The vast majority of salad crops that we buy and consume in the UK come from overseas; in particular the Netherlands and Spain. Indeed the El Ejido, an area about 200 miles from Murcia, and nestled between the resort towns that many Brits will holiday this year is crisscrossed with plastic polytunnels and greenhouses as far as the eye can see. From the air, the area looks like a giant glass house (which gives a protected climate) stretching for 10s of miles - and the tell tale rising of dust from the utterly arid ground rises at dusk. This area is one of the most water stressed in all of Europe – it takes huge amounts of water to grow cucumbers and lettuce, and the water table is perilously low: a driver in price increases over recent years.
This impact, even before we then truck it in diesel lorries through Spain and France to our shores is significant. So what can a British Restaurant do to lesson the impact? As ever, a sustainable solution is close to home – swap out the rocket and replace it with the equally peppery English Watercress.
Grown throughout the UK, the finest can be found cultivated in the chalky streams of Hampshire; where production used to be so high dedicated Watercress trains used to take the days crop to London.
This is salad leaf which can stand up to cooking (Think Watercress Soup, or Watercress Hollandaise for just a couple of ideas) or used as a salad alike. With a short journey from production to plate, this swap is not only delicious and cost neutral with bagged salad – it fights climate change and water scarcity, one fork at a time.
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Watercress is part of the Ark of Taste, the global “at risk register” of Foods at risk of dying out through lack of production.
Shane Holland is a leading food writer and campaigner. He is Executive Chairman of Slow Food in the UK
www,slowfood.org.uk
Twitter @slowfooduk
