Why doesn't my veg look like what I can buy in the shops?

New plotholders are often just stunned to have grown anything at all. However, pretty soon we all start to wonder, "Why is my veg so scruffy, uneven and manky-looking compared to what I see in the shops? What am I doing wrong?"

There are several answers to the question.

First of all, farmers concentrate their efforts on crops which will do well on their land; if they're on limy clay they grow cabbages, if on sandy silt, then they grow carrots. Few farmers have the conditions to grow a bit of everything.

Secondly, farmers are professionals: they prepare the soil according to scientific formulae and have access to pesticides we can't use, even if we'd want to.

But the third answer may surprise you at first; The stuff in the supermarkets looks even and perfect because a huse proportion of the crop is just discarded. If you threw most of your harvest away, you'd find it much easier to get a basket of good-looking produce, after all.

Some unlovely veg can be sold to soup manufacturers, and the second-best stuff often goes to catering companies or market stalls for a lower price. But far too much is just ploughed in to rot down.

Gleaning - an old idea but a good one!

In centuries gone by, the poor of the village were allowed into the fields after the harvest to scoop up by hand any grain which the reapers had missed. Modern gleaning, working wioth local farmers and supported by celebrity cooks and food campaigners, uses volunteers to collect unwanted produce for food banks. Kent gleaners, organised by environmental charity Feedback, deliver food to those most in need. Last year they gleaned approximately 31 tonnes of produce that would otherwise have gone to waste.

For more about local gleaning, click here to go to Kent News website, publishers of Kent on Sunday.