The blog is on the move. River Cottage have started hosting members blogs on their websites and I guess my ramblings would appeal a little more to their members so the blog is on the move The new URL is http://community.rivercottage.net/blog
I was in Tesco this morning picking up a few essentials. My car's feeling under the weather so while it's patched up I also had to get my fruit & veg from there instead of the greengrocers. Now my local Tesco is quite small but a few things surprised me as I browsed their wares. Firstly the complete lack of organic veg. The Gala apples were from America whilst the non organic equilavent was French. Organic onions were English, non organic from Spain. All the organic products were bagged in plastic bags which I guess makes it easier when putting them through the tills but maybe a more eco friendly alternative could be found?
As I was coming out I also realised that the whole process of choosing my products, paying, packing the bags etc. was all done without a word. Now I'm a firm believe in the old saying 'it's good to talk,' and shopping to me is a sociable kind of activity. Yet the supermarkets desire to keep things as cheap as possible means they no longer have staff. Well they do but not staff who are their to talk to me. They just stack shelves and tidy up the things I've moved.
I've just finished Leo Hickman's book, a Life Stripped Bare. It's been on my bookshelf for a while but when I finally go round to reading it, I actually couldn't put it down. It presents a totally warts and all look at a pretty ordinary couple who embark on a project to live as ethically as possible. It makes for fascinating reading and certaintly gave me lots to think about. It's a very practical book with loads of websites and places you can check the ideas out for yourself. One thing that I didn't expect though was the wedge it drove between him and his partner. I guess just because you want to live ethically doesn't mean everyon in the house does. Everyone in my house is happy enough to go with the recycling bin idea. They're even happy enough to store all the plastic bags and glass bottles up so that I can take them for recycling. They turn off lights when asked and we do generally try to car pool though this hasn't been happening just so much recently just to factors we can't control. But when it comes to food I'm a definite loner. If you want it buy. Over packaged, from New Zealand, out of season, more in a bag than you'll use. So what just buy it.
But if we take baby steps I'm sure we'll get there. I've been buying local food when in season to try and show that the flavour is so much nicer than forced on, chemical laden, air freighted fruit and veg that has become the norm.
Some friends recently asked me why I bother with all the veggie/eco warrior/green lifestyle stuff, they said I make no differene. I think Mother Teresa answered this one;
"We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop."
Monday, 12 January 2009
Friday, 26 December 2008
A Christmas Cracker
Christmas has been and gone for another year. It's been good just to spend some time with the family eating far too much! The Christmas dinner isn't really an eco warriors dream though. I noticed Sainsburys Christmas ads boasted how all their fresh turkeys were sourced in the UK,(well done) I wonder if their frozen turkeys are also produced in the UK? And are they all free range?
A turkey can live for 20 years, those farmed for meat are slaughtered at 12 to 26 weeks,some as young as 8 weeks (2 months.) Based on figures from licensed plants 15 million turkeys are killed annually in the UK with 10 million of these at Christmas.
As a country we waste more than £16 million on turkey that isn't eaten. It's interesting that 40 million turkeys were slaughtered in 1997, 21 million in 2004 and 15 million in 2007. There's a definite decrease in the amount of turjey being eaten even when accounting for the 47,912 tonnes of turkey meat that are imported into the UK every year.
Enough turkey facts!
I guess most of the vegetables in a Christmas dinner are seasonal: carrots, potatoes (in various forms!), and of course Brussel sprouts (a seasonal favourite.) In fact you really don't see them for sale at any other time of year.
I've noticed some of the supermarkets selling Brussel sprouts still attached to their stalks as a speciality item which is very funny because they don't actually grow in plastic bags but have always grown on the stalks! I'm not a massive fan of sprouts, but they're definitely a distinctive taste (and smell) and if this is the only time of year you get to try them then it just has to happen.
The cranberry sauce grown from American or Canadian cranberries isn't quite so local but that is one thing I do enjoy. I eat it at any time of year, a sandwich with cranberry sauce, brie and some salad leaves is a particular favourite!
A turkey can live for 20 years, those farmed for meat are slaughtered at 12 to 26 weeks,some as young as 8 weeks (2 months.) Based on figures from licensed plants 15 million turkeys are killed annually in the UK with 10 million of these at Christmas.
As a country we waste more than £16 million on turkey that isn't eaten. It's interesting that 40 million turkeys were slaughtered in 1997, 21 million in 2004 and 15 million in 2007. There's a definite decrease in the amount of turjey being eaten even when accounting for the 47,912 tonnes of turkey meat that are imported into the UK every year.
Enough turkey facts!
I guess most of the vegetables in a Christmas dinner are seasonal: carrots, potatoes (in various forms!), and of course Brussel sprouts (a seasonal favourite.) In fact you really don't see them for sale at any other time of year.
I've noticed some of the supermarkets selling Brussel sprouts still attached to their stalks as a speciality item which is very funny because they don't actually grow in plastic bags but have always grown on the stalks! I'm not a massive fan of sprouts, but they're definitely a distinctive taste (and smell) and if this is the only time of year you get to try them then it just has to happen.
The cranberry sauce grown from American or Canadian cranberries isn't quite so local but that is one thing I do enjoy. I eat it at any time of year, a sandwich with cranberry sauce, brie and some salad leaves is a particular favourite!
Well there's bargains to be had so I'm off to do some online shopping now and then hit the real shops tomorrow. Hope you had a great Christmas!
I'll leave you with a (funny?) foody cracker joke: When do Astronauts eat their food? At launch time
Friday, 12 December 2008
Lovely Longan
Yet another purchase from the Chinese supermarket in Dublin. I picked up a little plastic bag with a branch that had some small brown fruits attached for about 3 euro (£2.50ish.) They tasted and looked very like lychees and the taste was pretty similar. When you peel the brown skin off there's a creamy flesh with a big brown stone inside.They are really good for you with 15 times the amount of iron found in spinach. It is also known as the dragons eye which I presume comes from the dark stone that can be see through the cloudy flesh. The fruit grows on a tree which originates in southern China. So overall this was a nice treat, might make a nice summer dessert served with ice cream?
I've loads of other fruits and veg so maybe a few posts over this weekend!
Thursday, 4 December 2008
East meets West
I went out for a Chinese last night with a friend and it inspired me to try one of my Asian finds today. I picked up a vacuum pack of 3 lotus roots whilst in a Chinese supermarket in Dublin but didn't really fancy using them in soup as is the traditional way (often with chickens legs...) so used what is probably more a western method and deep fat fried them.
You need to peel the slices very thinly, they simply won't cook all the way through otherwise. Then pop them into hot oil for a minute or so and drain on kitchen roll. I served mine with sweet chilli dipping sauce which worked well as they are fairly bland but make an attractive change from potato chips.
Every part of the lotus plant is edible; the stamens of the flowers infused with water make a fragrant tea (India), while the seeds, off-white and crisp-textured, are removed from flower pods (that look like some life form from another planet), peeled of their downy skins and eaten raw, or dried and puffed like popcorn (India).
When you peel them they need to be submersed in water or they will go brown but dry well before frying or the oil will spit. You can find canned lotus root but the vacuum packed ones I have kept for ages. Discard any that are moudly or have black patches.
The Tesco in Thailand is called Tesco Lotus!
You need to peel the slices very thinly, they simply won't cook all the way through otherwise. Then pop them into hot oil for a minute or so and drain on kitchen roll. I served mine with sweet chilli dipping sauce which worked well as they are fairly bland but make an attractive change from potato chips.
Every part of the lotus plant is edible; the stamens of the flowers infused with water make a fragrant tea (India), while the seeds, off-white and crisp-textured, are removed from flower pods (that look like some life form from another planet), peeled of their downy skins and eaten raw, or dried and puffed like popcorn (India).
When you peel them they need to be submersed in water or they will go brown but dry well before frying or the oil will spit. You can find canned lotus root but the vacuum packed ones I have kept for ages. Discard any that are moudly or have black patches.
The Tesco in Thailand is called Tesco Lotus!
Monday, 1 December 2008
River Cottage to the rescue
Sorry there hasn't been any posts for a few days. Work was piling up a bit at the end of last week but there's a quieter week ahead (thank goodness) so took myself off to my favourite greengrocers today. It's called Glass's and it can be found at 71 Main Street, Bushmills, County Antrim, Northern Ireland. It's about 15 or 20 minutes away from me so not sure how eco-friendly that is but the selection of fruit and veg as well as loads of other foodie treats is fantastic. The people are genuinely helpful and know their stuff, but I love the fact that every time I go there's something new for me to try. Today's visit alongside tasty baby plum tomatoes, dirty carrots and loads of different apple varieties also produced a huge pear (about the size of a baby well maybe not quite) and a type of kiwi I have never seen before.
Whilst supermarket shopping is definitely covenient and cheap there's something missing in terms of interaction with people who know and actually care about what they're selling. A greengrocer must be a demanding job with all those early mornings but they're an important part of the community and I firmly believe we should be getting behind local business wherever possible.
I recently read a book called Shopped by Joanna Blythman which makes for compelling reading, Amazon has loads of second hand copies for a penny. I'll not give away too much here but will talk about it more in other posts.
Anyway back to the original point of this post which has turned out to be a lot longer than I intended. I was visiting friends in Dublin last weekend and had a fantastic time looking around the markets as well as the Indian, Carribean and Asian shops and picked up loads of stuff that I have been looking for. On the Saturday afternoon we stumbled across a posh little outdoor market with a fantastic greengrocers stall. I spent far too much here and will go through each of the things I bought in future posts but I picked up this:
Now I didn't have a clue what it was and pride wouldn't allow me to ask so I brought home what I thought was just a rather fat salsify. However after a very long journey home, sense prevailed and I started to search the internet but without any success. I did however stumble across the fantastic forum of River Cottage, a channel 4 programme with the legendary Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I stuck a picture of it up there and the replies flooded in. So it turned out that this is a Spanish Black Long Winter Radish. With helpful instruction from the rest of the forum I cooked it last night. They suggested peeling the black skin to reveal white flesh which I cut into discs and boiled in salted water and then served with butter. It was very tasty, and made a nice change. Would definitely buy this again so thanks to the River Cottage Forum crew!
I'm heading to a concert in Belfast tonight that's being run to mark World Aids Day so think that's enough for today!
Monday, 24 November 2008
The first taste is a Cherimoya, a native of the Andean highlands of Ecuador and Peru. This has been described by Mark Twain as "the most delicious fruit known to men." Now I'm not sure if I would just go that far but it is pretty good.They are grown in quite a few places including USA but also Spain and New Zealand, not sure where mine came from.
The skin looks quite reptile-like with green scales and occassional brown blotches. The flesh is creamy white with large brown/black seeds that are easy to remove. I just scooped the flesh out and enjoyed it but it could be added to fruit salads etc. The flesh smells amazing, very sweet and quite thick in texture.
It's high in Vitamin C and Magnesium. I'm not sure where the alternative name of custard apple comes from, the flesh could be described a little bit like very thick custard I guess?
Taste the World!
Hi!
This is the first ever post on my first ever blog so stick in there as this is very much a work in progress... I can't help but wonder if the rest of the world have been hiding something from me. There's nothing wrong with the British diet but do you ever wonder what other tasty treats the rest of the world enjoy? Well there's only one way to find out: Im going to taste the world!
Basically I want to try as many different foods from around the world and then I'll post a little about each on here so that you too can enjoy something a little different.
A few problems standing in my way include the lack of an airplane and the fact that I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years (lacto-ovo vegetarian if you really want to know!) so there won't be any meat, fish, poultry etc. on this journey but eggs and dairy are fine.
If you've tried anything that you think I might like then let me know, equally if you have something to add then you should be able to post your comments each time I add a post.
So here goes!
This is the first ever post on my first ever blog so stick in there as this is very much a work in progress... I can't help but wonder if the rest of the world have been hiding something from me. There's nothing wrong with the British diet but do you ever wonder what other tasty treats the rest of the world enjoy? Well there's only one way to find out: Im going to taste the world!
Basically I want to try as many different foods from around the world and then I'll post a little about each on here so that you too can enjoy something a little different.
A few problems standing in my way include the lack of an airplane and the fact that I have been a vegetarian for over 15 years (lacto-ovo vegetarian if you really want to know!) so there won't be any meat, fish, poultry etc. on this journey but eggs and dairy are fine.
If you've tried anything that you think I might like then let me know, equally if you have something to add then you should be able to post your comments each time I add a post.
So here goes!
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