Freeganism

We’ve recently made one exclusion to our seasonal/local food regimen on the back of a really interesting tv programme we saw. it was about ‘freeganism’ which is only eating food which can be retrieved, for free, from commercial bins.

Supermarkets and other food shops now respond to finicky customer demands regarding the condition of food in such a dramatic way that each day huge amounts of food gets bagged up and disposed of into dedicated food bins outside. freegans go around and retrieve this food and take it home. we were intrigued by this and thought it might be good to have a look-see at what we could find en exeter.

We didn’t do much about it at first, but then this week, after a random check, zan found a huge cache of peppers, chilli peppers and (yes drew!) bananas in bags in the bins behind the iceland near our house. the peppers had just started to change colour and the bananas were a bit bruised on the outside, but were fine on the inside. apparently (drew), according to the guy on the programme, bananas can always be found this way.

Now although the food itself doesn’t come into any of the categories we usually look for (local, organic, fair trade), i think the fact that it is going to be wasted and can be got at for free without giving any indication that you support it being produced and sold etc. puts a different spin on things.

Even though it might not appeal to everyone, we’ve taken to the idea quite a lot. i personally think it’s a nicely subversive activity all round and the idea makes me feel a bit like an urban hunter-gatherer, which is cool. although we obviously don’t want the food we get that way to be our main source, and therefore are not really trying ‘freeganism’ per se, this week it has provided some of those naughty things we wouldn’t normally buy.

anyhoo…thoughts, comments, reflections, extraditions?

That was Chut Fest!

The other week we pooled some apples and other ingredients to make some communal chutney. It was great fun, and a good excuse to hang out and chat while the globulous material blubbed away on the stove (and slightly burnt the pan – sorry Jo).

I thought i’d put a link to our pictures to inspire us to do some more.

I was just looking up bottling in the Festivals Family and Food book. If anyone knows of a glut of seasonal fruit we could bottle, let us know and we can have a bash at a Bot Fest (or something like that).

Any other preserving ideas out there?

Seasonal Objectives

Hi guys and gals. Thanks for all the comments, keep them coming!

I thought we could start to consider what sort of things in the eating seasonally area we would want to commit to. I think it would be exciting to put together the list of things that we want to try and achieve, so we can sign up to them together.

I have the following questions:

• How long should we try and do it for?
• When should we start?
• Would we only include fresh fruit and vergetables, not including tinned or frozen fruit?

I’m also thinking of doing it for sponsorship. If that tickles anyone elses fancy, we can setup giftaid and link it to the blog as well.

As they say on ”You are the champions”…. away you go…. get commenting.

The Proposition: Eating in season

Hello friends. I’ve had the idea of eating fruit and vegtables in season for a while now, so I thought I’d put some ideas down here to see who else would be interested in joining me.

My idea is to commit to try and eat only fruit and vegtables from our country. This would obviously mean that a large proporition of the fresh food that we can currently eat all year round, would only be available to us at certain times of the year.

I like this idea because it means:

• I would be buying produce that has travelled less distance.
• I would be more connected with the “earth”, more aware of the fruit and veg available in each season.
• I would need to find out about preserving and pickling type activities to make the most of the current crop of fruit and veg.

I’m also excited about doing this with a group of us, so we can swap ideas, recepies and ways to suplement our diets.

This obviously raises more questions than it answers. Could you have a think and post your comments and questions about my idea.

Just click the comment link below and then enter your name and comment. No need to register or anything.