What a waste!

I saw on the news last night that half of the food produced in the world never even reaches the plate, what an utter waste of time, resources and food! We are told there are starving in the world yet how can this be with all this food going in the bin and not even being fed to animals. Crops are left in the field as they do not meet the EU standards or the cosmetic that supermarkets require. How bloody stupid!

To read more on this or to see the video from sky news click HERE

This Christmas was probably the first year that our food waste amounted to one tub of cream that went out of date and had to be thrown out unopened. We used up all that we had and any food scraps are fed to the chickens and they did not get much.

This was possible because I only bought in what I needed and what I know we would use. I made a lot of cakes, biscuits and pastry things and these were all eaten. We were not entertaining so there was no need to buy just in case  someone popped in as I keep a well stocked store cupboard and can whip up a cake or some pastry in a few minutes or even a loaf of bread. My cupboard is not still full up with Christmas food that will end up in the bin as it runs out of date as it has in the past.

Some people will say I am being a Scrooge or tight fisted and yet this is not the case. We don't go without and we still eat well. It is down to choice and my choice is to be sensible in what I buy, why would I want to throw £'s straight into the bin?

As I have said in previous posts writing out my monthly menu has really helped to save us money where food is concerned and also cuts down on food waste (there isn't any!) Before my menu making days we would often buy a takeout even though we had a freezer full of food, my shopping would be about £100 a week and I would forever be throwing uneaten food in the bin.

I have found some great resources on how to cut down on food waste in the home.
http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/  Is a great site for finding out more on how to save on your food wastage. It has all the facts and figures on food wastage, a recipe page, a page where you can type in your leftovers and it comes up with a recipe. Portion planning and how to store food which is also important to stop your food wastage.

This is not only about saving money but also the impact food wastage has on the environment. It is staggering the amount of water that is used in food production and with food being wasted so is our precious water resources. The carbon footprint is staggering in food production, from imports to the packaging and food thrown away in the landfill sites.

Taking a step back and looking into something can be truly eye opening and amazing. It wasn't until I thought I would post about food wastage and looked into the facts that I realised the amount of other resources that goes in to food production and then for it all to be wasted in excess is quite saddening when there are starving people in the world.

I will step of my soap box for now, until next time x

(No money was earned through the mention of the above websites, the opinion is my own)

Planning and Plotting

We woke to a miserable damp and misty morning which did not improve at all today, a typical winters day. I would much rather have a cold blustery dry day with a hint of sunshine thrown in for good measure that is my perfect winter's day and great for going for a walk or even a bit of gardening, oh well perhaps we will be in for some nice weather soon.

Anyway we got the shopping out of the way we had to also go and purchase a new tumble dryer, all my efforts to keep the old one going was no longer an option and with six of us I can not forgo having a dryer. We went to both aldi's and farm foods and spent about £150.00 and this will feed all six of us plus the additional mouths that we have at weekends for the next three weeks and perhaps a few extra days. This shopping included toiletries, detergents and other household items. We will probably spend an additional £20  during the month for milk and fresh produce as and when needed.

Below you can see a shot of our menu, I have only done it for three weeks as myself and Jay are away for five days at the end of January and I will just make slightly more of the meals we have during January and freeze it for when we are away.

I did post the link for a meal planner in a previous post but you can see it by clicking here There are also filled in planners and lots of recipes to suit all budgets and tastes.

Jay made us a lovely brunch of eggs Benedict made with fresh eggs from the girls and a beautiful piece of home cooked gammon perched on a toasted muffin and dressed with Hollandaise sauce. 

I went out and cleaned out the girls whilst they ran about and rummaged about the garden.I have had a look at the roof on the summerhouse, I need to clean out the guttering on the summerhouse as they have become blocked with leaves and catkins from the silver birch tree. I did put netting over the guttering but they have still filled up and blocked and this is forcing the water into the roof and causing the leak.  So now I know (or think) I know what is causing the problem I can fix it. I will hope to get this done either Tuesday or Wednesday this week weather permitting of course. 

I have also been doing my planning for the vegetable garden. I grabbed my boxes of seeds from the summerhouse and had a look through to see what I had and to make sure all was in date. I have been reading through my previous posts from last year to see what was a good grower and what wasn't and to be honest there was not that many successes!

I have decided to grow a selection of salad crops in various pots and containers up on the decking and hopefully they will not suffer to much slug damage by being up off the ground, especially if we have the wet weather we had last year. I will also have the tomatoes up on the decking growing in pots. 

I am growing my strawberries in the small raised bed, the girls are little monkeys and keep jumping up and digging here so this might be a bad move unless I can keep them off.

In the large raised bed I will be growing peas, beans, carrots and the new vegetable I am going to try and grow which is fennel. I will not be bothering with onions this year but I will be growing more salads and herbs and will hopefully have better success with the sweetcorn and I also want to grow Jerusalem artichokes. I will grow the potatoes in the growbags as usual. 

In the vegetable plot I will have various cabbages, broccoli, cauliflowers and leeks in one section. In the next section I will have beans and sweetcorn and in the last section I will have squashes,courgettes and hopefully squeeze in a pumpkin plant. 

This is just a rough sort of plan, it always changes as time goes on but it is something for me to aim for. I will be sowing my broad beans direct in the ground in March and also the leeks. In the greenhouse the first sowings will be herbs, peas and cauliflowers. Last year I was sowing already but I am going to wait it out this year and hopefully have a bit more success.

I found a really good website earlier all about companion planting. I like to be as organic in my vegetable growing as possible and by growing certain plants together this can help combat the pests that attack our plants. I am going to plant basil with my tomatoes as this improves flavour and growth. 

I will again plant marrigolds around my brassicas and I will also be planting basil, thyme and sage amongst the cabbages and also using mint as a mulch helps to keep the cabbage white butterfly away. Anything that will help me to get my greens to the table in an organic way will be used!

And planting chives, leeks and carrots together helps to combat carrot fly. I don't know if any of this will work but it can't hurt to try. 

The website to find out all about companion planting is Golden Harvest Organics and can be found HERE

Well that is it from me for now, I hope you have all had a great weekend. Until next time x