Our Produce, supplying Staffordshire with great value local food

Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, has urged families to tackle climate change by growing fruit and vegetables in their gardens and allotments instead of buying produce flown thousands of miles.

Of course I agree entirely with this sentiment, but it’s not always practical and there are writers who have already got into trouble for suggesting we all rear and slaughter our own pigs ( read Tom Hodgkinson)! However -the message is clear- we shouldn’t be buying imported food when we can buy local produce. We need to shake off our addiction to the supermarkets – it’s a myth to say local costs more. It doesn’t if you plan you meals,  just buy what you need and cook from simple raw ingredients (See Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers – Wednesdays 7.30pm). It all tastes so much better, is so much better for you and saves the environment, why wouldn’t you take on board the Archbishop’s advice ?

Ok. Off soapbox…now!

As I was on my travels this morning collecting from the butchers, bakers and fruit farm I was thrilled to hear an article on Radio 4′s Today Programme about the current ‘eat seasonably campaign’. Two commentators were discussing the joy of anticipating your favourite fruits and vegetables coming into season and how much better they taste when eaten at the ‘right’ time of year. There’s a website you can visit: www.eatseasonably.co.uk.

It was also recommended that people get whatever they can straight from the local producer – but we all know that’s easier said than done! That’s where Our Produce provides the perfect solution – fresh, seasonal, local and affordable food brought to a collection point near you. Great, heh?! Spread the word and let everyone you know just how easy it is to eat seasonably and locally.

Forwarded from a loyal friend of Our Produce, these ideas featured in a recent edition of Good Housekeeping magazine and definitely seem worth sharing!

1. Add an inch of water to the bottom of the roasting tin when cooking turkey – it steams the bird as well as roasting it, leaving the meat lovely and moist ( a tip from Angela Hartnett – she runs the fabulous Murano restaurant in London and is a former protegee of Gordon Ramsay)
2. Keep your cooked ham joint in the fridge in a pillowcase. It will sweat in clingfilm or foil, but stored in a pillowcase it will last 2 weeks. Fold back the rind before you cut slices off, then cover the remaining ham with the rind as you go. ( A tip from John Torode of Masterchef fame)
3. To make your Christmas wreath last longer, spray with hairspray before you hang it on the front door!

I have to stress that I haven’t tried any of these but I’m interested to hear any other top tips you may have!

The average British family with children throws away over a quarter of all the food it purchases! Pardon?

These are the latest findings from WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme). They estimate that households throw away over £10 billion of edible food in England and Wales alone.

It’s just incredible in a world of soaring food prices, land shortages and starvation that anyone can be so selfish and plain stupid…yet clearly we are!

Plan your meals, use leftovers, don’t succumb to BOGOFFs. Be smarter. Save money.

 IT’S EASY; DON’T MAKE EXCUSES!!

Post your ideas for meal planning, recipes for leftovers, money saving tips here on the Our Produce blog. Spread the word!!

17th February Sunday Times, India Knight writes:

“We are complete imbeciles when it comes to supermarkets: we still think, by and large, that they are doing us a kindness by existing. I don’t say this wearing an eco-warrior, anti-capitalist, down-with-big-business hat, but rather as a consumer with a family, who has, until recently, relied heavily on the weekly supermarket shop. I realise I am speaking from a fortunate standpoint: I can afford to pay a little more for organic ingredients, and I use my local butcher and fishmonger (which I’m very lucky to have:both are a dying breed) because I would rather eat fantastic meat once a week than mechanically recovered slop on a daily basis. But actually I question the whole ‘value’ status of supermarkets, not least because whenever I go I buy a pile of stuff I don’t actually need or, indeed, want; stuff that, more often than not, ends up being thrown away (shamefully).

Shopping locally, on the other hand, adds up to buying what you set out to buy..there’s no contest, it works out cheaper”