Woooooh!

scary neeps

The daughter asked why I was making a scary face, and why didn’t I make a happy one instead.

How food shapes cities

Interesting new video on TED: Carolyn Steel on How food shapes cities gives a historical view of the forces that have shaped cities.

The talk compares the ordinary urban landscape, where more and more of us are living, with the extraordinary landscapes of industrial farming. We then jump back to C17th, where a city’s food was obvious to the inhabitants from the bustling outdoor markets, and because of limited refridgeration and limited mobility of produce. With the advent of trains in the mid C19th, cities started to become decoupled from geography and this process continued with the car in C20th.

Food has gone from the core to the periphery, from the social to the private, and from the personal to the anonymous.

She refers to Ambrogio Lorenzetti’s fresco The allegory of good government (1338-1339) but illustrates this with a picture of his Effects of good government on city and country. Looks like they’re both in a series of frescoes in Palazzo Pubblico, Siena, so they’re connected.

Looks like the council library has a copy of her book The Hungry City.

Mushrooms

In other news, my homepage seems to have got stuck at Paul Stamets’ TED talk on 6 ways mushrooms can save the world. I thoroughly recommend it if you have 18 minutes to spare and like watching super geeky presentations.

A new bell for the bike!

Several months ago I cycled to a Transition Edinburgh Pentlands meeting in Oxgangs. Whilst I was in the meeting, the bell from my bike was nicked. In fact it was the top half of the bell that was nicked, but that’s functionally the same as losing the whole bell. Since then, my daughter has been asking incessantly why I don’t get another bell and why it was taken.

At the Painting Edinburgh Green festival this weekend, I stopped by the Greener Leith table and was given a bike bell. Very gratefully recieved!

I’m just off to pick the daughter up from nursery. No doubt I’ll have to explain how I got the bell back…

Rhubarb and ginger jam FTW

An unexpected first prize in the other jam category with my rhubarb and ginger jam! I am very chuffed with that.

The 'other jam' category - looks like two other entries had already been removed

A colleague gave me a 1970’s recipe and I modified it to include real ginger rather than powdered stuff, which added a nice warmth to the jam. I also used an unrefined sugar and dropped the amount in the recipe, which gave a more rounded sweetness and not too prominent. And I simmered the jam until the rhubarb stalks disintegrated into their fibres. (You need to do quite a lot of simmering ‘cos rhubarb has very little pectin in as it’s a stalk not a fruit.)

We got to the hall quite late and so didn’t have much time to wander round to see the other exhibits and chat to friends. Caught a glimpse of David Somervell, who’s recently been featured in an article in the Guardian newspaper, and am very happy to see someone who’s working professionally to reduce CO2 emissions and also living the life.

She who knits and the daughter entered the tombola and won a huge book on Italian Cooking — Italia in Cucina published by McRae books. A quick skim shows it’s got a wide range of dishes made with simple ingredients, the instructions are clear and the photos are good. The organisation of the book makes no mention of the rhythm of antipasti, primi piatti, secondi piatti e contorne. Nevertheless, it’s got several recipes for gnocchi and for minestrone so I’m happy.

what we came away with

my rather weedy garlic is at the front; the winner looked so good

Prepping for the FEDAGA allotment show

There’s been a few days of good weather in Edinburgh, and today’s been sunny as well. After handing over the daughter when her mum got back from Motherwell, I nipped down to the plot to retrieve my secateurs, then home to prepare some garlic for FEDAGA’s 57th annual flower and vegetable show. I’ve also entered some blackcurrant jam (27/07/09) and the rhubarb and ginger batch from Beltane. All 3 categories seem competitive, so I’m not expecting to win anything. I’m just chuffed that I’m able to exhibit in 3 categories (up from 1 last year).

For my first year growing garlic, I bought a hardneck variety pack from the Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight to see which would work well. I chose hardneck ‘cos they’re more suited to harsher climates. The Purple Moldovan and Chesnok Wight went in at the end of October and the Lautrec Wight went in in March.

I had no experience of what garlic looks like as it grows, so it’s been in the ground too long. And with the wet Summer, most of the October-sown heads swelled so that the outer layers of skin have burst, or even rotted in the ground. I’d say this first year has been a qualified success: it’s worked out at about 50 pence per head, I’ve not got any plaits of garlic (you’d need softneck for that, anyway), I’ve now got to deal with a garlic glut, and I have three small, well-shaped heads of Lautrec Wight to exhibit at the show.

For tonight’s tea we had apple and blackcurrant crumble. Apples from a colleague’s tree had a good fresh flavour and low acidity. Add a few blackcurrants from my plot, let the daughter help measuring the crumble ingredients and you have a perfect dessert… Does that bode well for the allotment show? Hope so.

Allotment help needed, Friday 28 and Monday 21 August

Got a final warning from the allotment offficer today: the plot’s not up to scratch and I’ve got 14 days to get it sorted. After the euphoria of the shandon food event, this is quite a come-down. I still think I’m doing OK on the plot, and I was chuffed to be able to use garlic and peas in my dahl at the bring-and-share, but I do need some help.

If you’re available on the afternoon of Friday 28 August or Monday 31 August, I would very much appreciate a few hours digging, clearing and fixing. Rain or shine, I’ll be there. Please wear work clothes and boots, and I’ll bring food & drink.

If you let me know beforehand, I can plan for the days. Friends and family welcome!

THANKS!

STEPS centre gives balanced view of GM technology

On my way to Mark Thomas’ show at the Pleasance, I stopped off in the central library to have a quick skim through the periodicals. Just as I went in the door I noticed a bike chained up, and I’m fairly sure it was the bike I donated to the Bike Station. Good karma, whether it was or not.

This book review by Ian Scoones and Dominic Glover outlines the small place that GM technology plays compared with other science-based technologies.

The STEPS centre – linking environmental sustainability and technology with poverty reduction and social justice

Not an enchilada…

The plot’s looking a bit sad. I’m getting better at growing stuff, but the planning is awry as I’ve now only got garlic and beans left to harvest. When I look at the neighbours’ plots I see acres of potatoes, flowers and beans. Never mind; I’ve got ideas for the Autumn and beyond, and I’ve learned a lot from this year.

K wandered by on Sunday and gave me a bag of (stringless) runner beans. Fantastic flavour! On Sunday I made a great veggie stew and today I finished the beans off in a tortilla. I thought I was making an enchilada, but it turns out that enchilada is the past participle of enchilar – to add chile and mine didn’t have chile in. As an aside, I think that’s a cracking verb!

Veggie entomatada – no claims to authenticity

• hard vegetables: sweet potato, beetroot, half an onion, carrot.
• grated ginger
• soft vegetables: mushrooms, leek, small tomatoes (halved), runner beans.
• left-over haricot beans

Make a tomato sauce: sauté the other half an onion, add garlic and then sieved tomato. Set to one side.

In a heavy pan with a lid, sauté the hard vegetables and then put the lid on to let the veggies steam for a few minutes. Add the ginger and stir for a minute. Then add the soft vegetables and haricots, sauté and steam until all the veggies are tender. The veggies weren’t too wet.

Turn the oven on medium. Put the veggies into tortillas (from the inimitable Lupe Pintos), roll them up and into an ovenproof dish. Tomato sauce, cheese and then into the oven for a quarter hour.

Mud, sweat and tractors: the story of agriculture

Aaargh … just found out that the first of this 4-part series started half an hour ago. It’s a documentary about the development of agriculture in C20th Britain. Next week it’s the story of fruit and veg, concentrating on apples, strawberries and tomatoes. 7pm, Friday, BBC2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00jzjf8