http://www.emmapruen.com en-gb emmapruen.com 2012-6-28T00:00:00Z emmapruen.com http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#120742 The number of births in the UK is now at its highest since 1991 with 797000 during the year to mid2010. Thats a lot of mouths to feed. And with the Coalition Government passing laws to allow builders to dig up green fields to build houses the space to grow their food is shrinking.So the issue of food security will growing if youll forgive the pun. And whilst nimby attitudes to poly tunnels the use of swathes of countryside for ponies and GM crops will all come onto the agenda I want to think about food waste. This business of chucking out perfectly good food because of an arbitary sell by date. Apples ripen and are picked in the late summer and early Autumn. In the Northern hemisphere at least. Yet we can go into supermarkets and buy British apples all the way through till Spring in a bag that tells us they should be eaten in the next week. Its insane. Potatoes carrot and onions can live in a sack all winter provided its somewhere cool. Yet the bag of carrots I bought yesterday told me... 2012-6-28 11:50:47 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#111977 Normal 0 false false false ENGB XNONE XNONE Style Definitions table.MsoNormalTable msostylenameTable Normal msotstylerowbandsize0 msotstylecolbandsize0 msostylenoshowyes msostylepriority99 msostyleqformatyes msostyleparent msopaddingalt0cm ... 2012-2-7 12:03:48 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#110223 Normal 0 false false false ENGB XNONE XNONE Style Definitions table.MsoNormalTable msostylenameTable Normal msotstylerowbandsize0 msotstylecolbandsize0 msostylenoshowyes msostylepriority99 msostyleqformatyes msostyleparent msopaddingalt0cm ... 2012-1-12 10:59:31 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#107226 I have a confession to make...I ended up in Waitrose on Friday night. You know how it is I was all set to pop to the wholefood shop and the fishmonger between meetings. I had even dragged a cool bag complete with ice pack out with me so the pollack wouldnt start to smell during the afternoon. But then the morning dragged on and I was asked if I would like to join a couple of friends for lunch with Caroline Lucas leader of the Green Party which I wasnt going to turn down. Then another meeting followed by a dash to the train station to meet my daughter.So there I was Friday night. Hungry because wed only eaten soup at lunch with absolutely nothing in the fridge for me or the wholemeal loathing teenager and knackered after another week dashing from pillar to post. Whats a working mother to do Its why the supermarkets rule the high street. Because I could drop in and get enough to keep everyone sweet all weekend.At first I did the grocery equivalent of hiding a new dress in the back of the... 2011-11-21 11:38:37 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#106336 This week I discovered the definitive village shop. Freshford outside Bath is the inspired community that has created The Galleries httpgalleriesshop.co.uk I wish every village could or would follow this example. Apart from offering an incredibly valuable resource I wouldnt be surprised if it also impacted house prices it has made us think very seriously about settling here. Especially since the train station offers a direct line to Brighton so the idle teenager might be persuaded to visit. The Galleries was built and is owned and run by the people of Freshford and Limpley Stoke when both villages lost their village shops. A group of locals held a meeting to gauge the level of commitment by asking people to agree to spend a certain amount of money every month if the shop were to stock the items they wanted to buy. They called this reverse credit. They were also asked whether they would be willing to work in the shop as volunteers make a financial contribution towards a shop or ser... 2011-11-7 16:25:03 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#105396 Although we started trying to live in Somerset this summer I still havent really settled. The eldest daughter who insists on staying in Brighton draws me back regularly as does rather surprising offers of work. As a result the only two places I know really well in the area are Taunton railway station and Wellington Waitrose. Shunning the supermarkets meant we were going to starve if I didnt get to know this region smartish. Its an area is rich with food producers and not just Cheddar cheese Somerset cider and Cornish fish either. The South West produces more food than Scotland and three times as much as Wales according to www.southwestfoodanddrink.org. So with Saturday set aside to fill the cupboards the entire family with our organic farmer landlady as guide headed to Wellington. We pulled in opposite the bank to walk through the town and back. To our amazement parking was free making the tab level pegging with the supermarket already. A gorgeous black poodle with a big afro tempt... 2011-10-25 17:41:17 http://www.emmapruen.com/page2.htm#104672 Did you know that when you are popping two punnets of raspberries for the price of one in your trolley the poor farmer has no idea the supermarket is giving his raspberries away for free He wont get paid for them even though he or she has had to grow them pick them fork out to have them packaged by the supermarkets preferred packager and then deliver them. I love my raspberries but hate the thought that farmers get told two months in arrears what the supermarket will pay for them. Thats right no fixed contract signed before the farmer has seen the first berries appear on the bush nothing in place when hes ordering the over priced punnets demanded by the supermarket nothing agreed when the fruit pickers arrive for summer work and as hes putting them in a van to be delivered overnight to the depot he still has no idea. Then theres the dairy farmer that goes out of business every week the hideous blight of Tesco metros on the high street where there used to be a jolly greengrocer and the... 2011-10-15 10:28:54