Ingredients are a recipe for confusion

9:56am Saturday 29th March 2008

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DURING a rare jaunt round the dominating super power that is Tesco, one of those organic veg boxes caught my eye.

For eight British pounds, the recycled cardboard box contained potatoes, a Savoy cabbage, a parsnip, a romaine lettuce, mushrooms and a grapefruit. Now, leaving all environmental issues aside, what exactly can you make from those ingredients?

The random nature of the contents set me off into an irrational rant in the middle of the aisle - thankfully, it was getting on in the evening and the only people around were students and couples too stunned with boredom to take notice of me.

Really though, who on earth thought that would be a useful combination of foodstuffs?

True, I'd probably make Jamie Oliver cry with my lack of culinary adventures, but there's a lot to be said for keeping the basics handy in the kitchen. Bits and pieces such as carrots, onions and broccoli - not lettuce that you can't even spell and a bit of fruit the taste of which can turn your face inside out.

Say you spent eight quid on that box, most ordinary people would then go on to spend at least the same amount again on all the useful items missing from the organic box which kind of defeats the purpose of an all-encompassing box.

So please, to producers of these boxes, if you want more people to take them up then try putting some slightly more useful vegetables in.

• I AM a big believer in working to live not living to work, but when the work you do has an impact on how you live your life, then it becomes increasingly difficult not to take some notice outside the normal working day.

Having absolutely no agricultural background bar a trip to a local farm in primary school (the only bit of which I really remember is the hay-bale ropeswing), getting a job in agri-business means I've had to learn about everything from soil types to seed varieties.

For a while it was like a field on a hot humid day - a little bit hazy, but slowly the haze has started to clear.

Now I can't drive past a field without having a right nosy at what's going on, cries of "the oilseed rape is flowering early", and "look at that soil, what a lovely colour" escaping before the non-geeky part of me can step in and remind me that some things should really be left unsaid.

It's not like I take my work home with me (I rather think the neighbours may be a tad annoyed if I revved up a John Deere tractor at the crack of dawn) but driving around North Yorkshire, or anywhere in the country for that matter, it's very difficult not to notice the farming landscape and how it changes throughout the year.

Unfortunately it's one of these jobs that carries the risk of noticing such things, but it's made me wonder just how many other people do the same thing.

People in their various professions unable to switch off entirely - retail staff finding themselves tidying clothes in other shops, bar staff commenting on the amount of empty glasses littering tables. It's like a subconscious tick, a nervous compulsion to fix the things that you see are wrong.

It's not surprising, given how much time we spend at work, that elements of it start to invade our non-working time. Unless, of course, you work for a mind numbing corporation that sucks the life out of you on a daily basis. For those kind of jobs, it's rare the brain kicks into gear long enough during work, never mind outside the nine-to-five toil.

I know I'm not alone (as much as others may try and convince me), as a recent chat with a friend revealed that her years of management experience meant anytime she saw flustered or disorganised staff she wanted to step in and sort the situation out.

So is it the mark of someone who cares about the work that they do, showing such an interest off the clock (like making sure I watch Countryfile every Sunday and having a sneaky look at the farming press in WH Smith), or is it just that they need to get out more?

Maybe a nice walk in the countryside would help, admiring the golden fields perhaps?