This is quite difficult
Posted by Jane on September 15th, 2008 filed in UncategorizedWell I knew it would be, but I am surprised to find that I am only managing two out of three most of the time. There have been quite a few successes, though. I have avoided plastic entirely.I bought some porridge oats for breakfast the other day and got them from a scoop bin and used a paper bag. I have been sweetening it with a strawberry conserve sweetened with apple juice. I usually buy pre packed cheese but got some organic UK cheese wrapped in waxed paper which I suppose I can dispose of in my brown cooked food bin. I made a crumble yesterday (for the first time in years!) using apples from my Aunt’s garden in Surrey, local flour (Dove’s Farm), local butter (Yeo Valley) and (here’s where I had to stray, I’m afraid) sugar. I just couldn’t bring myself to do a crumble with no sugar. Anyone tried? I just thought I would throw it away and that would waste food which would be counter productive.
OK, but there have been other successes, like not eating chocolate which has been surprisingly easy. Also my twelve year old daughter baked some rolls yesterday which she had for packed lunch today with the UK cheese and local tomatoes. My biggest difficulty has been with tea. I have been picking mint from my garden to make tea but in the end had to succumb to my craving for a cuppa and have had quite a few cups of tea. I also have parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme in my garden, just like the song, so have been using this to flavour things rather than the usual dried stuff. Flavouring things has been rather difficult though, just relying on these four herbs, and I have to admit I did put some other herbs and bouillon in a soup I made the other day as I thought it might be a bit bland. I am living without any form of milk at the moment as I am not using Tetra pack.
Am finding it quite easy to source local and plastic free food, but not always organic, so two out of three some of the time. Oil has been a hard one, and I am using a non organic UK rapeseed oil in a glass bottle. In conclusion, it’s not going too badly but I have cheated with the sugar on the crumble and been very naughty with cups of tea! Will blog again soon.
September 15th, 2008 at 8:23 pm
I am really enjoying this!
Last night I visited my parents’ house in Bristol and picked apples from their trees. Climbing trees is something I haven’t done for years and was so much fun! I also harvested some carrots that I have been growing in their garden. It made me think about the perfect-looking carrots we buy in the shops. Do they just throw the deformed ones away? About eighty percent of mine were either three-legged or round-bottomed.
This morning I met up with Becky, the Tea Bike lady (teabike.uber.com), and went for a forage in St Werburghs, looking for jam making ingredients.
We found blackberries for the jam, and also gathered some sage, rosemary, & lemon balm from the community garden on Mina Rd, and nettles from Narroways.
The plan origially was to make our own apple juice concentrate from locally-grown apples to replace sugar in the jam, but it was taking too long to reduce so we decided to buy some from Better Food instead.
As well as blackberries and apple juice concentrate, we put some apples and elderberries in the jam. It is absolutely delicious, although not very sweet, and I ate some on homemade chapatis from Welsh spelt flour - yum yum.
Lunch was incredible. Trout from Chew Valley lake, caught by a work mate of mine, flavoured with the lemon balm from Mina Rd, and served some green beans from Jersey (I debated over buying those, but decided it was ok as Jersey is still part of the British Isles, and it is considerably closer than the north of Scotland). And then a cup of tea made with nettles and rosemary.
Me and Becky both commented how the trout seemed very ‘real’. It had mud and blood on it, and all its features were in tact. It tasted of river. As an ex-vegetarian of 10 years I find meat and fish slightly hard to cope with. Supermarkets make it easy by chopping everything up into portion-sized pieces, and taking away anything that makes it look like an animal.
I went to visit some of my elderly relatives this afternoon, and asked them about their experiences of having to eat mainly locally-grown during the war. My great aunt said ‘Oh, it was AWFUL!!’ and proceeded to rave about how marvellous it is nowadays as we can all have such varied diets. My Granny on the otherhand didn’t seem to have such bad memories from that time, and thinks it’s great that I am learning about growing food, and making things from scratch.
Jane, have you tried making apple crumble using honey? It works really well. The best thing is to use a hand blender for the crumble topping instead of using your hands.
Claire, I’m now thinking Friday for dinner at mine x
September 16th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
Yep, honey works well. You can use it to sweeten the fruit and also in the topping. If you’re using oats in the topping, the best thing to do is melt the honey and then mix in the oats, then add this mixture to the butter/flour combo. Yummy yummy crumble.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
Hi Jane
I was particularly interested in your use of a non organic rape seed oil. It’s good to hear someone talking about healthy alternatives to olive oil which seems to be the culinary oil that most people think of when cooking. People need to know that there are other types of oil out there and rape seed has received a lot of good press recently – primarily for its health benefits.
Cold pressed hemp seed oil is another oil that is often used as a healthy alternative to both olive and rape seed oils – as it contains essential fatty acids (Omegas-3, -6 and 9) which have been successful in helping lower the risks of heart disease.
You can buy Hemp Seed Oil in many supermarkets and is definitely worth a try (Waitrose usually stocks a wide variety of culinary oils). If you’d like to sample some, drop me an email and I’ll send you over a sample of GOOD OIL - which is the brand that I represent. Other hemp seed oils are available too, although there aren’t others that follow our farming and harvesting process, which is why they may not taste the same. So keep your eyes peeled…
Keep up the good work… one mouthful at a time!
Rax