If there’s one thing we can thank the credit crunch for it’s the end of the fad of eating out of season food.
I can’t think of anything worse than eating the same old food week in and week out. Flavourless strawberries, beans shipped from Kenya and asparagus from Peru are just a few of my pet hates. Not just because of the air miles and the damage this is doing to our planet. There’s the cost to consider and not just to the environment.Personally I am feeling very smug at this very moment. Last year I surveyed my sloping, north facing pocket handkerchief-sized garden, hands on hips, face screwed up against the relentless drizzle of August and decided yes, I too could become self sufficient.
Before we go any further, I’m not. Far from it. I learned along the way it’s an impossibility in the average suburban garden unless you live alone and eat like a sparrow.
Fast forward ten short months later. For lunch we had pea and mint soup, new potatoes, tiny broad beans that melted into velvety softness, roasted baby onions. All home grown and served up with a crispy crunchy Quorn escalope filled with cheddar cheese and broccoli.
Within weeks we’ll be having runner beans, carrots and baby beetroot and be up to our knees in tiny green courgettes. Cabbages and cauliflowers next and of course we have lettuces and radishes to spare.
And the vast range of Quorn products to serve alongside them means we never have to be bored again.
The movement to save the planet is on - now it’s easy to grow just a few vegetables and give up eating meat just one or two days a week - we’ll all be better for it.