Recipe: Green Bean Piccalilli

Had to google how to spell piccalilli, haha, i'm such a dunce. I'm not actually a huge fan of piccalilli, i think maybe it's the gloopy texture and the cauliflower in it- don't like the taste of picked cauliflowwer, just doesn't seem right. However, this green bean piccalilli i've made here with my glut of green beans is very addictive- could polish off a jar of this with a big chunk of cheddar and crusty wholemeal bread in no time. It has a slightly runnier texture compared to most piccalillis, but that's just how i prefer it. If you want it thicker, cooking it for a further 5 minutes at the last stage will probably do the trick.

Green Bean Piccalilli (makes about 1.6kg)

450g finely diced white onions
360ml cider vinegar
80ml white wine vinegar

750g diced green/French beans

10g celery salt
10g turmeric
10g mustard seeds
30g flour
40g English mustard powder
200ml red wine vinegar

500g sugar

1. In a large saucepan, bring the white onions and vinegars to the boil, and then simmer on a low heat, covered, for 20 minutes.
2. In another pan, fill with water and boil the green beans for 10 minutes, drain, then set aside.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together all the spices/ flours, and stir in the red wine vinegar, stirring until this mixture has no lumps.
4. Add this spice mixture to the onions, increase the heat to high, and stir continuously for 5 minutes. Add the blanched green beans and sugar, and cook for a further 20 minutes on a medium/high heat, stirring often.
5. Allow to settle for 10 minutes, then pot.

Can you recycle plastic film at your supermarket?

Whilst shopping today, I noticed that the carrier bag recycling bin had a new label on it, announcing that the store is also now collecting plastic film, you know the stretchy stuff that you get around loo rolls, multipack shrink-wrap as well as the bags inside cereal boxes.

So as it's National Zero Waste Week, I'm setting you a mini challenge.

Next time you're at the supermarket, it would be great if you could check if yours has got a similar facility.

If you've not spotted it before you may be surprised as this should now be available in over 4,500 supermarkets nationwide.  If you don't believe me, take a look at this press release that was published by the British Retail Consortium in April.


Of course the next step is to check the recycling information on packaging.  If you see a label like the one shown above, you'll know that you can add it to the carrier bag collection as it's made from either LDPE or HDPE plastic film.  If the labelling's not clear, which is still often the case, you could always check with customer services.

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This post was published in support of National Zero Waste Week.  For more information about the grassroots campaign, please visit www.myzerowaste.com.

What happened when Shedwyn ran out of recycling bins

Shedwyn, the campaign mascot for the 1000 bins challenge, has been a bit quiet of late, despite the news that this IS THE LAST WEEK of the campaign and what with it being National Zero Waste Week and all, it was a bit of a shock to catch her putting her feet up in a cafe in town.

Sipping coffee, while everyone else is sending in photos. What a cheek!

But bless her. She's only gone and run out of recycling bins to photograph in Bury St Edmunds.  I suppose there's only so much you can stretch your imagination with just two bins in the very centre of town, and with the car in for repair and having run out of train money, what else could our roving reporter do?

But this is Shedwyn we're talking about.  When there's just nothing to be done, she's a woman who thinks of something!

For starters, how about emailing the local council, politely asking for a few more bins?  Here she is getting all serious about the very serious issue of installing some serious recycling bins in very beautiful Abbey Gardens.  A serious subject indeed.

But Shedwyn's not very good at doing serious, so having exercised her fingertips at the keyboard, she couldn't help but get back out on the streets, where she managed to grab hold of a handsome man to brighten up his day and praise the virtues of "recycling-on-the-go"!

Yes that is really BBC Radio Suffolk's reporter Luke Deal pictured with Shedwyn.  It's a shame you can't hear her rabbiting on about where to find recycling bins around Suffolk.

Meanwhile, whilst that cheeky woman was busy chatting up men by bins, I took the opportunity of catching up with Radio Suffolk's Lesley Dolphin, who was broadcasting her show from Bury St Edmunds market this afternoon.  Well, someone has to do the hard work and it's always lovely to talk to Lesley.  It was great to have the chance to spread the news about National Zero Waste Week and to promote reducing waste away from home.

Of course the next challenge after the interview was to hunt down Shedwyn in the busy marketplace.  I really should have known.  I managed to eventually track her down having a chinwag with her old pal Sandy at the other recycling bin in town.

So I think the moral of today's story is that Shedwyn really does needs to get out more, especially if she's going to meet the 1000 photo challenge by Sunday.

And after today's antics, what with going AWOL, emailing the council and harrassing men at bins I think it might be a very good idea to send her to Coventry.

Actually sending her to Coventry's not a bad notion, especially this Friday when there's a Zero Waste conference going on.  I might just have to loan her the train fare.


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This post was written in support of National Zero Waste Week.  More information about the campaign can be found at www.myzerowaste.com.   Further details about Shedwyn and the 1000 bins campaign can be found at www.1000bins.com.

Recipe: Spicy Courgette and Tomato Chutney

Bit of a glut of courgettes again this year- not as many as last year, due to the fact that slugs got one of the three courgette plants very early on, but the other two are producing fairly well. I thought i'd have a go at preserving courgettes this year, since i didn't have a go last year. Courgette chutneys/pickles arent the most common of preserves, you don't really see them much in the shops, but this is rather delicious actually. Courgettes, tomatoes and chilli work very well as a flavour combination, and i think these will make good christmas presents, because it looks rather a nice colour in the jars. Oh yeah, you don't have to add the apple in 15 minutes later if you don't want to, you can add it at the beginning with the rest of the ingredients- it's just I had to because my pan wasn't big enough!

Spicy Courgette and Tomato Chutney (makes about 2.5kg)

1kg finely diced courgettes
1kg finely diced cherry tomatoes
3 large white onions, finely diced
4 apples, peeled and finely diced
340ml red wine vinegar
260ml cider vinegar
500g sugar
25g mustard seeds
3 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp crushed chilli flakes
1 tsp crushed ginger
8 garlic cloves, crushed

1. Put all the ingredients into a very large saucepan, except the apples, and boil for 15 minutes. Add the apples and simmer for a further 2 hours and 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Allow to settle for 10 minutes, and pot.

Moreton Hall café helps customers reduce waste with their Keep Cups

Meet Lucy and Jess, business partners at The Coffee House, a popular café in the heart of Moreton Hall, which itself is a busy housing development on the edge of Bury St Edmunds.

When I dropped in with the family on Day 1 of Zero Waste Week, I warned them that I'd start talking to them about ways in which they help customers reduce waste. I was particularly interested in the success of the Keep Cups that they sell, i.e. the reusable coffee cups, as shown in the photo below.

I noticed that they'd been selling these since the café opened in October last year. Priced at £7.99 for a small cup and £9.99 for the larger one, whenever a customer brings in their reusable cup, they receive 10% off the price of their drink.

The reusable cups have been a real success for the café.  Jess confirmed that they've sold approximately 250 since they opened last autumn and normally have around 10 customers popping in with them each day.  As we were chatting I realised that I was holding up one of their customers who'd dropped in for coffee and when I turned around, I couldn't help but notice that there in her hand was one of the reusable cups that we'd been discussing.

(Charlotte, a Keep Cup customer)

Of course once the coffee discussion was over, my seven year old naturally brought my attention to his Zero Waste choice of the day....a selection of sweets from the sweetie jars on the counter.

The rest of his purchase wasn't quite ZW though.  Even though he declared he'd try and reuse the straw from his small carton of orange juice and that'd he'd be sure to recycle the little box, there's not a lot you can do with the protective plastic wrapper. However, that was negligible compared to the Capri Suns that he bought at the weekend and all round was pretty much of a success.  I'm not sure about his older brother though, who insisted on the plastic straw to go with his favourite chocolate milkshake. Unless he reuses that a few times over, he's already behind in the rubbish stakes.


So if you're ever visiting Moreton Hall, whether it's during Zero Waste Week or another time, be sure to pop into The Coffee House, where you'll always get a very warm welcome and a discount if you've got your own cup.  And if you're a keen gardener, you can take away some free coffee grounds for your compost too.  Now that is a bargain!

The Coffee House, Moreton Hall, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

More information about The Coffee House can be found via their Twitter stream @thecoffeehouse5 or their Facebook account.

If you're a regular coffee drinker who's looking for a replacement to disposable cups or run a café and are interested in saving landfill waste too, check out the reusable cups that are available at www.keepcup.com as well as the BYOcups that are sold by Onya. 

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This post was written as part of National Zero Waste Week 2011, that's taking place between 5-11 September. The theme this year is Reducing waste away from home.  For further details visit http://myzerowaste.com/zero-waste-week-2011/

What's in store for National Zero Waste Week 2011?

I've just realised that the title of this blogpost makes it look like I run a shop.  So apologies to anyone who thought I might be doing a stock-check or reorganising my merchandising cabinets with a special twist for Zero Waste Week.

Sorry, this is more of a talking shop than a retail space, but if there are any stores who are applying innovative ways of reducing the amount of rubbish they stock, then please do share your news here. After all, the theme of National Zero Waste Week 2011 is "Reducing waste away from home", so if you're doing anything to help reduce the amount of trash that you pass on to your customers, then your comments will fit in nicely.

So what is happening at Almost Average HQ for Zero Waste Week?  Well, unlike my very first attempt back in 2008, I've had diddly-squat planning time.  Not that I'm good at planning anyway, but I suppose five minutes preparation would have helped things on the homefront, as would actually being at home, instead of zipping around the country on a secret mission.

Of course it would have also been useful to have reminded my husband and kids last week, particularly to avoid the surprise of arriving home this weekend to much excitement that they'd treated themselves to a huge multipack of crisps and 20 blimmin' Capri-Suns.  Someone must be having a laugh!  We never normally have such things in the house, not necessarily due to being pedantic about packaging, but we've got no room in our cupboards for starters, and besides I don't trust my willpower!  But great timing eh!  Bought just in time for Zero Waste Week.

So things on the homefront will be more of a challenge than usual then!  That's why the kids have gone into battle against my husband to see who can create the least rubbish this week!  Personally,  I think I'll leave them to it.

But of course the focus of this year's NZWW  is reducing waste away from home, so whilst head-to-head challenges are taking place behind closed doors, I'm more interested in opportunities to reduce waste while out-and-about and will be keeping my eyes peeled for good practice as well as being on a personal mission to avoid superfluous bits of plastic that commonly pop up in the catering trade.

I'm travelling again at the end of the week, so will make sure I'm appropriately kitted out to avoid all the rubbish that typically gets thrown at you when on the road.  Having read that sentence again, it sounds like I'll be wearing protective shields and defending myself with some form of waste-busting laser gun.  I'm sorry if that makes the reality of a refillable coffee cup and water bottle sound far less exciting.

This week I'm also on a mission to get more recycling bins on the streets of my local town.  I know we're pretty lucky to have two, but for the size of the town that's pretty pants, especially as there's not even a single recycling bin in the town centre's Abbey Gardens.   So this week, I'm taking the attitude of  "if you don't ask, you don't get" and proverbially speaking, getting off my backside to wing over an email to some local authority officers and councillors.  I'll also email my MP, asking him to look at the wider picture at a national level.

And on the subject of bins, I'm still on the hunt for photos for the 1000 Bin Challenge.  It's the final week, so I'm going to have to do a tally soon of the number of photos that I've collected over the summer.  I've got a sneaking suspicion that I am nowhere even near the 1K target, so I'm going to need your help more than ever.  To find out how you can help, pop over to www.1000bins.com and send in photos of any recycling litter bins that you spot in your town.  You may even be in with a chance of winning a georgeous ring pull clutch bag by Bottletop or a fabulous Waste-busting kit from Onya.

So I think it's safe to say National Zero Waste Week 2011 is officially launched at Almost Average HQ.  Huge thanks to Mrs Green at My Zero Waste for organising it.  To find out more about how you can get involved, visit www.myzerowaste.com, where you'll get more tips than you can shake a stick at.  And if you want to get up-to-date with what you can recycle in your area, pop over to www.recyclenow.com for the official lowdown.

Recipe: Beetroot and Orange Chutney

This is a wonderful preserve- that goes SO well with goats cheese and walnuts. I think with the citrus and mixed spice it tastes a little "christmas-y" so this might be a nice recipe to make ahead for your homemade Xmas pressies! This year i'll be giving people various jams/jellies/chutneys, but also having a go at making my own Sloe Gin. I've never made it before but it should be allright, my last few flavoured alchohols (raspberry vodka, blackberry brandy, elderberry vodka) have worked and gone down quite well, so Sloe gin can't be much more difficult to produce. Try this chutney on a cheeseboard, or alternatively try using it on crostinis or tarts for beautiful colour and a little zing!

Beetroot and Orange Chutney (makes about 800g)

500g peeled and diced beetroot
2 oranges, zest and juice
2 apples, peeled and diced
2 small white onions, peeled and diced
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp mixed spice
180ml white wine vinegar
100ml cider vinegar
20ml red wine vinegar
300g sugar

1. Bring all ingredients to the boil and cook on a fairly high heat for 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Allow to settle for 10 minutes, and pot.