Recently I have been finding new pleasure in gardening.  Last year I planted courgettes and tomatoes in my back garden.  This year I have added runner beans, broccoli, cucumber and more besides.  I find a joy and stillness in the daily activities of watering the vegetables and attending to the weeds.  Nothing is more satisfying than the twilight slug raid.

This has been reflected in my reading, too.  Last night I read the first 30 pages of Bob Flowerdew’s book, Composting, and yesterday I tried an intriguing recipe – using beetroot leaves – from Monty and Sarah Don’s Home Cookbook.  The Dons’ recipe involved taking the leaves from some fresh beetroot, blanching it for five minutes and then gently frying it in olive oil with some chilli and garlic.  I added some seeds – a favourite! – and also some beetroot which I’d boiled separately before cutting it into eighths and adding it to the remainder.  I served the lot on fresh toast.  It was totally divine.

“I hate waste, especially wasted food”.  This was the first sentence of the preface to the recipe.  It made me wonder:  what’s going to waste in my life because I don’t recognise its value?  And yes, it made me wonder, in the organisations I work with, what’s going to waste because nobody can see its worth?

Do you have any thoughts about the hidden treasures that might be going to waste in your life or organisation?