It’s all too easy to mock Thérèse Coffey. The environment secretary’s understanding of matters ranging from species reintroduction to inflation is woeful, and unacceptable for someone in her position, but with her latest suggestion, that we “cherish” seasonal food such as turnips amid shortages of other fresh produce, she has a point (Report, 23 February).
Expecting to eat fruit and vegetables out of season isn’t sustainable. Supporting local farmers through veg box schemes can be more affordable and sustainable than shopping in supermarkets. So is helping folk in urban areas grow their own food, with access to allotments and local community growing schemes.
My veg box delivery has only just increased by £1 after two years, with the farmer producing it delivering it straight to my door. That’s a lower carbon footprint, lower prices, lower inflation and a direct relationship with the producer, rather than multiple transport, warehousing, refrigeration and distribution steps, and related costs, before my veg gets from the field to my fork. So, much as I hate turnips, I can’t entirely disagree with Coffey here.
Caroline McParland
Glasgow
• This is not the first time England has turned to turnips for sustenance. A run of disastrous grain harvests in the 1590s threatened Londoners with starvation. This was alleviated by roots – turnips, carrots and parsnips – grown by Protestant refugees from the low countries who settled initially in East Anglia and Kent, bringing with them expertise in commercial gardening.
Roots were shipped to London from the East Anglian ports of Yarmouth, Colchester and Norwich in each of the three worst years of dearth. Nearer London, root production was developing; in the late 1590s, the herbalist John Gerard wrote: “The small Turnep groweth by Hackney, in a sandy ground, and those that are brought to Cheap-side market from that village are the best that ever I tasted.” On the other side of London, roots were grown in quantity in Fulham, Kensington and Chelsea.
By the 1630s, this area was said to furnish “the Cittys of London Westminster and places adjacent … with above fower and twenty thousand loads yearly of rootes”. As far as cooking went, these early consumers were unimaginative. Carrots were eaten “well boyled” or added to boiled salt beef. Other roots were “first sodden, then buttered”.
Malcolm Thick
Harwell, Oxfordshire
• What amazes me is that people are actually eating salad at this time of year while I stuff myself with steaming casseroles with dumplings and hot green vegetables, followed by apple pie and custard. Must have something to do with living in Scotland.
Margaret Davis
Loanhead, Midlothian
• The “hungry gap” isn’t the “late winter months” as your article says (Should we cherish our turnips? Why the British food system may need a reboot, 24 February). It is the first ones of spring – April, May and June – when all the winter veg has gone soft in store, or run to seed, but the spring-sown plants are not yet ready to eat.
Chris Woolf
West Killatown, Cornwall
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