Wonky veg

It is nothing short of criminal in my view. People going hungry and perfectly good food thrown away. It is the taste I go for, if it happens to look pretty that is a bonus, I certainly don't mind wonky. Like you mickysf  also try and use farmers markets and farm shop, both to support the local economy and because the quality and taste is better. At home, since we retired, we have also started to buy more and more locally, looking to a time when we may not be able to drive and still want these suppliers in business.

We were watching some consumer programme a few weeks back and this farmer had a mountain of wobbly, bent root vegetables and all to be ploughed back into the land, simply because the Supermarkets say the customer prefers straight produce.

Whilst we buy it without commenting / complaining / going elsewhere nothing will change, we grow most of our own on an allotment and consume all shapes and sizes.

Reminds me of that Blackadder sketch

Blackadder - "Look, Baldrick, a turnip shaped just like a willy".

Baldrick - "Well that's funny, cos I've got a willy shaped just like a turnip!"

(Only some of the words may have been changed, but it made me laugh! )

The programme referred to above, I think, was Jamie & Jimmy's  Friday Night Feast in which they've visited farmers and highlighted the waste today because supermarkets say consumers don't want 'ugly' vegetables. 

I think Morrison's did a token trial to see if we'd buy ugly veg but, as I recall, they were offering it at the same price as perfect produce.

I'd buy ugly veg as, once it's chopped up, it doesn't matter and, in any case, it all tastes good.

If we're to help the farmers, I think the supermarkets should accept the ugly veg from them at a decent price and then offer it to the consumer at a price lower than perfect produce. That way the consumer and the farmer will benefit.  The supermarket will still make a profit but will be helping to reduce the horrendous wastage.

I grow veg on my allotment as I don't like to buy veg from the supermarket.  To me, I always dislike any veg looking identical to the next veg.  Its not natural.  I also see it in meat.  How many packs of pork chops are identical to each other that each pack costs the same.  I have stopped buying my veg as I grow my own and I never now buy meat, I visit the local market where its cheaper and much better quality.  I find s/market meat is full of water

The "ploughing back" seems a bit suspiscious to me as a large proportion of vegetables grown do not go direct to the consumer but into diced and frozen packs, soups, other foodstuffs and the like for the retail and catering trade.  I don't think one can detect the shape of the original when eating a piece of carrot in a chicken and vegetable pie!

We grow as many of our own veges as possible and also help out at our friend's market garden.  We get paid mainly  in 'wonky' organic veges - often more than we can manage, but they taste great. We hate the way that many supermarkets trim and chop (massacre) vegetables and sell them sweating in plastic bags. 

We also raise our own rare breed pigs for pork  and they taste far better than anything you get in the supermarkets.  At least we have found a butcher who knows which farm his produce comes from, the breed of animal etc..  His meat is often cheaper than Tesco! 

The "ploughing back" seems a bit suspiscious to me as a large proportion of vegetables grown do not go direct to the consumer but into diced and frozen packs, soups, other foodstuffs and the like for the retail and catering trade.  I don't think one can detect the shape of the original when eating a piece of carrot in a chicken and vegetable pie!

Exactly! People wouldn't buy the carrots that go into Heinz soup ...... some are honestly as big as your arm, but as said, by the time they've been diced, who would know? 

We also have an allotment. Hardly any of the veg we produce is perfect, most are wonkey - so what, they are organic and taste great! To simply throw away perfectly good veg is a disgrace iMHO

Asda have started selling boxes of wonky veg, they are selling really well apparently.