Gardening Blog
Allotment Diary
November 25, 2008: common sense prevails at last
Terry Walton is delighted to learn that European officialdom will finally allow misshapen fruit and vegetables to be sold again
A brief winter spell has returned and that cold, northerly wind makes no attempt to go round you as it chills you to the marrow. The season is subject to rapid changes in short, sharp spells at the moment and it is difficult to know what to wear to the plot. One day it is overcast but very mild and then suddenly a sharp blast of winter is back to confuse this ageing gardener. Why can't we have true seasons any more?
Did you see that little chink in the weird European control legislation in the press last week? Yes, ugly vegetables can be sold again! Supermarkets will not be stopped from selling those vegetables that only meet stupid conditions of size and shape. At last common sense prevails and there is a recognition that food is there for taste and flavour and not to look just ‘beautiful’.
As all us gardeners are aware that when we grow crops they do not all look alike and are not standard in size and shape. What hope would the human race have if us ugly ones were not allowed to thrive and prosper?
My worry now though is how are these imperfect specimens going to fit into those long narrow plastic bags designed for uniform specimens. How will those curly cucumbers sit on the shelf without tangling themselves up?
But still on this control list are tomatoes, lettuce and peppers among others. What have these unfortunate few done to be excluded? To me all lettuce are ugly and it comes in all shapes and sizes, how do they classify one from the other?
Also still on these list are fruit such as the apple, pear and strawberry. What makes a strawberry ugly? To me all these large, delicious, red berries which are grown naturally and ripened in the sun, are there for taste and not to be uniform.
Eating good food is all about flavour and who knows what size or shape a vegetable was once it is peeled, diced, cooked and served on the plate.
Market stalls both here in the UK and in Europe always sold vegetables and fruit in the way it was harvested and the only thing that deters the customer from buying it is if it's diseased.
I always liked the quirkiness of those ballet-dancing carrots and those who crossed their legs. Those weird and wonderful shapes made many an appearance as a star on some television programmes.
It will be a great interest to me as how a generation of people who have only seen these perfectly formed crops react to these misshaped monsters. In the words of a prime minister of not so long ago it will be all about education, education, education.
Why is it as an organic gardener your neighbours look upon you as recycling expert? I only mentioned in passing that leaves are good for improving the soil. Soon my drive was a sea of black bags full of these goodies.
I have so many now that I have built a large corral of fine mesh chicken wire to house this mountain of fallen leaves. It is now full to the top and I am grateful that the high winds have dislodged most of them so that my drive is clear again. Still come next year most of these will have decomposed into wonderfully crumbly leaf mould.
But from now on I must be careful in any more of my passing statements so that I do not cause another mountain of recyclable material to appear on my drive.
To all you readers out there, I have enough leaves for this year so don’t send them to me.
More from Terry Walton
- November 18: saving on seeds
- Terry Walton's allotment sagas archive
- How to start growing vegetables
- The window box allotment
- The allotment archive
- The Saga gardening channel
- Chat about gardening at Saga Zone
My Life On A Hillside Allotment
Terry Walton is a regular contributor to The Jeremy Vine Show on BBC Radio 2 and has written a book called, My Life on a Hillside Allotment, published by Bantam Press. The book is available from Amazon
