Preparing to eat the change

10th-16th September - my Eat the Change week.

I knew this was going to be difficult. I live in suburban Essex just beyond outer London, with no organic food shop for miles around and a farmer’s market just once a month. Being a confirmed townie, I’m hopeless in the garden and haven’t been able to get my act together to grow any fruit or veg this year, so all I could hope for was a few apples and blackberries if I was lucky. I’m no forager either despite the huge expanse of forest on my doorstep. I was going to have to rely on weekly organic box deliveries, and a lot of preparation. I was going to have to accept that I would inevitably get some plastic, so I tried to make sure it was either biodegradable, reusable or recyclable. First, I asked my box scheme for a list of their UK produce - they duly obliged, but it wasn’t as much as I expected. Things like butternut squashes weren’t on the list despite being a regular item. But they were able to provide enough fruit and veg to be going on with, plus some cheese, oats and Scottish salmon. Next the farmer’s market, the Sunday before I started. Plenty of plastic here - but got some soups made by a local farm and a moroccan mint plant, to give me something to make a hot drink with. And finally went to the unpackaged shop in Islington - their list of UK food was quite short, but their yellow split peas and brown linseed were a welcome addition to my week’s supply, as was the delicious Stickleton blue cheese. How I did follows shortly…