I’ve tried loads of things that I hadn’t before: rapeseed oil (just as good as olive in my opinion), green split peas, buckwheat, using beetroot leaves in soup (fine, but in only moderation and bulked out with plenty of other less bitter things), green tomatoes etc….

It has also been really sociable.

All in all very positive - nice one!

The evening is spent boiling potatoes. I’m not going to be home much the next couple of days, so I need a lot of food to keep me going!

Tonight my partner made one of her favourite dishes - stuffed marrow with oats, leek, garlic etc.. Wonderful!

Struggling now to keep the aphids off my moroccan mint plant (and hot drink source) - the last one died a horrible death weighed down by tiny white insects but this time I nip them in the bud with a good dose of soapy water. Later in the afternoon I mix the remains of yesterday’s rhubarb in with some bits of apple from the garden, blackberries from the forest, and blueberries and raspberries from this week’s box delivery to make a very tasty smoothie.

The evening meal is a mish-mash - the remains of the soup, a salad of lettuce, rocket, spring onions and bean sprouts, and bread and cheese.

After lunch I attempted to make some sourdough bread. I had a practice run with some rye flour before this week - it turned out wonderfully but sadly I haven’t been able to find rye flour grown in this country, so instead I turned to biodynamically grown wheat flour from Windmill Farm. Not so hot as it turns out - though it could have won a prize for the hardest ever loaf. Still I ate it, and made more - what choice did I have?

Compensated with a yummy supper of garlic and mushroom soup from a local farm, supplemented with split peas, cauliflower, fennel and spring onions. And for dessert I raided the freezer - for some rhubarb boiled with honey which I’d prepared weeks earlier in anticipation. So far so good.

I knew this was going to be difficult. I live in suburban Essex just beyond outer London, with no organic food shop for miles around and a farmer’s market just once a month. Being a confirmed townie, I’m hopeless in the garden and haven’t been able to get my act together to grow any fruit or veg this year, so all I could hope for was a few apples and blackberries if I was lucky. I’m no forager either despite the huge expanse of forest on my doorstep. I was going to have to rely on weekly organic box deliveries, and a lot of preparation. I was going to have to accept that I would inevitably get some plastic, so I tried to make sure it was either biodegradable, reusable or recyclable. First, I asked my box scheme for a list of their UK produce - they duly obliged, but it wasn’t as much as I expected. Things like butternut squashes weren’t on the list despite being a regular item. But they were able to provide enough fruit and veg to be going on with, plus some cheese, oats and Scottish salmon. Next the farmer’s market, the Sunday before I started. Plenty of plastic here - but got some soups made by a local farm and a moroccan mint plant, to give me something to make a hot drink with. And finally went to the unpackaged shop in Islington - their list of UK food was quite short, but their yellow split peas and brown linseed were a welcome addition to my week’s supply, as was the delicious Stickleton blue cheese. How I did follows shortly…

On Tuesday I went on an Eat the Change shopping trip to Gloucester Road.  In the Real Olive Co the only thing I could have bought was Godminster Cheddar in wax, but it was huge and cost £8, and I didn’t really want that much cheese.  I found some Cornish sea salt, but it was in plastic.  In Scoopaway they couldn’t tell me for sure if the salt was from the UK, athough said they were fairly sure it was.  Likewise with the green split peas.  Did managed to get some local honey there though, but then spoke to someone later that day who reminded me that most commercial bee keepers feed their bees sugar, which is almost certainly imported.  Their oats were British grown however.  In Harvest the only thing I could get was fresh veg.  There was some UK-grown dry stuff, but it was all plastic packaged.

I made myself some soup for lunch with onions from Harvest, green tomatoes from my garden, potatoes, sweetcorn, sage from Mina Rd community garden, and a bit of butter and salt.  Delicious.

That evening I went to a bring and share Eat the Change dinner.  So much yummy food.  I made a flapjack from oats, butter, honey, apples and filled with some of the jam made on Monday.  Discovered that there is an organic pear cider which is 100% British and can be found at Better Food Company.

By Wednesday I was still enjoying the challenge, but after having two days at home on Monday & Tuesday in exchange for working the weekend, I found it much harder once I was back at work.  The usual routine would be to make myself a cup of Redbush as soon as I get in in the morning, but I made do with hot water instead - not very satisfying!  At lunch time I did have a wonder round the garden at work and found something that looked a lot like chamomile.  Not sure if it was though as it was pretty flavourless.  Does anyone know how many chamomile flowers you’d have to put into a cup of hot water for it to have much flavour?

I had ambitiously offered to make lunch for everyone attending a lunchtime meeting (about 5 others), and got up an hour early to bake bread and make an omlette with red onion, potato and locally foraged nettles.  I also took some left over green tomato soup.  All went down a treat, and I explained why I was doing it but there was’t much time for discussion unfortunately.

I slipped up in the evening though, as I was working at a youth centre, and the activity for the evening was decorating gingerbread men.  I thought I’d be able to decorate one without feeling the need to eat it afterwards, but was mistaken!

Today I’m working at St Werburghs City Farm and am going to try out lunch in the cafe.  It specialises in local, seasonal food so am hoping it has something suitable.

Am intending to carry on eating as much British produce as possible after this week, is anyone who lives near St Werbs, Easton etc areas in Bristol interested in doing some bulk buying of things like oats/barley/split peas/other British-grown stuff?  I sent Essential an email this morn asking what British produce they have.  Could poss tie this in with the Grub Club run from Midimo on Tuesdays, e.g. have dry goods for sale one Tuesday a month?