Knobbly Veg

Delicious. Magazine is running a campaign to get supermarkets to sell vegetables in all shapes and sizes, instead of the perfectly uniform, shiny sort which are at present graded as “class 1” by the EU. Class 2 vegetables, while tasting just as good, are consigned to food processing or animal food, which leads to a lot of waste.

The “We Love Knobbly Veg” campaign is being supported by The National Trust, which sources much of the less-than-uniform vegetables for their cafes and restaurants. They have also been encouraging people to grow their own “knobblers” in the “Food, Glorious Food” campaign.

Delicious. Magazine has a knobbly veg gallery on its website, and also a template that can be downloaded to send to MEPs in support of the campaign.

Growing Veggies in Window Boxes

An interesting campaign by the National Trust is to persuade people to turn their window ledges into veggie gardens. They estimate there are more than 600 acres of growing space on window sills all over the UK. They suggest growing things like lettuce, radishes, beetroot, chard and herbs in window boxes that get good sunshine. An article in The Telegraph about the initiative mentions Kingston Lacy as one NT property where they’ve installed window boxes, and says that other properties have converted hanging baskets for vegetable growing. The National Trust has already given up land for allotments over the country.