Declare War on Waste

TomOnBoard

At this time of the year, there are loads of private, non- commercial orchards that are brimming with fruit that, for whatever reason, is not being harvested.

What a pity that, as a country, we have arrived at a point where so much fabulous foodstuff is going to waste. I am personally aware of a number of situations where top quality apples and other fruits are simply no longer being harvested and are returning to nature as rotted produce that gets recycled by bugs, worms, birds etc into re-usable nutrients. And, while that is all well and good from an eco- friendliness perspective, its a pity that humans who might be able to make great use of such fruit are not having access to it.

I heard about 3 similar situations in an idle conversation recently with a friend, and within a day I had personally picked almost 50 Kg of apples from 3 different trees that ranged between sweet and very sour. Within another week, as I had shown interest in avoiding waste, the lady I had spoken to in the first place asked me if I had any interest in 2 year old apples and rhubarb (chopped and washed) that had lived in her freezer since last year and that she had not used. She wanted to move them out so that she could recover freezer space for this year's crop.

So, as a result, I took the 12 lbs of rhubard and 8 lbs of chopped apples from the lady and now have 10 litres of watered apple juice and the same amount of sugared/watered rhubarb juice being fermented to produce Christmas Cider and Wine. The remaining 50Kg of apples are being allowed to settle before they also are frozen to be turned into Cider and Apple pies over the next year or so.

Net cost of all this? A broken, unreliable freezer that I intended to recycle anyway but is still working and freezes stuff grand if unpredictabily, some electricity to run it, and around a tenner's worth of sugar. By Christmas I will have enough booze for sensible socialising at a cost of peanuts and at a quality point that will be many times greater than over €100 worth of booze from the Supermarket. In addition, I intend to have enough, all organic, extremely healthy Apple Cider Vinegar to pickle all excess greenhouse produce from my polytunnel next year. (This year, I spent €40 on high quality Apple Cider Vinegar!!)

For another example, I started a no-dig vegetable garden last year and am in constant need of good quality, safe, organic waste vegetation to keep it mulched. Last April, I heard about a local farmer who had a lot of rotting bales of straw in a leaky hayshed and, after getting the roof done, didn't know how he'd get rid of it. For me, it was ideal, and within a week, I had paid a local lad with a tractor €50 for diesel and a few pints to give me the time with his front end loader and dump trailer to get 2 loads of great material into my patch. Result? 3 very happy parties at no environmental cost, huge potential benefit and general goodwill.

I'm not lecturing anyone here- That's not my bag! However, I am asking that, if you have something that you're not able to fully consume this year, think about making it available to someone else, who may transform it!

Sláinte!