperience or lack of outdoor space stop you from enjoying fresh-picked, hyper-local fruit.
10. Dwarf oranges
11. Grapefruit
12. Tangerines
13. Meyer lemons
14. Limes

Tropical fruits

Tropical fruits can also be surprisingly easy to grow indoors, even in non-tropical climates. Such as…
15. Bananas (look for container gardening tips online)
16. Pineapple
17. Papaya
18. Guavas (several varieties)

The real surprises

19. Hops—yes, as in the “spice” ingredient in beer. Turns out they’re easy to grow!
20. Aloe Vera
21. Strawberries
22. Tea (well, herbal tea)
23. Quinoa!

The non-surprises

24. Tomatoes
25. Summer squash
26. Other squashes, like acorn and pumpkin
27. Hot Peppers
28. Sweet peppers
29. Cucumbers

Melons

30. Small cantaloupe
31. Jenny Lind melon (an heirloom cantaloupe)
32. Golden Midget Watermelon

Herbs

Just about any herb grows well indoors—just be sure that if you’re going to do any container-sharing, you do your research first about which herbs co-habitate well together. (Some will hog water, for example, and leave the others dried out.)
33. Basil
34. Oregano
35. Parsley
36. Rosemary
37. Chives
38. Catnip
39. Thyme
40. Sage
41. Parsley

Leafy Greens

42. Kale
43. Mesclun greens
44. Spinach
45. Swiss chard
46. Lettuces (plenty of options there, from micro-greens to head or loose-leaf)
47. Mustard greens
48. Collard greens
49. Arugula

Root Vegetables

50. Carrots
51. Beets
52. Potatoes

Other healthy-sounding stuff

53. Sprouts
54. More sprouts: mung bean and lentil sprouts
55. Wheatgrass
56. Kohlrabi
57. Turnips
58. Rutabagas
59. Celeriac
60. Parsnips
61. Jerusalem Artichoke
62. Sugar snap peas
63. Rhubarb (not ideal in a container, but it can work)
64. Mushrooms (again, more tips online if you look)
65. Pole Beans
66. Aaaand… asparagus, although some disagree that it does well in a container. Try it if you’re ok with a risk!