Food alienation.

[petercb]

Friend's 8 year old daughter helped with egg collecting from hens. Passed her the first newly laid one and she screamed her head off because it was warm! Fortunately she at least didn't drop it

[Conor Wright]

One positive thing I should note here is that I see a few of our friends putting up little tunnels or having a go with a few veggies in a window box etc. The worst of the ignorance appears to be in the 40-50 and teenage ranges, in my own anecdotal experience at least. You could forgive the younger ones, they may well learn. I had little interest in growing food until my mid 20s.

There is a level of interest out there, its just a shame that what was common knowledge 2 generations ago is now lost to 90% of the population.

The storage and preservation of the grown food is equally important too. Jam making, blanching and freezing, clamping spuds, pickling etc. This is where the real value is in growing your own.

Modern life has ****************ed up a lot of people's eating habits too. No time to prepare meals, easier to stop at the deli, ready meals, take aways.

I'm guilty of all the above, but you can't beat your own food. shank of lamb with homegrown veggies, fresh eggs, seasonal fruits... we probably manage one in 10 evening meals being 100% off our own land. This should really be the baseline but I see so many people who eat 100% bought food out of fear. Theres a perception that unpackaged food is "dirty"

if you want dirty, take a swab of the screen of your phone.. 

Rant over!

[sime42]

57 minutes ago, Conor Wright said:

One positive thing I should note here is that I see a few of our friends putting up little tunnels or having a go with a few veggies in a window box etc. The worst of the ignorance appears to be in the 40-50 and teenage ranges, in my own anecdotal experience at least. You could forgive the younger ones, they may well learn. I had little interest in growing food until my mid 20s.

There is a level of interest out there, its just a shame that what was common knowledge 2 generations ago is now lost to 90% of the population.

The storage and preservation of the grown food is equally important too. Jam making, blanching and freezing, clamping spuds, pickling etc. This is where the real value is in growing your own.

Modern life has ****************ed up a lot of people's eating habits too. No time to prepare meals, easier to stop at the deli, ready meals, take aways.

I'm guilty of all the above, but you can't beat your own food. shank of lamb with homegrown veggies, fresh eggs, seasonal fruits... we probably manage one in 10 evening meals being 100% off our own land. This should really be the baseline but I see so many people who eat 100% bought food out of fear. Theres a perception that unpackaged food is "dirty"

if you want dirty, take a swab of the screen of your phone.. 

Rant over!

 

Rant? That's not a rant! Far too much punctuation and reasoned thought gone into it. There's plenty of proper rants on here, in other threads.

 

All good points, well made. So to go back to a previous point; Growing and then preparing and cooking AND preserving your own food ought to be on the curriculum. That sounds very like old fashioned Home Economics in fact. Not sure why that was dropped from the curriculum. It's not just a question of health, but also money. You could potentially save a fair bit of money by not buying fruit and veg all the time, especially with the exorbitant prices today. As long as you can cope with the dirt!

 

There is positivity as you say. There's been a resurgence of interest in growing your own recently. Due in part to COVID lockdowns and all that upheaval. It's also a "trendy" thing to do at the moment I think, no bad thing I guess.

 

[Peasgood]

I am a member of a couple of fruit and veg gardening groups on fb. Pretty basic stuff on there but it makes me feel clever.  In reality there are tips to be had and it's nice to see folks growing quality produce.

What astonishes me is just how many people have no clue whatsoever about growing stuff, sometimes you wonder if they are joking but they ask the most bizarre questions. My favourite was on the benefit of adding coffee grounds to the compost heap and the question asked was if instant would be just as good. Seriously wtf moment for me but if you don't get what the coffee grounds are doing then maybe it's not such a dumb question.

Loads of people sowing runner beans, sweetcorn, tomatoes, cucumbers in January and then getting all upset at the other members telling them it is too early.

People growing broad beans and asking when to harvest without picking just one and looking inside, then asking what to do with them because they have never eaten them before, do you cook them in the pod and is the pod edible.

People pulling up their entire garlic crop mid May when the first one they pulled up should have indicated to them they weren't ready yet.

There are some pretty stupid people on there but for the most part actually growing something is so alien to them they haven't a clue. That is what comes as the biggest surprise but no doubt they would be just as surprised at my complete ignorance of the latest fashion and which brand of trainers I should be wearing. Different worlds!

Encouraging to see just how many are giving it a go and pleased for the rewards they are getting from doing so.

[Trailoftears]

Pertaining to the couple mentioned in my opening post.The gentleman is a v.keen barbequer.last Year he was pulling up my/his half-grown onions and I was finding the golf ball sized bulbs in the compost heaps more often than not.I had a wtf?moment-and asked him why?He thought they were sp.onions-which I also grow for them in the same area....🙄

[Trailoftears]

I agree with a lot of the comments on this post,people DO want to learn,grow their own stuff.I suspect far too many people regard gardening/growing as 'difficult',and some particular talent confined to middle-aged white men with flat caps that belong to arcane societies who signal their membership by furtively exchanging home-grown carrots whilst glancing nervously around lest some members of the general public accidentally spot their furtive machinations! Therefore it puts youngsters/learners off.A huge gap in the sector,market is a t.v.programme actually teaching the BASICS-how and when to sow seed/aftercare/watering PROPERLY/soil prep/planting etc,etc.Instead they get middle-class oxbridge knobs in woolly designer jumpers-with suspiciously long/clean nails exhorting them to install mirrors,paint their sheds pink,go out and buy mature designer plants for huge expense etc,etc.No wonder most peeps think-'ukking fell',these people are seriously strange-gardening is not for the likes of us.

[scbk]

9 minutes ago, Trailoftears said:

A huge gap in the sector,market is a t.v.programme actually teaching the BASICS-how and when to sow seed/aftercare/watering PROPERLY/soil prep/planting etc,etc.Instead they get middle-class oxbridge knobs in woolly designer jumpers-with suspiciously long/clean nails exhorting them to install mirrors,paint their sheds pink,go out and buy mature designer plants for huge expense etc,etc.No wonder most peeps think-'ukking fell',these people are seriously strange-gardening is not for the likes of us.

You haven't said your location, your need to watch Beechgrove not Gardeners World!

 

 

 

"Everyone's got their own skillset" is what I always say.

 

I like to think I'm ok at growing plants (short on time though)

I'm defiantly very good at eating food

Not so good at the stage in the middle (cooking), I often end up giving a lot of produce away

My mother's good, she brings the produce back to me as jam/cake etc!!

Edited June 21, 2023 by scbk

[AHPP]

28 minutes ago, scbk said:

 

"Everyone's got their own skillset" is what I always say.

 

I like to think I'm ok at growing plants (short on time though)

I'm defiantly very good at eating food

Not so good at the stage in the middle (cooking), I often end up giving a lot of produce away

My mother's good, she brings the produce back to me as jam/cake etc!

I’m getting round to recruiting a wife. Part of the hiring process is making sure she comes with her own copy of Mrs Beeton’s. 

 

[Trailoftears]

Interesting how the fashions in veg come and go,I worked at a Country house Hotel some years ago.So,I tended to grow the slightly more unusual stuff then and thats coming back now I find.Flat parsley,asparagus pea,florence fennel bulbs,sweetcorn,Curly kale etc.The old mainstays are out now it seems-carrots,2nd early spuds,r.beans.

Still an argument for growing your own onions I'd argue-bit more intense flavour.

My cycle is-leeks and p.sprouting broc/maybe sprouts put in the Autumn.Come the spring they come in,plus a couple of old beds of asparagus/rhubarb come in too.followed by br.beans,grdn.peas,garlic,shallots,onions ect.then the salad crops start to come in-salad bowl lettuce/sw.chard/mizuma/spinach/chives/sp.onions etc,also herbs,coriander/fennel/basils.Then fr.beans/courgettes/sweetcorn/curly kale,followed quickly by red cabbage,globe beetroot.In the G.house,the finest most productive large cherry tomato-Sakura+bloody butcher-an early greek-type tom with a few plum type san marzano cooking toms.Also a cucumber or 2- half size f1 fem types,fembaby/socrates etc.If you have the luxury of a small g.house+2/3 decent sized raised beds its entirely possible to be pretty much self sufficient re: veg for 10 months of the Year.