Food Supermarkets and Cooking

Yesterday I had to go on small mission, let me explain. For several years I have at times made my own chutney. Often when I have been able to get some windfall apples or if there was some produce that was very cheap. I would give friends jars of whatever I had produced. All very simple, except that I don’t always get the jars back. As a number of years ago I bought some, well a lot, of wire clip jars, and people like them so much that they are reluctant to give them back. So that was my mission today.

It was interesting to visit and reconnect with people that I have not seen for a while. Most of these people are what I would could fair weather friends, and while they seemed happy and willing to chat a little, most seemed to be more interested in the prospect of getting a jar of something in return for giving me my own jar back. I now have enough of my own jars back to accommodate all this marmalade I have now made. Can you guess what I am having for breakfast?

Many of the people though were quite interested in what I am trying to do, as by their own admission most are not confident cooks. While it would be all to easy criticise folks, it really does stem from a lack of education. However I was pleased to hear that in the schools they are now starting (again) to teach young people basic cooking skills.

One incident though did amuse me; I was told by one person that they had broken the jar while I was staring at it on their kitchen bench. I politely pointed it out and said that they must be confusing my jar with one they got from elsewhere. Oh yes so it is, and I was left on the step at the back door for fifteen minutes while the searched for a container to put the contents into, they were reusing the jar. While I was kept waiting I saw one of the Red Kites in the near distance so I was not displeased by being made to wait outside. As I walked back home with my jars, I saw another of the Red Kites too.

While I was washing the jars, well they were in soaking, I saw one of the ringed Doves come down to drink from the large Dog Bowl that I use as a bird bath. The next time I looked half the water had been spilt as I guess the bird had taken a bath. I was pleased to see that it was being used by the birds, although I have rarely been witness to this, I had seen signs of its use. I also put out a net of Peanuts for the birds yesterday. My cheap peanut feeder is going rusty and I need to replace it mainly as the birds are not using it that often and the peanuts are going to waste. So when in town trying to get the jam thermometer the other day, I picked up some nets of nuts for the birds. Well today I had the sight of one of the Jackdaws trying to get to the peanuts. The Bird found a perch above the net, then lifted it and held it within its reach my one foot. It got some of the nuts out too. Another came to watch and tried the same trick but pulled the whole net off the hook and dropped to the ground. As it landed behind a flowerpot, the second Jackdaw lost out on a snack. Well it keeps me entertained.

Returning to the subject of the Marmalade, when I made my last trip to the supermarket, I was shocked to see just how expensive Marmalade is there. The cheapest was £1.19 and the most expensive was £2.50. Even taking account of the extra fuel costs these jars of my own will still cost less than fifty pence each to have made. While in town I did find some jars of Marmalade that were seventy-five pence, it shows that we in Britain are not getting the good deal from the supermarkets they would have us believe we are getting.

All of this is making me even more determined to produce these videos and hopefully help people see that good food can also be cheap food. Across so many areas of life, everything is measured purely in terms of money. The supermarkets sell food purely as fuel, anything that is better quality or truly good for us they charge a premium for. Therefore, it ends up where the wealthier people in our society are the only ones that have access to a good balanced diet.

The government should not have abdicated food policy to the supermarkets or the food industry; it is this neglect of the basic needs of the people that has resulted in this problem of obesity and poor diet. The illusion of cheap food that these chemically laced, over processed so called meals that the food industry sells us, is adding costs elsewhere like the NHS. The banks were allowed to get away with making money at all costs and we can all see the mess that caused, well the supermarkets and the food industry are doing the same, except the cost is and will be the early deaths of the very customers they rely on. To me it makes no sense.

The real problem is the way that people at boardroom level reward short term gains at the expense of any long term planning. Now where have we heard that story before?