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The 'Wonky' Box

incorporating Recipes and Cooking
forrado
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The 'Wonky' Box

#160823

Postby forrado » August 20th, 2018, 6:28 pm

The BBC reports … Third of farmed fruit and veg deemed 'too ugly to sell'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45238732

The LIDL solution to the problem … The ‘Wonky’ Box
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/wonky-vegatables-lidl-cheap-not-perfect-a8477151.html

You’ve got to admit the Germans are quick to see an opportunity.

UncleEbenezer
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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#160920

Postby UncleEbenezer » August 20th, 2018, 11:59 pm

I don't understand why fruit&veg that can't be sold to the shopping public ('cos shoppers will pick out the nicer-looking ones) shouldn't instead be used by the food industry to produce things like ready meals where you don't see the individual ingredients. Today's soup was delicious, and eating it one could see neither that the tomatos had been perfectly red and round nor the carrots bizarre, knobbly shapes before cooking. Nor indeed that the onions were from a bag labelled as misshapen, and bought at the local coop, and have the best taste of any onions I'm aware of available in any shop from supermarket to greengrocer. Indeed, the only onions with enough flavour to make my eyes water since I last enjoyed an onion locally-grown by a friend.

Perhaps there's really more to it than the stories of waste tell us?

Rhyd6
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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161026

Postby Rhyd6 » August 21st, 2018, 1:24 pm

In our village we run a veg co-operative/community cafe once a week. We have a local market garden deliver to us their wonky fruit and veg which we then pack into different size bags depending on what people have ordered. The bags range from £2 to £6 and are made up according to people's needs. No-one complains about the look of the produce and all agree that shape etc. doesn't affect the taste. We sell about 40 bags worth of fruit and veg each week as well as enjoying a friendly get together which enables us to catch up on the gossip and keep an eye on people who are not in the first flush of youth so to say. Our widower/single male members also benefit from the odd treat because whoever is on packing duty and cafe duty brings along home baked cakes and we always but a few extra in for those who no longer have anyone to bake for them and appreciate some home cooked treats.

R6

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161056

Postby UncleEbenezer » August 21st, 2018, 3:03 pm

Thumbs up for a commendable effort, but:
Rhyd6 wrote:Our widower/single male members also benefit from the odd treat because whoever is on packing duty and cafe duty brings along home baked cakes and we always but a few extra in for those who no longer have anyone to bake for them and appreciate some home cooked treats.

R6

Hey, it's not all single males who can't cook for ourselves (and indeed occasionally for guests). What would happen on social media if I were to imply that women are incapable of some everyday task?

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161061

Postby Howyoudoin » August 21st, 2018, 3:34 pm

forrado wrote:The BBC reports … Third of farmed fruit and veg deemed 'too ugly to sell'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45238732

The LIDL solution to the problem … The ‘Wonky’ Box
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/wonky-vegatables-lidl-cheap-not-perfect-a8477151.html

You’ve got to admit the Germans are quick to see an opportunity.



Wasn't it Asda that introduced the wonky veg box in this Country two and a half years ago? https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/asdas-35 ... ap-7360216


HYD

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161082

Postby bungeejumper » August 21st, 2018, 6:02 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:What would happen on social media if I were to imply that women are incapable of some everyday task?

Happens all the time in our household. Wife "can't" handle a spanner, fix the lawnmower or check the fluids and the air in the car, and I'm "not safe" in charge of the washing machine. ;) Mind you, I can run up a mean casserole, and I do nearly all of the weekday cooking. I am also endowed with the specially enhanced male spatial awareness that's required to load the dishwasher. 8-) :

But cake? I really don't have room in my life for that sort of thing. Don't have a sweet tooth at all, in fact. It's all right for WI coffee mornings, I suppose, but I prefer to embrace my all-masculine cakelessness. So there. :lol:

BJ

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161085

Postby bungeejumper » August 21st, 2018, 6:09 pm

Howyoudoin wrote:Wasn't it Asda that introduced the wonky veg box in this Country two and a half years ago? https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/asdas-35 ... ap-7360216

I think Sainsburys have been running their "greengrocer" ranges of non-compliant veg for many years now. And French supermarkets have their own ways of dealing with the problem. They just dump the misshapes into the standard bins, at the standard expensive prices, and wait until they eventually turn crinkly at the edges because they haven't been sold to anyone. Or maybe I'm just buying at the wrong French supermarkets?

BJ

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161140

Postby rabbit » August 21st, 2018, 11:47 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:I don't understand why fruit&veg that can't be sold to the shopping public ('cos shoppers will pick out the nicer-looking ones) shouldn't instead be used by the food industry to produce things like ready meals where you don't see the individual ingredients.


It is. Unfortunately the standard of near-perfection required by the supermarkets is so high that there's far more "wonky" fruit and veg out there than the food processing sector requires.

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161144

Postby UncleEbenezer » August 22nd, 2018, 12:03 am

bungeejumper wrote:
UncleEbenezer wrote:What would happen on social media if I were to imply that women are incapable of some everyday task?

Happens all the time in our household. Wife "can't" handle a spanner, fix the lawnmower or check the fluids and the air in the car, and I'm "not safe" in charge of the washing machine. ;) Mind you, I can run up a mean casserole, and I do nearly all of the weekday cooking. I am also endowed with the specially enhanced male spatial awareness that's required to load the dishwasher. 8-) :
BJ

Such observations about individuals - as in yourself and wife above - are perfectly in order.

Such observations made as generalisations about entire groups are an entirely different question. There are a lot of pretty-offensive stereotypes of the human male in our culture, and anyone who challenges them tends to be labelled misogynistic and denied a platform anywhere that matters.

For the record, inability to bake cakes is a stereotype I don't really find offensive, in part because I don't much care for or about cakes, but also because it's entirely unimportant. I picked up on it because it looks like the thin end of a wedge.

think Sainsburys have been running their "greengrocer" ranges of non-compliant veg for many years now.

Oh, is that why I can get some seemingly-decent veg (including the carrots in my earlier post) so much cheaper than others? I'd noticed "greengrocer" seems to be Sainsburys' cheapest, and was wondering if it was some rather evil marketing designed to associate non-supermarket veg with cheap&nasty in the shoppers' minds.

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161233

Postby Rhyd6 » August 22nd, 2018, 3:06 pm

I'd forgotten that in this day and age you can't discuss anything without checking to make sure you haven't offended one slice of society or another :) My OH does all the cooking, we don't have a dishwasher so I do all the washing up, likewise the cleaning and ironing. He also deals with all matters deemed "technical" now that I've bought a karcher window cleaner he also cleans the windows. The men in question are too gentlemanly to be offended by offers of home baked goods or too greedy - take your pick. Several of them do however have allotments and their offers of freshly grown fruit and veg are accepted with alacrity and delight whether they be wonky or not. (The fruit and veg not the members of the opposite sex).

R6

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161244

Postby UncleEbenezer » August 22nd, 2018, 4:08 pm

Rhyd6 wrote:I'd forgotten that in this day and age you can't discuss anything without checking to make sure you haven't offended one slice of society or another :)
R6

Lucky you. :)
For a male to forget that is a lot harder, in that the penalties for a trivial, or even manufactured, transgression can be pretty severe. See for example https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/1 ... ate_shirt/

Doubly so when the male is white, heterosexual, etc.

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161248

Postby Howyoudoin » August 22nd, 2018, 4:21 pm

UncleEbenezer wrote:
Rhyd6 wrote:I'd forgotten that in this day and age you can't discuss anything without checking to make sure you haven't offended one slice of society or another :)
R6

Lucky you. :)
For a male to forget that is a lot harder, in that the penalties for a trivial, or even manufactured, transgression can be pretty severe. See for example https://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/1 ... ate_shirt/

Doubly so when the male is white, heterosexual, etc.



I remember that press conference well. I'm far from being PC but I also thought it was odd for someone to think it was acceptable to wear a shirt depicting women with big bosoms when you're being interviewed with millions of people around the World watching. I also didn't think it was worth him crying over afterwards but there you go.

As far as I'm aware, his apology was the end of the issue. What were the 'severe penalties' that he suffered which is why you used this example?

HYD

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#161959

Postby johnstevens77 » August 24th, 2018, 10:22 pm

Well, I bought some "Less than perfect" onions from Waitrose last week and if they were less than perfect, then I don't know what perfect ones are. They were all the same size and not a single spoiled one.
My neighbour brought me some leeks from his garden, they were dirty and of different sizes but they too were perfect!
These last couple of weeks I have been bottling apple puree from wormy winfalls off our trees, cut the bruised and wormy bits out, cooked them to a mush with a little lemon juice, sieved them and put the puree on to reduce with sugar, lemon zest, a knob of butter and a little vanilla, filled into preserving jars and sterilised them in the presure cooker. The result is perfect apple puree for tarts and desserts that will keep for a year.

Less than perfect? Wonky? Tosh. In most countries we lived in, the produce is stacked and sold as it comes from the farm/market garden, the customers pick the size and ripeness that they want, any rotten ones are picked out by the proprietor and discarded. And that reminds me. Last year, Lidl were selling small boxes of clementines and most boxes had a spoiled one or two, everyone just picked out the spoiled ones and replaced them with good ones from other boxes. What is wrong with that? It is what we did all the time overseas.

Rant over.

John

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Re: The 'Wonky' Box

#163696

Postby redsturgeon » September 2nd, 2018, 11:04 am

Moderator Message:
I've just read this thread and notice that some posts have drifted off topic. I don't intend to delete those already posted but please start another thread on the appropriate forum if you wish to continue along the off topic theme. Any further off topic posts will be deleted. Thank you.


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