Home cooked and home grown
We’ve just come back form a nice trip to the seaside. The drive was quite nice, lots of pastoral scenes of idyllic Sussex life.
A couple of signs caught my eye however, which reminded me of something I have never quite understood. “Home cooked food” said one. “Home grown potatoes”, said another.
Now, I grow potatoes and I cook food. Hence I could, if I wished to brag, put a sign outside my house telling people what I’ve been up to. Neighbours would no doubt be relieved that I am doing something constructive with my time. They may even knock on my door asking for either food or potatoes. At this point they would be disappointed, because I would have to explain that the home cooked food and home grown potatoes are for my home, not for passers by - sorry for any confusion the signs might have caused.
The sign I saw for “home grown potatoes” was on a farm. Surely, if you own a farm and you grow vegetables, they are “Farm Grown Potatoes” or to give them their correct title - “Potatoes”. What gives?
The “Home cooked food” sign was on a pub. When I was a child I used to vaguely think that home cooked food in a pub meant that one of the bar maids was cooking the food at home and bringing it to work with her - a bit like Betty Turpin making hot-pots for the Rovers Return. I was wrong.
“Home Cooked food” means, “shit food”. Or, to be more precise, cheap roasts marinated in gloopy gravy and served with soggy veg. Home cooked food simply means that their chef is not in any way skilled in the art of cooking.
I’m surprised these lies continue to be told on pub signs and farm gates across the nation. What ever happened to the ‘trading standards’ people that everyone always cites in these situations. I bet they don’t even exist. Just one of those made up urban myth government departments - like DEFRA. In fact, Trading Standards should be reported to…. Oops, almost entered a loop.
And don’t even get me started on our local ‘Farm Shop’ that is nowhere near a farm and sells apples from Chile.
Written by exmonkey on August 26th, 2007 with
4 comments.
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Stewart
#1. August 27th, 2007, at 9:33 AM.
I doubt very much that the term ‘home grown potatoes’ could be deemed sufficiently misleading to force a farmer to remove the sign, the potatoes are grown at his home rather than e.g. brought from jersey or ayrshire, it would just be seen as another way of advertising that they are locally produced. ‘Home Cooked’ however is different, The food standards agency have guidelines for the term ‘home made’ which i assume would also be relevant to ‘home cooked’ which are,
72. In order to accommodate the production of meals and dishes on commercial catering premises, the term “home-made” should be restricted to the preparation of the recipe on the premises, from primary ingredients, in a way that reflects a typical domestic situation. This should not be
achieved simply by the assembly of wholly pre-prepared elements, or simple reconstitution from dry base mixes, but must involve some degree of fundamental culinary preparation. As in domestic preparation, it would be legitimate for caterers to use partly-prepared ingredients; typical examples could include the use of pre-prepared raw pastry, bakery bread
in desserts or stock cubes in sauces.
Yoy can get details of your local trading standards dept at www.tradingstandards.gov.uk by keying in your postcode. We are out there and it’s not really that difficult to find us !!